IB World Religions 1.10.4. How Do We Get There? Oneness of God, Divine Attributes and Bahá'u'lláh's Teachings Notes

1.10.4. How Do We Get There? Oneness of God, Divine Attributes and Bahá'u'lláh's Teachings

The twin duties

1. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas opens by naming what is required. The first duty is to recognise the Manifestation of God for the age, and the second is to keep the laws he has brought.
2. Bahá'u'lláh writes that these two duties are inseparable, and that neither one is acceptable from anybody without the other.
3. Bahá'ís therefore reject both halves of a familiar argument. Belief without obedience is treated as empty, and obedience without recognition as mere conformity.
4. Bahá'ís describe salvation as nearness to God rather than as rescue from punishment, so the twin duties set a direction of travel rather than complete a transaction.
5. Nobody is held to be saved by belonging. Being born into a Bahá'í family is said to give a person no standing they have not chosen for themselves.

The oneness of God

1. Bahá'ís are strict monotheists. They hold that there is one God, the creator of everything that exists, with no partner, no equal and no offspring.
2. God's own essence is held to be unknowable. Bahá'u'lláh writes that God stands beyond every human description, so the names people use describe their relation to him rather than his nature.
3. Bahá'ís hold that earlier religions addressed this same God. Allah, Yahweh and God are treated as words from different languages for one reality.
4. God is described as transcendent and active at once. He is wholly beyond creation, and he is held to sustain it and to send Manifestations into it.
5. Bahá'ís therefore reject incarnation. They hold that God never becomes a human being, which is why they describe Jesus as a Manifestation reflecting God rather than as God in person.

Progressive revelation

1. Progressive revelation is the teaching that God has revealed his will in stages, through a succession of Manifestations of God, each fitted to the age that received him. Religion on this account has one author and many chapters.
2. The teaching separates two layers in what each Manifestation brings. Spiritual truths such as love of God, honesty and justice are held to be unchanging, while social laws are fitted to a particular time and people.
3. Differences between religions are explained mostly by that second layer. Bahá'ís attribute dietary rules, marriage law and forms of worship to the conditions of the society that received them.
4. Acknowledging the unity of the Manifestations is part of salvation. Recognising Bahá'u'lláh, on this teaching, involves recognising Abraham, Moses, Krishna, the Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad as sent by the same God.
5. Revelation is not held to be finished. Bahá'ís expect further Manifestations after Bahá'u'lláh, though not for at least a thousand years, so no revelation is treated as the last.

Divine attributes and reason

1. Bahá'ís hold that the qualities named in God, such as mercy, justice, knowledge and generosity, are present in every soul as potential. Developing them is called acquiring the divine attributes.
2. The attributes do not arrive finished. Reason is the faculty that recognises them, and sustained effort is what turns a capacity into a settled character.
3. Prayer and meditation are the daily means. Bahá'ís read from the writings each morning and evening, and reflect on what they have read.
4. Service to other people is the main training ground. 'Abdu'l-Bahá taught that a virtue never exercised towards anyone else has not actually been acquired.
5. Ordinary work counts as well. Bahá'u'lláh teaches that work performed in the spirit of service ranks as worship, so a trade is treated as a place where character is built.

Laws, prayer and the fast

1. Bahá'u'lláh's laws are set out in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and Bahá'ís treat keeping them as the second of the twin duties rather than as an optional extra.
2. Every Bahá'í over fifteen says an obligatory prayer daily, choosing between a short, a medium and a long form, and faces Bahá'u'lláh's shrine near 'Akká while saying it.
3. Bahá'ís keep a nineteen day Fast in March, taking no food or drink between sunrise and sunset. The young, the old, the ill, the pregnant and travellers are exempt.
4. The Nineteen Day Feast brings each local community together once a Bahá'í month, for devotions, consultation about community affairs and time spent socially.
5. Bahá'ís abstain from alcohol and from drugs not medically prescribed, hold to chastity outside marriage and monogamy within it, and require all living parents to consent to a marriage.
6. Backbiting is treated as among the gravest offences, since a community that governs itself by consultation cannot survive members speaking against each other in private.
7. Huqúqu'lláh, a payment of nineteen per cent on wealth beyond a household's needs, funds the faith. It is given voluntarily, and Bahá'ís accept no funds from outside the community.

God's plan for humanity

1. Bahá'ís hold that individual salvation and the progress of the human race are one project. Joining God's plan for humanity is therefore part of how a person draws near to God.
2. The plan is summarised in principles 'Abdu'l-Bahá set out on his Western travels, which Bahá'ís treat as teachings with religious force rather than as a political programme.
3. The first is the oneness of humanity, from which Bahá'ís derive the abolition of every prejudice of race, nation, class and sex.
4. The equality of women and men is stated directly, alongside universal education and the removal of the extremes of wealth and poverty.
5. Bahá'ís also teach the harmony of science and religion, the independent investigation of truth, an auxiliary world language, and a federal system of world government to keep the peace.
6. These are not pursued through party politics. Bahá'ís are forbidden to join political parties or take partisan sides, and work instead through community building, education and social action.
7. Sharing the faith belongs to the plan as well. Bahá'ís are expected to explain their beliefs when there is interest, and are forbidden to use pressure, inducement or coercion of any kind.