By: Dr. Mohammed Alam Qurayshi

The principle of the unity of religion is at the center of Baha\'i teachings. The unity of religion means that all of the great religious founders have come from God, and that all of the religious systems established by them are from God. The differences are only in the supplementary teachings while the fundamentals are the same.

Shoghi Effendi has worded it thus:
Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive process, that all the great religions of the world are divine in origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary, that they differ only in the nonessential aspects of their doctrines, and that their missions represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution of human society.
\"The Faith of Bahá\'u\'lláh\" in World Order, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1972-73), p.7.

It would be interested to know to be reminded of the essential Muslim belief that God sent 124,000 prophets spread across all regions, all countries, all places inhabited by man. All Prophets came with only one mission – guide humanity towards the One God. God is concerned about man’s guidance and well-being. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed (pbut) are all God-sent Prophets, sent to guide mankind. In fact, the first man on earth was His appointed Prophet Adam. So what makes this an important Bahai principle? What is new in the Bahai Faith? What are the Bahais harping about?

We need to recognize that we worship God for our salvation. Even if the entire mankind chose to disbelieve in God, His authority would not diminish. It is God’s Mercy that He sent His Prophets to guide us. However, as one prophet succeeded another the previous religions were distorted and fundamentals were trampled. So when a new Prophet came he reminded the people of the divine truth and fearlessly stated that the beliefs were distorted. Case in point is the advent of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh). His first teaching was “Say that there is no God but Allah so that you may succeed.” This he said when everybody around him were idol worshippers believing in hundreds and thousands of Gods. He did not tell them to believe in Allah, but told them to reject all Gods and submit ONLY to Allah. He was not in the business of increasing the numerical count of his followers, he was there to call people towards God.

The Bahai Faith on the other hand, as evident in Shoghi’s words above, chooses to ignore the differences between the world religions calling them insignificant. They want to be enumerated in good books of all religious denominations by calling everyone right so that this may give them an opportunity to garner better numbers. They refuse to acknowledge that the differences are not trivial but substantial. Because here the purpose of the Bahai Faith is not to guide people, but instead of misguide and create dissension in the society by introducing a new theory.

There are three principle Islamic beliefs, anyone who does not subscribe to even a single one of them leaves the fold of Islam.

(1) Tauheed (Monotheism)
(2) Nabuwwat (belief in Prophethood that God sent 1,24,000 Prophets and Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) is the last Prophet)
(3) Qayamat (the Day of Judgment)

This piece of writing is not the place to point out the various differences existing in the above between contemporary religions and how the Bahai ideas are in contravention to Divine teachings. In fact, the very fundamental concept of belief in God has differing ideas in all religions. While Islam is purely monotheism, Hinduism is based on polytheism, Christianity on Trinity, Zorastrianism on Dualism and the Bahai Faith calls it a minor difference and recognizes all the different varieties. This is unacceptable.

Do the Bahais have any explanation for this? Merely saying that all religions come from God is their ploy to open the door for non-Bahais into the Bahai Faith.

In fact, Shoghi, speciously, while talking of world’s great religions adds Bahai Faith to it. There is no similarity between the Bahai Faith and world religions, but by just listing it along with the great religions, Bahais aspire to be counted amongst them, one day.

Their teachings sound interesting, but the reality is very different. I would urge you to thoroughly understand the Bahai Faith before venturing into it, and more importantly to engage someone with expertise in Bahai teachings before accepting them.

Source:www.TheBahaiTruth.com