LEXICON- DEFINITIONS & INTERPRETATIONS (PART 5)

Bahaismiran:

Baha’i Faith

A religion founded by Bahaullah in the 1860s. After his death in 1892, it was led successively by his eldest son, Abdul Baha (from 1892 to 1921), his great- grandson, Shoqi Effendi (from 1922 to 1957), and then (in 1963, after a brief interregnum) by an elected body, the Universal house of Justice.

Claiming to be the promised one of all religions, and preaching a message of global socio-religious reform, Bahaullah initially drew his followers from amongst the Babis, most of whom became Baha’is. Significant expansion in the non-Muslim third world began in the 1950s and 1960s. Baha’is form these areas now constituting the majority of the world’s five million Baha’is.

Baha’i believe that God is regarded as in essence completely transcendent and belief in a series of “Manifestation of God” (manyazarullah). These individuals reflect and manifest the attributes of God and Manifestations include Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, the Bab, and for the present age Bahaullah. At a societal level, the present age is regarded as unique. The unity of all the peoples and religions of the earth is the destined hallmark of the age.

Religious life centers on various individual acts of devotion (daily obligatory prayer and moral self-accounting, an annual 19-day fast), and a communal “Feast” held once every 19 days at the beginning of each month in the Baha’i calendar.

Jainism:

An ancient Indian Sramanic religious and philosophical tradition still vigorous today. The religion derives its name from the jinas (spiritual victors), a title given to 24 great teachers or “ford-makers” (trithankaras) whom Jians claim have appeared in the present half-cycle (avasarpini) of time. In fact, jain teaching is uncreated and eternal, being reactivated by the “ford-makers” (as the three Jewels) in unending cycles. In the present cycle, historical evidence clearly reaches back to the last two of these teachers, Mahavira (24^th) who was a contemporary of the Bauddha, and Parsva (23^rd), but it is evident that these teachers were reviving, restoring and reforming a thread of ancient stramanic teaching whose origins lie in Indian prehistory and may have links with the Indus Valley civilization. The aim of Jain spiritual endeavour is to liberate the soul (jiva) by freeing it from accumulated Karma. Every following a course of purification and discipline demonstrated by the tirthankaras. At the heart of Jainism lies a radical asceticism based on five great vows which monks and nuns follow and which the laity attempt to the best of their ability. The major Schism of Jainism between the Digambara (the atmosphere clad, i.e. naked) and svetambara (white clad), began to emerge as early as 300 BCE ostensibly over whether monks should go naked or wear a simple cloth; but the two schools came to embody differing views towards the scriptures, women, and monastic practice.

In early years, the Jain movement diffused from its place of origin in the Ganges basin. The diffusion of Jainism accelerated the tendency to form separate the Vedas, caste, and the idea of God who creates. It is characterized by a realistic classification of being and a theory of knowledge which has connections with Samkhya and Baddhaist thought. Jain philosophers have made many distinctive contributions to Indian philosophy practically in the kinder doctorines of nayavada and syadvada which together form the doctorine of the manysidedness of reality.

Sufis:

Muslims who seek close, direct and personal experience of God, and who are often, described as mystics, Sufism is usually treated as a single phenomenon, although it is made up of different stands and styles.

Sufism is a major part of Islam, and Sufis have been particularly important in the spread of Islam. By the 18^th and 19^th century, CE, at least a half (perhaps as many as three-quarters) of the male Muslim population was attached in some sense to a Sufi tariqa (order). Thus, although Sufism has often been contrasted with forms of Islam concerned with figh and Shari’a (i.e. with the lawful ordering of Muslim life), and although there have historically been clashes between the two, there is no insistent on the necessity for the proper observance of Islam (examples are al-Myhasibi and his pupil al-Junaid who is known as the father of sober Sufism) and have themselves been critical of antinomian tendencies or individuals in Sufi movements associated e.g.: with Khurasan or with the Qalandars. The union between Sufi devotion and Shari’a is associated particularly with al-Ghaz(z)ali and the great Indian teacher, Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1625 (AH 1034): he was a Sufi of Naqshbandi order who affirmed that while the experience of the unity of all being in god is real, it is neither the whole nor the end of religion: moral and virtuous life are as important and to enforce this he wrote letters to his many followers throughout India. The Sufi experience of absolute reality (haqiqah) is not opposed to Shari’a but is its foundation.

Totemism:

The practice and beliefs relating to the identification of a totem object. The word totem is taken from the Ojibwa of Canada the word totem loteman signifying, ‘he is a relative of mine’. Ojibwa clans are named after animal species, so that the totem idea expresses membership of the same exogamic group. However, the word “totem” was applied, far more loosely, to animals, plants, or other objects regarded by the group as sacred. Totemism thus became the cornerstone of far-reaching theories of religion, e.g.: Durkheim and Freud. However, totemism is neither an institution nor a religion, but is rather a classificatory device which mediates between conceptions of the natural world and social categories and relations. It is a mode of thought in which relations are established through totemic emblems of such a kind that a single, unified cosmos is envisaged and established.