The Bahá’í Faith is the youngest of the world’s independent religions. It was founded more than a century ago by Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892) in Persia. Its worldwide community now covers at least 250 countries and independent territories with over 6 million believers.

The Faith’s global scope is mirrored in the composition of its membership. Representing a cross section of humanity, Bahá’ís come from virtually every nation, ethnic group, culture, profession and social or economic class. More than 2,100 different ethnic and tribal groups are represented, and the Bahá’í literature is translated into more than 800 languages. Free from schism or factions, the Bahá’í community forms a single most diverse and widespread organized body of people on earth.

The essential message of Bahá’u’lláh is that of unity. He taught that there is only one God, that there is only one human race, and that all the world’s religions have been stages in the revelation of God’s will and purpose for humanity. As foretold in all of the world’s religious scriptures, the time has arrived for the uniting of all peoples into a peaceful and integrated global society: “the earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens”, Bahá’u’lláh wrote in 1853 when He proclaimed His message as the most recent in the succession of Divine Messengers after Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster. Buddha, Christ and Muhammad, “This is the Day in which God’s most excellent favours have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things.”

Not a sect, an independent religion – In the past, the mistaken assumption was that the Bahá’í Faith was a sect of Islam, owing to the fact that its Prophet and early followers emerged from an Islamic society in Persia. Today religious specialists recognize that such an assumption would be equivalent to calling Christianity a ‘sect’ of Judaism, or Buddhism as a ‘denomination’ of Hinduism. Although Christ was indeed Jewish and Buddha was of Hindu background, Their religious messages were not merely re-interpretations of the previous religions, but went far beyond them.

Bahá’í Community Of Malaysia