Dear Janine,
In a sense he is right that the Baha'i Faith is a re-iteration of Islam
but then in that sense the Baha'i Faith is a re-iteration of Judaism,
Christianity, etc., as we believe that the foundation of all religions is
one. The essential and fundamental tenets of all faiths are the same. They
all teach one creator God, and they all teach love and fellowship, etc.,
and they all prohibit murder and theft, etc., etc. In that sense Islam is
a re-iteration of the religion of Abraham, of Moses, of Jesus, etc., etc.
But Muslims believe that Islamic shari`ah law is eternal, never to be
abrogated; things like the obligatory prayer (the salAt), the point of
adoration (Qiblih), fasting, and laws pertaining to personal status such
as inheritance, matrimonial/divorce laws, penalties and fines for theft,
murder, adultery, etc., etc., are considered by Muslims to be eternal and
not subject to abrogation. So, I'm surprised that your Muslim Shaykh
friend would not notice that Baha'is have new obligatory prayers, new
Qiblih, new Hajj pilgrimage place/practice different from Islam, cannot
practice bigamy, have a clear cut prohibition against slavery, have a
Divinely-ordained administartive order based on explicit Texts of the Book
of Baha'u'llah's Covenant and on the Will & Testament of `Abdu'l-Baha,
etc., etc., and have a new 19-day month of fasting in March (Ramadan is
29-30 days and is a lunar month, cycles through the seasons) as being
abrogations of Islamic shari`ah religious laws if he has actually read the
Aqdas and other Baha'i Holy Writings,
Warm and loving regards,
Iskandar
On Fri, 5 May 2006, Tim Nolan wrote:
> Hello Janine,
>
> >He feels that the Bahai faith is just a reiteration of Islam, nothing
> new. <
>
> The Baha'i Faith has an explicit, written Covenant, which preserves the
> unity
> of the Baha'is. Islam doesn't have this, which is why there are rival
> Islamic factions.
> The Baha'i Covenant also provides a source of continuing, unerring divine
> guidance,
> after the Founder is no longer physically present. Sunni Muslims do not
> have this, and Shi'a Muslims haven't had this for about 13 centuries.
>
> Baha'u'llah forbids religious warfare, Muhammad did not forbid this.
>
> Those are just two examples off the top of my head. He will find others If
> he studies the revelation of Baha'u'llah more closely.
>
> Tim
>
>
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