The Baha'i Studies Listserv It's not particularly interesting. When I became Muslim I was Sunni, mostly by default but I think I also was (and in some respects still am) critical of the idea of inherited privilege / rank / authority that I saw in Shiism.
Now I would say I have a much more positive appreciation for the Sunni concept of unity. (A really good book on this point is The Ethics of Disagreement in Islam by Taha Jabir al-Alwani which is available free online at a couple of sites.) The "full name" of the Sunnis is Ahl al Sunna wal *Jamaat* and I think there are many different areas and examples where (Sunni) Muslims ideally are expected to disagree without being disagreeable or promote unity without necessarily being unanimous. There is a basic ethos of tolerance and a certain ettiquette when it comes to the short-comings of others and differences of opinion, especially other Muslims, and even more so the companions. It also shows up in how people from different schools of thought can still come together and pray. I just see it as all connected. To be honest, this current series of conversations is more than a little weird because there are similar concepts in the Bahai faith like the sin-covering eye and an obvious emphasis on unity in other areas. But obviously since the Bahai faith basically follows the Shia narrative which turns some of the companions into villains. Actually, now that I think about it, this is reminding me of how Muslims/Bahais look at the origins of Christianity. Where many Muslims would blame Paul for corrupting Christianity while the Bahai faith seems to give Pauline Christianity its blessing. Furthermore, the Bahai Faith has so much of an emphasis on unity that the writings blame the Arians for being heretics even though they are arguably closer to the truth. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-534997-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
