Bahá'í at a glance

Bahá'í at a glance

The Bahá'í faith is one of the youngest of the world's major religions. It was founded by Bahá'u'lláh in Iran in 1863.

Iran was then mainly a Muslim country, and the faith was proclaimed by a young Iranian, who called himself The Báb. He said that a messenger would soon arrive from God, who would be the latest in a line of prophets including Moses, Muhammad and Jesus Christ.

• Bahá'u'lláh, which means the Glory of God in Arabic, was born Mirza Husayn Ali in 1817
• Bahá'ís believe that Bahá'u'lláh is the most recent Manifestation of God
• Bahá'u'lláh himself stated that he is not God's final messenger
• The Bahá'í faith accepts all religions as having true and valid origins
• The idea of progressive revelation is of central significance for the Bahá'í faith
• Bahá'u'lláh taught that God intervenes throughout human history at different times to reveal more of himself through his messengers (called Divine Messengers, or Manifestations of God)
• The central idea of the faith is that of unity. They believe that people should work together for the common benefit of humanity

The followers of Bahá'u'lláh were descended from the Bábis - believers in the Báb who foretold the mission of Bahá'u'lláh.

There are 6 million Bahá'ís in the world, in 235 countries and around 6,000 live in Britain.

Find out more

• Bahá'í beliefs