Bahá'í concept of God

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Conceptions of God
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Christian Islamic Hindu Buddhist Sikh Bahá'í Mormon

Series on the Bahá'í Faith Image:Bahai star.svg
Central figures
Bahá'u'lláh The Báb · Abdu'l-Bahá
Key scripture
Kitáb-i-Aqdas · Kitáb-i-Íqán The Hidden Words Some Answered Questions
Institutions
Administrative Order The Guardian Universal House of Justice Spiritual Assemblies
History
Bahá'í history · Timeline Bábís · Shaykh Ahmad
Notable individuals
Shoghi Effendi Martha Root · Táhirih Badí‘ · Apostles Hands of the Cause
Selected teachings
Unity of humanity Unity of religion Gender equality Universal education Science and religion Auxilliary language
See also
Symbols · Laws Teachings · Literature Calendar · Divisions Index of Bahá'í Articles This box: view • talk • edit</div>

Bahá'ís believe in a single, imperishable God, the creator of all things, including all the creatures and forces in the universe. <ref name="britannica"> "The Bahá'í Faith". Britannica Book of the Year. (1988). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica. ISBN 0852294867.</ref> God is described as "a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and almighty." <ref>Effendi, Shoghi (1944). God Passes By. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, pp.139. ISBN 0877430209.</ref> Though inaccessible directly, God is nevertheless seen as conscious of his creation, with a mind, will and purpose. Bahá'ís believe that God expresses this will at all times and in many ways, including through a series of divine messengers referred to as Manifestations of God or sometimes divine educators.<ref name="eor" /> In expressing God's intent, these manifestations are seen to establish religion in the world. Bahá'í teachings state that God is too great for humans to fully comprehend, nor to create a complete and accurate image.<ref name="manifestation">Cole, Juan (1982). "The Concept of Manifestation in the Bahá'í Writings". Bahá'í Studies monograph 9: pp. 1-38.</ref> Bahá'u'lláh often refers to God by titles (e.g. the All-Powerful, or the All-Loving). Bahá'ís believe that this anthropomorphic description of God amounts to Bahá'u'lláh, in his capacity as God's manifestation, abstracting him in language that human beings can comprehend, since direct knowledge of the essence of God is believed impossible.<ref name="manifestation" />

Although human cultures and religions have different concepts of God and His nature, Bahá'ís believe that such varying views nevertheless refer to a single being. The differences between these religions are attributed to the varying cultural and developmental contexts in which the messages were propagated.<ref name="britannica" /> Bahá'ís regard the world's major (and many minor) religions as one single faith, revealed by God's manifestations progressively and in stages. No one message, and therefore no one religion can be, according to Bahá'í belief, considered essentially superior to another, though a more recent message may be considered more relevant to humanity's current spiritual, social, and developmental context. Bahá'ís regard most other religions as divinely inspired, though see them as having been superseded by Bahá'u'lláh's more recent revelation; Bahá'u'lláh in many places states that denying the validity of any of the previous legitimate religious founders is equivalent to denying all of them (including himself) and to denying God.

[edit] The oneness of God

Bahá'ís believe that there is one supernatural being, God, who has created all the creatures and forces in the universe;<ref name="britannica" />God is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfect; and that although people have different concepts of God and His nature, and call Him by different names, everyone is speaking of the same one Being. Bahá'u'lláh writes on this subject:

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The Bahá'í teachings state that God is too great for humans to fully understand Him or to create an image of Him.<ref name="britannica" /> Even the attributes that Bahá'ís attribute to Him such as the All-Powerful, and the All-Loving are derived from limited human experiences of power, love, or justice. Bahá'u'lláh teaches that knowledge of God is limited to those attributes and qualities which are perceptible to us, and thus direct knowledge of God is not possible. Furthermore Bahá'u'lláh states that the knowledge of the attributes of God is revealed to humanity through the messengers he sends to humanity.<ref name="britannica" />

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At the same time the Bahá'í teachings talk about a personal God who is a personal being with a personality, including the capacity to reason and feel love; the Bahá'í teachings note that the idea of a personal God does not mean that God has a human or physical form. Shoghi Effendi writes:

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The Bahá'í teachings state that one can get closer to God through prayer, meditation, study of the holy writings, and service.<ref name="britannica" /> `Abdu'l-Bahá writes

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