Since it’s Easter and Christians are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, I thought today would be a good time to talk a little more about the Baha’i notion that all the prophets of the world’s religions were really just manifestations of the one true God.
I’ve mentioned before that Baha’i views all religions as one—as steps along the same path toward divine truth. All prophets, too, are really just signposts on that path.
As author Moojan Momen explains, “Baha’is claim that . . . [Baha’i founder] Baha’u’llah is the figure anticipated in the scriptures of all the religions of the world. He is the Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace foretold in the Hebrew Bible and expected by the Jews, the return of Christ in the glory of the Father awaited by Christians, the Great Announcement about which the Muslims are told in the Qur’an, the Shah Bahram of the Zoroastrian scriptures, the Maitreya Buddha that the Buddhists are awaiting.”
In his Gleanings, Baha’u’llah explains this concept in further detail, comparing the great prophets to doctors who come to Earth to heal the people of the world:
“The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity. . . . Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world . . . they have invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God through such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which they appeared. They were thus able to scatter the darkness of ignorance, and to shed upon the world the glory of their own knowledge.”
Whichever prophet you prefer—whether you’re a Jew celebrating Passover or a Christian celebrating Easter—Baha’i says your guy is the same as our guy, and we’re all right. It’s kind of a nice idea.
So have a happy Easter—or whatever you might be celebrating this weekend!
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