https://youtu.be/N3mJf1FLw9I?si=r4b2yTTdK_VBucbp
“Teach Me to See” is a joyful, Bahá’í-inspired song about the power of spiritual understanding.
How do you choose your Faith in a World that chose it for you? A Question for Young People
https://youtu.be/H9FjvVFZ_xk?si=PusQ_CTgRexFkC4E
يا نُورَ النّور، يا نُورًا فَوقَ كُلِّ نُور،
يا مُظهِرَ كُلِّ ظُهور، يا رَحمنُ يا رَحيم هذا الدعاء الروحاني من آثار الديانة البهائية،
وهو مناجاة تعبّر عن التوجّه إلى الله باعتباره نور الأنوار ومصدر كل ظهور.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has reported that the Civil Affairs Department of the Appeal Court in Cairo, Egypt has refused to legally recognise the marriage of a Baha’i couple who have been married for almost 45 years, on account of their religious belief.
In a verdict issued on 27 January 2026, the court upheld an appeal against the legal recognition of the couple’s marriage submitted by the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Justice and the Head of Civil Affairs Authority.
CSW sources report that while the verdict was initially kept confidential, activists in Egypt began raising the case in mid-April after the government issued an executive directive rejecting previous court decisions that recognised Baha’i marriages. The directive instructs the civil affairs authority to mark married Bahais as ‘single’ in any civil status documents. This was discovered when some Baha’is needed to renew their IDs or obtain other documents.
The couple was married on 5 September 1981 in a family ceremony, during which they signed an informal marriage certificate alongside two witnesses. In 2020 they appealed to the Family Court to register their marriage, and their appeal was accepted on 16 August that year.
"The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established" from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh.
When you walk into any country or even a city on earth, most likely you will find a small group of Baha'is including Youth in neighbourhood who decided to serve their community and start a service project.
Cont. 2
the Appeal Court in Cairo, Egypt has refused to legally recognize the marriage of a Baha’i couple who have been married for almost 45 years, on account of their religious belief. In its verdict, the Appeal Court said:
‘There is a difference between the freedom of belief guaranteed by the constitution and the legal consequences of this belief. Freedom of belief means that an individual may adopt whatever beliefs they wish, provided that this does not disturb the public order and the stability of the state. The Baha’i faith is not a heavenly religion, and practicing it involves harming the established systems in the state. Therefore, it is not permissible to register it in civil status documents or in any other official documents issued by any official body. The legal texts regulating all these rules are considered part of the public order; it is not permissible therefore to prove anything that contradicts or conflicts with them.’
It is difficult not to feel saddened by a statement such as this coming from a court.
The statement raises an important question: How does practising a faith that teaches honesty, service, unity, education, and obedience to government harm the state?
Difference of belief does not automatically mean harm. Throughout history, many religious communities were accused of threatening society simply because they were new or misunderstood. Any claim of harm should be supported by evidence, not assumptions. A faith should be judged by the character it develops and the contribution its followers make to society.
Cont. 1
the Appeal Court in Cairo, Egypt has refused to legally recognize the marriage of a Baha’i couple who have been married for almost 45 years, on account of their religious belief. In its verdict, the Appeal Court said:
‘There is a difference between the freedom of belief guaranteed by the constitution and the legal consequences of this belief. Freedom of belief means that an individual may adopt whatever beliefs they wish, provided that this does not disturb the public order and the stability of the state. The Baha’i faith is not a heavenly religion, and practicing it involves harming the established systems in the state. Therefore, it is not permissible to register it in civil status documents or in any other official documents issued by any official body. The legal texts regulating all these rules are considered part of the public order; it is not permissible therefore to prove anything that contradicts or conflicts with them.’
It is difficult not to feel saddened by a statement such as this coming from a court.
Courts play an important role in interpreting and applying the law, but questions of faith and spirituality touch a much deeper dimension of human experience. When a court declares that a particular faith is not a "heavenly religion," it seems to move beyond the legal sphere and into matters that people have debated, reflected upon, and prayed about for centuries.
History reminds us that this is not a new phenomenon. Nearly every religion faced rejection when it first appeared. If the rejection of a faith by existing religious authorities were sufficient proof that it was false, then the same argument could have been made against Islam when Prophet Muhammad first proclaimed His message in Mecca, or against Christianity when Jesus was rejected by many of the religious leaders of His time.
Ultimately, the truth of a religious claim cannot be determined simply by whether it is accepted or rejected by authorities. It should be examined with openness, fairness, and sincerity, considering its teachings, its principles, and the impact it has on the lives of those who follow it. History has often shown that today's rejection can become tomorrow's acceptance, and that spiritual truth is not always recognized immediately by the institutions of its age.
What did Baha'u'llah say about human mind?
"So perfect and comprehensive is His creation that no mind nor heart, however keen or pure, can ever grasp the nature of the most insignificant of His creatures; how much less can it comprehend the mystery of Him Who is the Daystar of Truth, Who is the invisible and unknowable Essence." Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh
The Bahá'í teachings do not say that God cannot be known at all. Rather, they say that God's Essence cannot be comprehended by the finite human mind. We know God through His attributes, such as love, justice, mercy, wisdom, and through His Manifestations, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, the Báb, and Bahá'u'lláh.
A useful analogy often used by 'Abdu'l-Bahá is that a mirror cannot contain the sun itself, but it can reflect the sun's light and qualities. Likewise, the human mind cannot encompass the Creator, but it can perceive His signs and attributes.
Four Questions submitted to Baha'u'llah by Haji Mirza Sayyid Muhammad (the Bab's Uncle). the questions led to the revelation of the Kitab-i Iqan.
What was previously believed is that the promised resurrection will take place in another world. The raising of the dead (hashr wa nashr), the Bridge (sirat), the accounting of the deeds of all creatures, and the reward or punishment of those deeds will take place in that world. However, it is all in this world, and it has taken place. And the days of the appearance of every manifestation of the truth (or manifestation of God: mazhar-i haqq) constitute that same day of resurrection for the period preceding it. In this new revelation, there has been no punishment for men's deeds. Nay, the rebelliousness and corruption of the people of tyranny and oppression have increased, even if the real meaning of reward and punishment is nearness or distance from the divine court. This subject is the same, regardless of which world it occurs in. The people of truth in this world, since they exist in God's good pleasure, are in a state of well-being; but they are outwardly caught in the grip of the people of oppression, and are troubled by them. The people of oppression, although they are tormented by being far from the court of God, are outwardly in a state of comfort, and by reason of their innate ignorance (ghaflati ki darand), are unaware of that torment. If the requital for men's deeds (jaza-yi a'mal) and the promised punishment (? the text reads thawab-i 'iqab-i maw'ud, which makes imperfect sense and could be in error for thawab wa 'iqab-i maw'ud, meaning the promised reward and punishment) is this (i.e. as described above), and there is no other world than this one, where will the oppressed seek vengeance from the one who oppressed him, and where will the people of punishment receive their desserts. This would be nothing but a denial of the promised resurrection. I have not understood this subject properly, yet it is among the most important of matters to understand it.
في كينية المعاد وبعث الأجساد وحقيقة الثواب والعقاب
Reference; https://bahai-library.com/muhammad_questions_kitab_iqan
"Judgment is not an oral trial or interrogation, but rather tests individuals to see whether they possess the inner insight to recognize the divine light of the new Messenger or allow worldly prejudices to blind them. "
"Being "dead" or in "tombs" symbolizes a state of spiritual ignorance and waywardness, while the "cleaving of the heavens" means the superseding and annulling of a previous religious dispensation to make way for a new divine truth"
Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, revealed The Book of Certitude in 1861/62 in the span of two days and two nights. He wrote this treatise in response to questions asked by one of the maternal uncles of the Bab — the herald and forerunner of Baha’u’llah. The Kitab-i-Iqan fulfills “the prophecy of the Báb, Who had specifically stated that the Promised One would complete the text of the unfinished Persian Bayán” — a volume that the Bab wrote around 1847 before he was martyred in 1850.
Shoghi Effendi summarized The Book of Certitude in the following words:
Within a compass of two hundred pages it proclaims unequivocally the existence and oneness of a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and almighty; asserts the relativity of religious truth and the continuity of Divine Revelation; affirms the unity of the Prophets, the universality of their Message, the identity of their fundamental teachings, the sanctity of their scriptures, and the twofold character of their stations; denounces the blindness and perversity of the divines and doctors of every age; cites and elucidates the allegorical passages of the New Testament, the abstruse verses of the Qur’án,
…enumerates the essential prerequisites for the attainment by every true seeker of the object of his quest; demonstrates the validity, the sublimity and significance of the Báb’s Revelation; acclaims the heroism and detachment of His disciples; foreshadows, and prophesies the world-wide triumph of the Revelation promised to the people of the Bayán; upholds the purity and innocence of the Virgin Mary; glorifies the Imáms of the Faith of Muḥammad; celebrates the martyrdom, and lauds the spiritual sovereignty, of the Imám Ḥusayn; unfolds the meaning of such symbolic terms as ‘Return,’ ‘Resurrection,’ ‘Seal of the Prophets’ and ‘Day of Judgment’; adumbrates and distinguishes between the three stages of Divine Revelation; and expatiates, in glowing terms, upon the glories and wonders of the ‘City of God,’ renewed, at fixed intervals, by the dispensation of Providence, for the guidance, the benefit and salvation of all mankind.
https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/kitab-i-iqan/1#990539395
How Islam and the Baha'i faith understand the human soul, (from our point of view)
Islam's view of the human soul (rūḥ)
In Islam, the soul is created by God, judged by Him and to Him shall return.
It is breathed into the human being (Qur’an 15:29).
Its nature is mysterious; the Qur’an says: “Of the spirit, you have been given but little knowledge.”
Its Purpose to worship God (Qur’an 51:56).
Separation at Death: Physical death occurs when the angel of death separates the Ruh from the physical body.
The Barzakh: The soul goes to Barzakh, an intermediate waiting realm between this earthly life and the Day of Judgment.
The Final Return: On the Day of Judgment, God will reunite the soul with the body to account for all earthly deeds and face eternal reward or punishment.
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The Baha'i Understanding of the Human Soul Faith:
The Baha'i Faith concur that the human soul created by God, its purpose to know and worship Him, and it continues after death. The Baha'i Writings add more details on the nature of the soul and its on going journey:
Nature of the Soul;
“Know thou that the soul… is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp.” Baha'u'llah
Purpose of the Soul; "O Son of Man! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life." — Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words
God created us out of love and our purpose is to grow closer to Him; though love, though service, though developing good qualities; like Truthfulness, Kindness, Patience, Generosity..
Mind and Spirit;
“The spirit is immortal; it is not affected by the conditions of the body.” and “The spirit is the lamp; the mind is the light that shines from the lamp.”
The Soul after Death;
“The soul is not extinguished at the death of the body. It continues, in the further worlds of God, the journey that began at its first creation and that will continue through the progressive worlds of God infinitely.”
Spiritual Growth of the Soul
“As the embryo in the womb develops the eyes and limbs it will need in the next world, so the soul in this life develops the spiritual qualities… that will constitute its instrumentation in the further worlds.” Abdu’l‑Bahá
"Know thou of a truth that the soul, after its separation from the body, will continue to progress until it attaineth the presence of God, in a state and condition which neither the revolution of ages and centuries, nor the changes and chances of this world, can alter." - Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings
While Islam describes Heaven and Hell as final destinations, the Baha'i Faith sees them as State of Being; nearness to God or distance from Him and teaches us that the soul spiritual progress is continuous...
"D" Word; Discrimination
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Egypt - Baha'is
Refusal to record the correct marital status in official identification documents for Egyptian Bahá’ís........
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Across these examples, the same legal mechanisms recur:
