How do Muslims view the Baha�i Faith

Hello all! There is so much to learn about the Baha'i Faith! I have been a Baha'i follower for 2 years by now but still I feel like I know just a little bit about it.

Originally posted by yomud remember  because they build their first temple in ashgabat dosn't mean we have bahai turkmen  the temple destroyed in earthquake

I have read that the first Bahais in Turkmenistan were Persian immigrants not local Turkmens

Originally posted by yomud their first temple was build in ashabad

WOW, I learnt something new

Originally posted by yomud what places are holy for them in turkey ??

The house of prophet in Edirne. He stayed in there nearly two years

http://www.turkeytour.net/istanbul-tour-packages/daily-tours-to-bahai-holy-places.html

There are three steps in my life

1-As a secular guy, talking about someone's religion is a rude act for me. It should stay in private.
so even when the time we had bahai neighours, I never talked this issue. I stayed away

2-When I saw this

Bahai temple in India

I thought that it was something like Budism-Hindusim-Scientology;
Human made peace religion which means nice  but establish by force, it hasn't got history or culture

3- After reading visit of Bahai  prophet to Edirne and Istanbul, seeing that he comes from Islamic world and after learn that some places in Turkey are holy for them, also Turkey has 10.000 bahai (it is more then greeks now), I start to feel sympathy against it.

but I still don't know anything about them

now they have a place up of my head(Turkish idiom which means you are welcome)

There are officially around 2000 baha'is in Singapore, but like all religions some are more active than others.

In malaysia there are a lot of Baha'is.

Baha'is are one of the 9 official religions in Singapore, but I don't know about Malaysia.

As we tend to be apolitical, we try to stay out of the limelight.

yes there are Baha'i in Malayisa, including my cousins who are half chinese and half Iranian. There are Baha'i all around the world aswell.

Originally posted by Maziar Hello, Practicing physical punishment by many parents dont legalize it. It is still a false method. I didnt mean there must be no sanction at all. If you are talking about "fearing" your father, so i just can think about physical punishment. Sorry for misunderstanding you

No problem my friend.

   I know that most of the time, people think that punishment of parents means only physical one. Which is definitely a useless process that causes harm instead.

   Since Im a religious person (or trying to be), I like to take my examples out of my religious teaching where the Prophet not only has never used his hand beating, he has never shouted or insulted his daughter Fatima or even his servant Anas, not even telling him "why you didn't do that" for things he didn't do. One story i love is when once a time his wife Aisha got jealous from a gift the prophet received and she threw the plate on the floor breaking it in front of other companions. If it was me, I have no clue what I will be doing. Maybe furious and shouting on her. However the prophet just smiled and sayed "your mother got jealous". 

The reason it is difficult to use that example as a miracle is that he didn't perform one. He bluffed his way out of it.

I am sorry you feel so strongly about miracles. I am not here to proselytize nor convert so i didn't feel the need or had the ability to list everything that Baha'u'llah did and said down.

That is why I asked for miracles in his book or later proved to miracle because those stands as witness of the faith and hardly disputable. For example, Quran's scientific miracles are hardly disputed and easy to use in examples.

I regretfully am ignorant and need to know what scientific miracles are.
Are we talking about prophecies about the state of the world as predicted?
I am going to quote a few from the book by Gary L. Matthews "The Challenges of Baha'u'llah.
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1. The fall of Napoleon III, given in 1868. We remember him falling in 1870 to Prussia, thanks to the emergence of the diplomatic hand of Bismarck. Prior to this Napoleon was almost able to restore his uncles legacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_III

2. The defeat of Germany in TWO bloody wars after their defeat of the French, leading to the "lamentation of Berlin". We know what happened, it is probably the biggest news in the 20th century.

3. The success and stability of Queen Victoria (and her progeny). Well not that obvious taking Fergie's dalliances and all. But still they are definately more stable now then ever.

4. The dismissal of Ali-Pasha and violent deposal of Sultan Abdul Aziz. This might seem a bit obvious in hindsight. But one of the noted clerical opponents of Baha'u'llah, Mirza Abdul Fadl, used this "prophecy" to point out that it was so improbable, that he vowed to join the ranks of the Baha'is if that happened.
In 1876, after the dismissal of Ali-Pasha, Abdul Aziz was killed in a conspiracy.
Mirza Abu'l Fadl, upon reminder of his promise, (after some thought), retired from his post as head of the Madrisih Hakim Hashim, and became a respected Baha'i

5. The fall of the Ottoman Empire. That is also a no-brainer to me. Ottoman Empire is the sick man of europe. But I don't have the gumption to make a prophecy like that.

6. The fall of Nasri-din-shah. In 1896, he was killed by an assassin. 2 Baha'is paid the price, Varqa a poet and his 12 year old son. It turned out that the assassin was a pan-islamist, Mirza Rida. Apparently Nasri-din-Shah probably aware of all the prophecies that were coming true (the fall of Napoleon and the Sultans), started becoming more moderate, and on his assassination's date planned on renounicing his prerogatives as a despot and stop persecution of Bahai's. That of course led to the Islamist Rida to crazed fanaticism.

7. Creation of the State of Israel following their persecution in Europe.

8. Violent Racial Struggles in America. (This was attributed to Abdul-Baha in 1912).

(end this section for brevity)
For now I shall stop with social prophecies and focus on Scientific ones.

1. The blossoming of scientific and technological progress. This is quite clear if you compare 1850-present how much has changed. one of the first few technologies "that brought the world closer", the invention of the telegraph and telephone and the development of flight, motorized transport et al.

2. The development of nuclear weapons. saying it will change the atmosphere and contaminate the earth.

3. alludes to the process as a transmutation of the elements. Brings to bear again the fact that this discovery will be very dire.

4. And several others within the book, which i am a bit too tired to type out.

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Again, I think these prophecies are not even worth an ounce towards whether i believe or disbelieve Baha'u'llah's teachings, I am just stating that to correct people who might think that Baha'u'llah never did have any "miracles".
For physical miracles I only have to say that the Bab was shot by a firing squad of 750 rifles and was not killed. That full story I shan't elaborate for now.

Again all these interpretations of prophecies, are Matthews personal interpretation, and should not be taken and completely believed as canon.

Religion,Nationality,Race,Language........all these identities r intertwined.Can we think outside these boundaries.My personal opinion is .....it's nearly impossible for an average human being to do so.N even though we might be able to break free of these boundaries for a short while .....when we r within our GROUP of people...'Mass Psychology' takes over.

Falsafi ko bahas ke andar khuda milta nahi,Bahas ko suljha raha hai aur sira milta nahi.

All discussions/disputes based on religion will be solved by war or qayamat/the day of judgement/pralaya..............

Azimuth,

I am sorry if I have not being as clear as I have wished to be.

What I said about Shia Islam is that, that branch was the correct succession of Islam.

Again in Islam, as with all religions, man will corrupt the religion and introduce dogmas and superstitions based upon their own interpretations of the Word of God.

And all religions, if they come from God, are correct. None is wrong. it is just that we need new social laws, and a greater understanding of man's role that comes with our combined maturity.
That is why we have a progressive revelation, as God will never leave Man alone to fend for himself, yet he cannot reveal everything to Man at once as Man cannot swallow it.