Tradition
Bahá'í Faith
Source: Hidden Words · Aqdas · Gleanings (+ Seven Valleys + Iqan)
14
Principles
10
Source books
↗
In the union compass
About
Distillation of the Bahá'í Faith — Decision Record
Per-tradition entry point for Plan 010. This README fixes which texts are distilled, the translation, and — critically for this tradition — the copyright and attribution terms. See the Atlas architecture for the cross-tradition layer and methodology v2 for the standard followed here.
Tradition
- Slug:
bahai - Tradition / family: The Bahá'í Faith (founded by Bahá'u'lláh, 1817–1892; independent world religion, not a sect of Islam).
- Primary frame in one sentence: an explicitly pluralist monotheism teaching the oneness of God, the essential oneness of all religions as successive chapters of one progressively-unfolding revelation, and the oneness of humanity.
⚠️ Copyright & attribution (READ FIRST)
Bahá'í scripture is NOT in the public domain. Unlike the public-domain texts used for other traditions in this Atlas (e.g. the 1881 Müller Dhammapada), the writings of Bahá'u'lláh in English are published and copyrighted by the Bahá'í World Centre in the authorized translations of Shoghi Effendi. They are made freely readable at the official Bahá'í Reference Library but are not free to reproduce at length.
Therefore this distillation observes the following rules, beyond the standard Plan 010 ones:
- No claim of public domain. All quoted text is attributed to the Bahá'í World Centre (translation by Shoghi Effendi).
- Short cited quotes only. Each principle is anchored by one short line (a phrase or single sentence), not a reproduced passage. The distillation operates at the principle level, paraphrasing and summarizing rather than transcribing long passages.
- Quotes are working text drawn from the official online library, marked "pending Phase 7 audit" for char-for-char verification, exactly as for every tradition.
- One structured reading, not authoritative — see the standpoint note below.
Canon selection (what is included, and why)
| Text | Included? | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| The Hidden Words (Bahá'u'lláh) | yes (first) | Short, devotional, the most widely read/recited Bahá'í text → highest lived-centrality; the ideal N=1 entry point. 71 Arabic + 82 Persian "hidden words." |
| The Kitáb-i-Aqdas (the "Most Holy Book") | yes | The central book of laws and the charter of Bahá'í social order; source of the work-as-worship, education, justice, and "consort with all religions" principles. |
| Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh | yes | Shoghi Effendi's thematic anthology; the clearest source for the oneness of God, progressive revelation / oneness of religion, and oneness of humanity ("the earth is but one country"). |
| The Seven Valleys / The Four Valleys (Bahá'u'lláh) | yes (Stage B) | Bahá'u'lláh's principal mystical works (Sufi-influenced); the soul's graded ascent. Distilled in books/08-seven-valleys-four-valleys.md. |
| The Kitáb-i-Íqán (Bahá'u'lláh) | yes (Stage B) | Bahá'u'lláh's principal doctrinal work; the sustained scriptural-hermeneutic argument for progressive revelation. Distilled in books/09-kitab-i-iqan-selections.md. |
| Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá / Shoghi Effendi | noted | Interpretive layers; referenced, distilled only if principle-bearing at a later stage. |
- Full-canon commitment: yes, staged — Stage A: The Hidden Words (done) → Stage B: principle-level distillation across the Aqdas + Gleanings + Seven Valleys/Four Valleys + Kitáb-i-Íqán selections + deeper Gleanings on soul, social order, and dual nature (done at N=1 for the load-bearing themes; Issue 028 R3 depth expansion. Still not an exhaustive verse-by-verse pass of those large books).
Translation policy
- Named translation: the authorized translations of Shoghi Effendi, as published by the Bahá'í World Centre.
- Access: Bahá'í Reference Library — The Hidden Words, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Gleanings.
- Why this translation: Shoghi Effendi (the Guardian of the Faith) is the authoritative translator into English; his renderings are themselves treated as canonical within the tradition. This avoids the "archaic, principle-flattening translation" problem documented in methodology v2 Learning 3.
- Untranslatables to preserve: Bahá (glory/splendor), Manifestation of God (Maẓhar-i-Iláhí, a technical term — the Prophet-founders), progressive revelation, Mashriqu'l-Adhkár (house of worship).
- Quote accuracy: working quotes are from the official online library (fetched via
curl, read directly, per methodology v2 Learning 1); final character-for-character verification is a Phase 7 audit task.
Reviewer / standpoint
- Within-tradition reviewer: none secured.
- Therefore: this output is "one structured reading, not authoritative" and the reviewer gap is flagged. The tradition stays in scope per the Plan 010 policy.
Special Atlas note — a tradition that claims religious unity
The Bahá'í Faith holds an explicitly pluralist self-understanding: it teaches that the great religions are successive stages of one unfolding religion of God. This is uniquely relevant to the cross-tradition union compass — but it is a meta-claim that most other traditions reject. The Atlas must treat "the oneness of religion" as a Bahá'í principle, not as the Atlas's own neutral finding; the Atlas standpoint is owned, not borrowed from any one tradition. This is flagged prominently in principles-distillation.md (P2) and structural-analysis.md.
Structure for this tradition
- N=1 unit ("books/"): each principle-bearing text or theme as a file. The Hidden Words is one file (its 153 "hidden words" function like verses); the Aqdas/Gleanings themes are split into thematic N=1 files with short quote anchors.
- Citation form:
HW Arabic <n>/HW Persian <n>for the Hidden Words;Aqdas ¶<n>for the Kitáb-i-Aqdas;Gleanings <roman>for Gleanings sections. - Sensitivity boundaries: copyright (handled above); avoid presenting any reading as the official Bahá'í position.
Files
| File | Status |
|---|---|
00-methodology.md |
done |
books/00-index-and-traceability.md |
done |
books/01-the-hidden-words.md (N=1) |
done |
books/02-oneness-of-god.md (N=1) |
done |
books/03-progressive-revelation.md (N=1) |
done |
books/04-oneness-of-humanity.md (N=1) |
done |
books/05-justice-and-independent-truth.md (N=1) |
done |
books/06-work-knowledge-and-family.md (N=1) |
done |
books/07-detachment-and-the-heart.md (N=1) |
done |
books/08-seven-valleys-four-valleys.md (N=1, Stage B) |
done — Issue 028 R3 |
books/09-kitab-i-iqan-selections.md (N=1, Stage B) |
done — Issue 028 R3 |
books/10-gleanings-soul-society-dual-nature.md (N=1, Stage B) |
done — Issue 028 R3 |
principles-distillation.md (N=3) |
done — 12 core principles (Stage-B Evidence/Covers extensions, additive only) |
structural-analysis.md |
done |
compass-bahai.md |
done |