Bahá'í Faith

Distillation of the Bahá'í Faith — Decision Record

This README fixes which texts are distilled, the translation, and — critically for this tradition — the copyright and attribution terms.

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 ones:

1. No claim of public domain. All quoted text is attributed to the Bahá'í World Centre (translation by Shoghi Effendi).
2. 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.
3. Quotes verified — char-for-char audited against the official Bahai.org library. See quote-audit-bahai.md — PASS (56 anchors; fair-use length review complete).
4. 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 (depth expansion)	Bahá'u'lláh's principal mystical works (Sufi-influenced); the soul's graded ascent.
The Kitáb-i-Íqán (Bahá'u'lláh)	yes (depth expansion)	Bahá'u'lláh's principal doctrinal work; the sustained scriptural-hermeneutic argument for progressive revelation.
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 — First pass: The Hidden Words (done) → Depth expansion: 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 for the load-bearing themes; 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 older traditions.
• 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: char-for-char verified against official Bahai.org library. See quote-audit-bahai.md — PASS (56 anchors; 10 fair-use length concerns reviewed and closed).

Reviewer / standpoint

• Within-tradition reviewer: none secured.
• Therefore: this output is "one structured reading, not authoritative" and the reviewer gap is flagged.

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 the core principles and structural analysis files.

Structure for this tradition

• Atomic 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 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
Methodology	done
Index and traceability	done
The Hidden Words extraction	done
Oneness of God extraction	done
Progressive Revelation extraction	done
Oneness of Humanity extraction	done
Justice and Independent Truth extraction	done
Work, Knowledge and Family extraction	done
Detachment and the Heart extraction	done
Seven Valleys / Four Valleys extraction (depth expansion)	done
Kitáb-i-Íqán selections extraction (depth expansion)	done
Gleanings: soul, society, dual nature (depth expansion)	done
Core principles	done — 12 core principles
Structural analysis	done
Rooted compass	done