At present, it is estimated that there are approximately six million Baha’is living around the world. Since its inception, the religion has grown steadily, and, along with Christianity, it is considered to be one of the world’s most geographically widespread religions. Baha’is comprise the largest religious minority in Iran, with close to three hundred thousand members across the country. Baha’is are variously considered to be unbelievers ( kufar), apostates ( murtad), or heretics ( zindiq) by the Shiʿite establishment in Iran and have been persecuted in their native homeland until the present. Thus, according to Baha’i doctrine, Baha’u’llah has appeared for the current cycle of humanity and has provided the basis for the establishment of a new spiritual and temporal order ( Nazm-i Badi).
According to Baha’is, the most important of these needs in this era is the realization of the oneness of God, the essential unity of all religions, and the oneness of humanity. For Baha’is, the various prophets or “manifestations”-which include figures such as Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, the Bab, and Baha’u’llah-appear cyclically according to the needs of the time and subsequently provide teachings suited for the given age in which they live.
Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah is the latest, but not the last, in a series of prophets or messengers-termed “Manifestations of God” ( mazhar ilahi ) in Baha’i lexicon-whose appearance has ushered in the longed-for millennial peace and fulfilled the scriptural promises of the world’s religions. The religion emerged from the messianic matrix of the Babi movement (Babism), which had developed from Shaykhism ( shaykhiyya) within Twelver Shiʿi ( Ithna ʿashari) Islam, in mid-19th-century Iran. The Baha’i faith is a post-Islamic religion and one of the world’s youngest faiths, founded by the Iranian prophet and nobleman Mirza Husayn-ʿAli Nuri, Baha’u’llah (or Baha’-Allah, Ar.
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