How Come Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Is Not Baha'i Prophet?

S

Silverbackman

Prince Of Truth
Messages
267
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
California
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]In [/font]Baha'i Faith their are 9 great prophets, which are supossed to include ALL the prophets of the major world religions. And it actually does include most prophets but they left one out. What about the prophet of Sikhism: Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji?? The 9 prophets of Baha'i Faith include Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Christ, Mohammed, Krishna, Lao, and finally, their own prophet, Bahá'u'lláh. But their should be 10 prophets because what about the Sikh prophet Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, founder of Sikhism?
 
Manifestations of God:

Silverbackman said:
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]In [/font]Baha'i Faith their are 9 great prophets, which are supossed to include ALL the prophets of the major world religions. And it actually does include most prophets but they left one out. What about the prophet of Sikhism: Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji?? The 9 prophets of Baha'i Faith include Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Christ, Mohammed, Krishna, Lao, and finally, their own prophet, Bahá'u'lláh. But their should be 10 prophets because what about the Sikh prophet Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, founder of Sikhism?
Click to expand...

My reply:

Thanks Silverbackman for your post! and you are most welcome here.

Good question!

Actually there are several Manifestations of God mentioned in the Baha'i Writings but we are told there were more than that. It's just that many are unknown to us...

In the Baha'i Faith, a Manifestation of God is a Special Being Who we believe perfectly reflects the Light of God and from Whom a new dispensation follows and that there are lesser Prophets who are in their turn dependent on Them....

We believe there were Manifestations of God and prophets before in remote ages of antiquity and that there will be more stretching into the future.

See the following:

http://bahai-library.com/encyclopedia/agescycl.html

While Guru Nanak was not specifically mentioned in the core of our Writings, see the following article for a Baha'i view of Guru Nanak:

http://bahai-library.com/books/miracles/nanak.html

Baha'is maintain good relationships with Sikhs and work with them in Inter-Faith activities.

______________________

Also for your further information, Lao Tse and Confucius are not considered Prophets by us. See the following:

"Regarding Lao-Tse: the Bahá'ís do not consider him a prophet, or even a secondary prophet or messenger, unlike Buddha or Zoroaster, both of Whom were divinely appointed and fully independent Manifestations of God....

From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi - 10 November 1939

"Confucius was not a Prophet. It is quite correct to say he is the founder of a moral system and a great reformer."

From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi - 26 December 1941 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand
 
Re: Manifestations of God:

arthra said:
My reply:

Thanks Silverbackman for your post! and you are most welcome here.

Good question!

Actually there are several Manifestations of God mentioned in the Baha'i Writings but we are told there were more than that. It's just that many are unknown to us...

In the Baha'i Faith, a Manifestation of God is a Special Being Who we believe perfectly reflects the Light of God and from Whom a new dispensation follows and that there are lesser Prophets who are in their turn dependent on Them....

We believe there were Manifestations of God and prophets before in remote ages of antiquity and that there will be more stretching into the future.

See the following:

http://bahai-library.com/encyclopedia/agescycl.html

While Guru Nanak was not specifically mentioned in the core of our Writings, see the following article for a Baha'i view of Guru Nanak:

http://bahai-library.com/books/miracles/nanak.html

Baha'is maintain good relationships with Sikhs and work with them in Inter-Faith activities.

______________________

Also for your further information, Lao Tse and Confucius are not considered Prophets by us. See the following:

"Regarding Lao-Tse: the Bahá'ís do not consider him a prophet, or even a secondary prophet or messenger, unlike Buddha or Zoroaster, both of Whom were divinely appointed and fully independent Manifestations of God....

From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi - 10 November 1939

"Confucius was not a Prophet. It is quite correct to say he is the founder of a moral system and a great reformer."

From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi - 26 December 1941 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand
Click to expand...
Well I think it should be noted more that their are 10 main prophets then instead of 9 main prophets, since sikhism is a major world religion (5th largest religion). Don't you think?
 
Greetings; glad you're with us! :)

As has been mentioned, there have been MANY Divine Messengers, most of Whom have been lost to history over the ages.... We currently know of at least 13.

But this doesn't change the fact that some religious individuals have NOT themselves been Divine Messengers or that their teachings are in fact either secular or derivative of other, existing religions....

Regards,

Bruce
 
Re: Manifestations of God:

Silverbackman said:
Well I think it should be noted more that their are 10 main prophets then instead of 9 main prophets, since sikhism is a major world religion (5th largest religion). Don't you think?
Click to expand...

Baha'i beliefs are based on the revealed Writings of the Bab and Baha'u'llah and I'm sure you'll acknowledge that Sikh beliefs are based on the Guru Granth Sahib.

The number "nine" is significant to Baha'is because it is the numerical value of "Baha" or the Glory of God not so much that there were "9 main prophets" or religions. Baha'is recognize the divine origin of all the great religions..including i might add Sikhism.

There are as Bruce noted many prophets and Messengers of God. One could also explain in the Baha'i sense that there are lesser "prophets" or saints who receive their inspiration from a Manifestation of God indirectly. So there are definitions for these things such as "prophet"; "Manifestation"; "saint" in a Baha'i glossary that you may not be aware of...

- Art
 
As an addition to all the above consider that as Baha'is accept the Scriptures of the Faiths, especially Moslem because it is accepted as a first hand account of Muhammad's words, and it mentions a variety of prophets, the list of "accepted" prophets is really a good deal larger than anything listed, and then adding the Bible and other scriptures and aboriginal traditions... well the possible list can get very long.

But put another way Baha'is are not free individually to say someone is or is not a Prophet (it's important to note both ways - just because the Baha'i Faith is silent on the founder of Sikhism doesn't mean he is not a true prophet in reality.) We have our scripture and the rules are such that such judgements have been made as far as they go. When the next Prophet comes, He or She may well say the founder of Sikh's is, or is not.
 
smkolins said:
As an addition to all the above consider that as Baha'is accept the Scriptures of the Faiths, especially Moslem because it is accepted as a first hand account of Muhammad's words, and it mentions a variety of prophets, the list of "accepted" prophets is really a good deal larger than anything listed, and then adding the Bible and other scriptures and aboriginal traditions... well the possible list can get very long.

But put another way Baha'is are not free individually to say someone is or is not a Prophet (it's important to note both ways - just because the Baha'i Faith is silent on the founder of Sikhism doesn't mean he is not a true prophet in reality.) We have our scripture and the rules are such that such judgements have been made as far as they go. When the next Prophet comes, He or She may well say the founder of Sikh's is, or is not.
Click to expand...

i am curious on this.

what about the other prophets in the old testament like Jonah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekial?

also when the next prophet comes along, how can that one prophet decide who is a prophet before them & who is not a prophet before them?

"How can that prophet decide who is a prophet"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Manifestations, Prophets and Saints:

Bandit said:
i am curious on this.

what about the other prophets in the old testament like Jonah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekial?

also when the next prophet comes along, how can that one prophet decide who is a prophet before them & who is not a prophet before them?

"How can that prophet decide who is a prophet"
Click to expand...


Question:

i am curious on this.

what about the other prophets in the old testament like Jonah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekial?

Reply:

In the Baha'i Writings what are understoood as "lesser prophets" in the Bible are what we call dependent prophets as they receive in our view light and inspiration from or rater through Moses...and the disciples of Christ as well as the "prophets" who spoke by inspiration in the early church received their inspirationfrom or through Christ. So Moses and Christ are accepted by us as Manifestations of God.

As noted, we individual Baha'is cannt simply accept someone as a Prophet that is not mentioned in our Writings... We don't "make it up along the way".

We regard as i pointed out a few days earlier Guru Nanak as a "Saint" not a Manifestation of God as he derived in our opinion his inspiration through Krishna and Muhammad. They are saints in our view though rather than Prophets.

"Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was quite adamant that he was neither a prophet nor an avatár, but rather simply a spiritual teacher. Later gurus, especially the second through the fifth, made the religion somewhat intentionally syncretistic. Partly for these reasons, Bahá'ís do not consider Sikhism to be a "revealed" religion."

Question:

also when the next prophet comes along, how can that one prophet decide who is a prophet before them & who is not a prophet before them?

Reply:

Baha'u'llah revealed it would take not less a thousand years for the next Manifestation to appear, that means it could take longer but not less than a thousand years.... When that Manifestation appears He or She will have their own satellites or luminaries who reflect from Her or Him.

Question:

"How can that prophet decide who is a prophet"

Reply:

A Manifestation of God perfectly reflects the Light and inspiration of God so just as Jesus mentioned Abraham, Moses, etc. so the future Manifestation of God will likely mention those Who preceded. We believe God is the same God and knows Who their Manifestations were. But not all of the Manifestations of God are necessarily made known to us.

Question:

also one other thing, when the next prophet comes wont that mean they make a new religion?

Reply:

Yes...Every Manifestation of God renews the spiritual teachings of the One before but teaches new social ordinances applicable to the age in which They appear. Really it is the same Religion of God that is renewed from age to age...but new social ordinances are called for and some of the earlier ordiannces are abrogated or changed for new age.
 
Last edited:
ok arthra.
thank you for explaining. i was asking because in some Christian beliefs, a real bad (not true) prophet comes in the future & most everyone believes in him.

so i was asking to see how Bahai determines the next good prophet.
much appreciated in answering my questions:)
 
Re: Manifestations, Prophets and Saints:

arthra said:
Question:

also one other thing, when the next prophet comes wont that mean they make a new religion?

Reply:

Yes...Every Manifestation of God renews the spiritual teachings of the One before but teaches new social ordinances applicable to the age in which They appear. Really it is the same Religion of God that is renewed from age to age...but new social ordinances are called for and some of the earlier ordiannces are abrogated or changed for new age.
Click to expand...

In some ways, it is not the Manifestation that makes a new religion as much as it is humanity who responds in a dividied way. Jesus did not come to abrogate the Law but to Fulfill it. Had the Jews as a body accepted Jesus it could well have been called Judaism still. But it is a most great leap from one Prophet's Revelation to the Next and at that time few there are who make the leap, perhaps least of all the authorities of the religion into which the new Prophet is called up.

BTW, I was not aware that there was a specific reference to the founder of Sikhism in the Baha'i Writings, so some of my statements may have been overly stated. :)
 
Bahai is from the Judao/Christian not the eastern religions. this cause (wrongly and Bahai donot know this) this causes what is know as the Judao/Christian bias to the eastern religions and it also works the other way around eastern bias to Judao/Christian. Yes well you may say the Bahai believe in for example Buddha however they(Bahais) have a bais to for example say that mantra meditation is not nessasary. In fact Bahais ignore mostly all tenets of eastern thought although they say they believe in this prophet and that. To justify they say that the practices are obsolete. This is not true.. Bahaullah never said it! Maitreya`s Eternal Divine Path and His Greatest Sign are the fulfillment and completion of the three part Bahai revelation. The Prophet just mentioned fulfills all prophecies and unites all the religions in a much deeper way. Check out this website [link removed by I, Brian - no self-promo spamming, thanks] As it fulfills Bahai prophecy in a muchdeeper sense it unites all.
 
Some Notes for Drew :

Thanks Drew for your post and welcome to CR!!!!!


If you don't mind I'll do my best to respond to some of your comments...Even though your comments are somewhat off topic.

drew22 wrote:

Bahai is from the Judao/Christian not the eastern religions. this cause (wrongly and Bahai donot know this) this causes what is know as the Judao/Christian bias to the eastern religions and it also works the other way around eastern bias to Judao/Christian.

My reply:

Baha'i Faith actually has Zoroastrian roots as well and historically we grew out of Shiah Islam so i wouldn't simply characterise the Baha'i Faith as "Judeo Christian" even though we accept the Bible as inspired... Our goal is to overcome bias and prejudices.

Drew wrote:

Yes well you may say the Bahai believe in for example Buddha however they(Bahais) have a bais to for example say that mantra meditation is not nessasary.

Reply:

It's true Baha'is accept the Buddha. We do not have however have any hard and fast rules about meditation... Baha'is use what we call the "Greatest Name" for repetition and meditation daily so i suppose this would be similar to a "mantra" for us.

Drew:

In fact Bahais ignore mostly all tenets of eastern thought although they say they believe in this prophet and that. To justify they say that the practices are obsolete. This is not true.. Bahaullah never said it!

Reply:

What we believe is that the original teachings of the early Manifestations have been lost or corrupted in time... but we also are interested in early scriptures even though many were composed long after the historical or estimated lifetimes of the Manifestations. So for us having the most authentic teachings or writings as possible is very important

Drew:

Maitreya`s Eternal Divine Path and His Greatest Sign are the fulfillment and completion of the three part Bahai revelation. The Prophet just mentioned fulfills all prophecies and unites all the religions in a much deeper way. As it fulfills Bahai prophecy in a much deeper sense it unites all.

Reply:

I'm unsure what the "three part Baha'i revelation" is that you refer to? Maybe you could help me out on that...

I appreciate hearing your point of view. There was only one reference made by the Guardian of our Faith that Baha'u'llah was the Maitreya and you are free to accept that or not.

In our belief, Baha'u'llah fulfilled the previous prophecies and we accept that the major religions have the same divine origin. We do believe that through a world government and international judiciary as well as universal auxiliary language that world peace can be achieved, these were principles announced by Baha'u'llah while a Prisoner in Akka, a former Ottoman Penal colony, around 1868-1870.

- Art
:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top