The Babi Movement and the Baha'i Faith

When considering the classification of an NRM, an important specification of that classification is the time period you are looking at. This is something I haven’t gotten too much into detail into yet because most of the NRMs I have written blogs about are relatively young, but in this post I will be discussing a religion that was an Islamic NRM close to its founding but now has separated itself from an Islamic identity. This separation in self-identification and a set of teachings completely separate of Islam earns this movement the category of being a completely new religion (as opposed to being a cult). This religion is the Baha’i Faith.

Before talking about the Baha’i Faith, it’s first important to briefly go over its precursor, the Babi Movement. This movement, considered a separate religion, was based on the idea of the imminent arrival of a new prophet. The leader of the Babi Movement, Ali Muhammad Shirazi, considered himself to be the Mehdi, an important Islamic figure said to come as a sign of Judgement Day arriving. Baha’ullah, the leader of the Baha’i Faith, claimed to be the prophet that Shirazi and the Babi Movement were waiting for. When I read this history connecting these two movements, I became interesting in learning more about the distinction between claiming to be the Mehdi versus claiming to be a prophet.

Typically, the claim to be the Mehdi is a difficult claim to make since there are multiple requirements necessary to be the Mehdi, from having a specific name to being born at a specific time outlined by various signs. Additionally, part of the claim of being the Mehdi necessitates that another sign, the second coming of Jesus (PBUH), occur soon after. Since the claim of the Mehdi is difficult to make, people may instead believe and claim to be prophets sent from heaven. While most traditional Islamic scholars would immediately label such claims as taking someone outside the fold of Islam (considering no prophets should come after Prophet Muhammad (S)), these religious leaders would take evidence of the second coming of Jesus (PBUH) to mean that prophets can come after Prophet Muhammad (S). Typically, people making such claims believe themselves to either be the second coming of Jesus (PBUH) or some other historic Islamic prophet.

This tangent in my studies of the Baha’i faith was made even more interesting when I discovered that they currently don’t even identify as Muslim. The religion has evolved so much from its Islamic roots, enough so that a separate identity has emerged. Part of the working definition of a cult that I made necesitated a sense of shared identity with the traditional religion, which is not present in the Baha’i faith. This is why it is a separate religion and not a cult.

In my next post, I will be discussing the Ahmadiyya faith and how rationalist movements within Islam can affect the development of cults. Thanks for reading!