Martyrdom in the Baha'itum

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Martyrdom means in Baha'i to sacrifice one's life in the service of humanity and in the name of God. In terms of religious history, Baha'i is related to Islam , but "unlike in Islam , the term martyr does not designate a believer who has fallen in a religious struggle, but a Baha'i who suffers death because he refused to renounce his belief."

On the concept and historical background

In the Hidden Words , Bahāʾullāh first describes the meaning of martyrdom as it was understood in Islam:

“O son of being! Search for martyrdom on my path, satisfied with my pleasure and grateful for my providence, so that you may rest with me under the canopy of sublimity behind the throne tent of glory. [...] By my beauty! When you dye your hair with your blood, it is greater in my eyes than the creation of the universe and the light of both worlds. Strive for it, o servant! "

- Hidden words

But the founder of the Baha'i religion declares for his own religion to refrain from the literal interpretation: true martyrdom refers to the self-sacrificing service to humanity. ʿAbdul-Baha ' , Bahāʾullāh's son and interpreter, stated that the most acceptable form of martyrdom is a lifelong sacrifice to serve humanity in the name of God. The Baha''um honors the martyrs of its history of persecution. Baha'i are not encouraged to seek martyrdom. In Baha'i life, life is seen as a gift from the Creator worth treasuring and protecting.

There are many in the Baha'i persecution history who are considered martyrs. Baha'm arose out of a separate religion, Babism , whose followers see the Baha'i as part of their own history. In Babism, martyrdom still had the literal meaning of sacrificing one's life and was seen as a public declaration of sincerity and devotion to God. During the 1840s and 1850s, the Bab claimed to be the returned Mahdi and gained a growing following as a result. The Persian clergy tried to stop the spread of their movement by stigmatizing their followers as renegades; this led to public executions and a pogrom in which thousands of Bab's supporters were killed. In addition, the Bab himself was publicly executed in 1850. The followers of Bab who were killed during these times are seen by the Baha'i as martyrs, the execution of the Bab (or martyrdom of the Bab ) is one of a total of nine Baha'i holidays in the Badi calendar today . Among those executed was the poet and women's rights activist Qurrat al-ʿAin . Badi ' , Ruhulláh, Varqá, Quddus and Mullah Husayn are also some of the best-known martyrs of the Baha'i community . Although the Baha'i are still persecuted in many Muslim countries, the term martyr is no longer used by the Baha'i today. This is also due to the fact that since the death of the great-grandson of the founder of the religion, even within the institutionally organized community, no one is authorized to officially determine whether or not the criteria of a martyr described above have been met.

Reception outside the Baha'i community

According to the general opinion, Mona Mahmudnizhad is also one of the martyrs of the Baha'i community. Her story is the theme of Mark Perry's 2002 play A Dress for Mona and Doug Cameron's song Mona With the Children .

Web links

Article on BBC Persian , October 12, 2015.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Jonah Winters: Conclusion . In: Dying for God: Martyrdom in the Shii and Babi Religions . MA thesis, September 19, 1997 (accessed January 23, 2007).
  2. ↑ Monika Tworuschka , Udo Tworuschka : Religions of the present . Aschendorff Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-402-12859-6 .
  3. ↑ Bahá'u'lláh: The Hidden Words . 11th edition. Bahá'í Verlag, Hofheim 2001, ISBN 3-87037-418-7 , pp. 36 .
  4. ^ Adib Taherzadeh : The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Volume 4: Mazra'ih & Bahji 877-92 . George Ronald, Oxford, UK 1987, ISBN 0-85398-270-8 , p. 57.
  5. ^ A b Jonah Winters: Meanings of Martyrdom in Babi Thought . In: Dying for God: Martyrdom in the Shii and Babi Religions . MA thesis, September 19, 1997 (accessed January 23, 2007).
  6. ^ A b c Friedrich W. Affolter, Moojan Momen: The Specter of Ideological Genocide: The Bahá'ís of Iran. In: War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity , Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 59-89, 2005.
  7. ^ National Spiritual Assembly of the United States: The Badi Calendar . bahai.us. March 5, 2006. Archived from the original on September 28, 2006. Retrieved January 23, 2007.
  8. ↑ Shoghi Effendi : God Passes By . Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, USA 1944, ISBN 0-87743-020-9 , p. 75.
  9. ^ Ray Rivera: Bahais Mourn Iranian Jailed for His Faith . Washington Post. January 30, 2006. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
  10. ↑ A Dress for Mona . Archived from the original on March 9, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2007.