You will often hear from Bahá'ís what the main principles of the Faith are, for instance, the oneness of mankind or the equality of men and women. However, before any principles of this Faith mean anything, one should inquire as to what authority makes us hold that these principles are important and why we believe what we believe.
A Christian if asked about his Faith does not start out proclaiming various principles that they believe, but rather begins with not the word "what", but the Word "Who". They believe in Jesus Christ. A Jew may also give you what they believe but it always comes back to the Who, Moses, a Muslim will center on Muhammad. So it is with other religions. The authority upon which they hold that their beliefs are true centers on the Revealer of those principles.
In the Bahá'í Faith, we have a Prophet-Herald, and the Promised One of all the Worlds Major Religions. The Prophet-Herald sent by God to prepare the way for the Great World Teacher to come was named the Bab (pronounced like the short form of Robert, i.e., Bob) and is Persian for the word "Gate". The Bab announced that he was the Gate through whose revelation the next Prophet to come, the Promised One of every major religion would appear.
The Bab began His ministry in May 1844. He was like many of the great Prophets, imprisoned, tortured, banished, and ultimately martyred by the combined forces of the ecclesiastical and civil institutions of His time. Over 20,000 of his followers also were killed. In 1850 the Bab was publicly executed by firing squad in the city of Tabriz, in what is now Iran.
What was the Bab's claim? He proclaimed that he was the Point bridging two major Dispensations. On one side of his Revelation, the Prophets of the past, beginning with Adam, proclaimed the future establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth and ending with the seal of the Prophetic cycle the last Major Prophet to proclaim the promise prophetically of the coming kingdom, Muhammad - on the other side of the Bab's revelation, beginning with the next Prophet, the Dispensation of the fulfillment of those prophecies.
The Bab then was both outside the Dispensation ending with Muhammad, for in a real since, the Bab was the beginning of the Promised Kingdom, and in another since was still only a Herald of that future Great One who would usher it in.
Bahá'í recognize the Bab as one of the two Twin Prophets founding our religion. One of those who followed the Bab, was imprisoned for his belief, beaten and tortured, was to become known by the title Baha'u'llah (pronounced bah hah u lah). This title roughly translates into "The Glory of God". Baha'u'llah began to quietly prepare the followers of the Bab for His announcement beginning as early as 1856. But it was in a garden in Baghdad in 1863 that Baha'u'llah formally announced to all mankind just what his claim to authority was.
Baha'u'llah stated that He was the inaugurator of a new Dispensation in religious history, the Dispensation of the fulfillment of all Prophecy. He proclaimed that He was the One spoken of by the Bab, the Manifestation of the Attributes of God, and the Promised One of all the Major religions of the world. To Zoroastrians, the one to come, for Buddhists, the Great World Teacher, for Hindus, the return of Krishna, for the Jews, the Messiah, for Christians, the return of Christ, for Muslims, the Promised One. Every major religion has a promise of two teachers, and Baha'u'llah stated that the Bab was the first of the two, and that He was the second.
What is the station that he claimed? Baha'u'llah stated that the world should believe and follow His teachings, not because He was the greatest of the Prophets, for He taught all of them came from God and were of equal station, that their revelations differed because of the conditions and level of spiritual development of the people to whom the came. He taught that each one of the Moses, Jesus Muhammad, and the Bab were Manifestation of the attributes of God. However, because God had now educated mankind through these Teachers to a point where the world would become in need of further instructions, God had sent Him to be the Highest reflection or Manifestation of the attributes of God in this Day until the coming of another after Him in a thousand years.
So Bahá'ís believe that today God has revealed Himself in more fully in the Prophet Baha'u'llah. It is because Baha'u'llah speaks with the voice and reveals the purpose and character of God for our Day that we follow His Teachings.
These instructions given to us by God's Holy Prophet are the means by which not only is World Peace attainable, it is the only means by which our own inner peace and harmony may be fully achieved. Meditation of the Word of God given by Baha'u'llah, and prayer to God, and living the life according to those instruction, are a few of the means by which the soul of man may begin to attain perfection and increase in its heavenly powers.
We are all children of that God, created by him, no matter whether we believe in Him or not, He believes in His creation.
He has promised He will never leave us alone without guidance.
Therefore, he has given us through the ages, His guidance, direction, and love speaking to his "children", with a human voice, through a human being, who is the "chosen one" for a special time and place in human affairs of mankind. This "chosen one" manifests all the attributes of God. Bahá'ís refer to this "chosen one" as THE MANIFESTATION.
The Manifestation, the voice of God in human form, has been known by many names through the religious history of mankind. He has manifested, or spoken for God, with the name of Abraham, Zoroaster, Krishna, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, the Bab, and Baha'u'llah.
Baha'u'llah is the latest, not the last, in God's "forever" gift to mankind.
Every Manifestation brings a message from God that consists of two parts. One part of the message repeats the eternal truths such as love and mercy -
The other part gives directions on how to live and implement God's laws designed to fit the time in which they were given.
Unfortunately, it is those laws that divide most of the religions of the world not the spiritual truths repeated by every one of the Manifestation.
The name Baha'u'llah means "the Glory of God" in Arabic. Bahá'ís are followers of that "glory" or "light".
God has made us a promise. A Covenant through the Manifestation of Baha'u'llah, that for at least the next 1000 years, He will give mankind a guide, on an uninterrupted and continuing basis.
He has given us specific directions for establishing an Administrative Order through which His teachings will be implemented. (Ed note: this Administrative Order is the outward framework of the Promised Kingdom of God on earth) He has instituted the position of "Guardian of the Faith", "the sign of God upon earth", to interpret the words of Baha'u'llah and other specific duties, with direct guidance from God.
This is the unique and distinguishing feature of God's revelation for this time in the religious history of mankind. This time described as "the coming of age of the entire human race", "The day which shall not be followed by night".
Links:
Ian's Unofficial Website of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith
The above website contains if you scroll down several on line books, and two introductions in real audio on the Faith.
The Orthodox Bahá'í Faith of the Greater Salt Lake City Area
Scroll down and you will find a "testimony" by a local believer on why they became a Bahá'í