It\u2019s a deceptively simple question \u2014 Why do I believe in my religion? \u2014 but it\u2019s also probably one of the most important questions anyone can ask. If I can\u2019t answer it, after all, why do I really believe? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most common response, if one were honest, is that they were raised in their religion. Like their nationality and their cultural background and their hair color, it was inherited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While this kind of inheritance may maintain family unity, it has a hidden implication: that the person answering the question wouldn\u2019t have been a follower during the lifetime of the founder of their Faith, because their family would have come from an older tradition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RELATED: Progressive Revelation: All Religions as Chapters in One Book<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This leads to other, more important questions: Would I have recognized Christ, Buddha, or Muhammad when they first appeared? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is my belief based on the actual spiritual message of those great messengers, or is my belief simply a legacy of my family traditions passed down through the generations? Do I believe only because my parents and grandparents did? Did I blindly accept my family\u2019s religious traditions without examining them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n One central question naturally follows these soul-searching ones: \u201cHow can we recognize a messenger from God?\u201d In other words, by what criteria can we believe that would have enabled us to recognize the founders of our Faith during their lifetime?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was, essentially, the question asked of Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/a> by an uncle of the Bab<\/a>, the divine messenger who brought us the Babi religion, and paved the way for the advent of Baha\u2019u\u2019llah and the Baha\u2019i Faith<\/a>. Baha\u2019u\u2019llah\u2019s responded by revealing the foundational Baha\u2019i book known as The Book of Certitude<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this seminal book, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah wrote<\/a> that \u201c\u2026 all the Scriptures, and the mysteries thereof are condensed into this brief account<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we look at the questions the Bab\u2019s uncle actually wrote, the response is quite intriguing. One of the questions asks why the Bab didn\u2019t show the sovereignty that the Promised One was supposed to show. While the second part of the book addresses the issue of sovereignty, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah reframes the question as \u201cHow did the Bab show this sovereignty?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baha\u2019u\u2019llah begins by telling his questioner that the first step in any sincere search is detachment \u2014 that we must be detached from our own limited understanding of things, for if we believe that we are right and that everything must conform to our belief, then we are not open to learning. When that is the case, our search has already ended. This kind of detachment does not mean forgetting what we know \u2014 instead, it often means reexamining our interpretation of what we believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As soon as Baha\u2019u\u2019llah tells us to be detached, he then asks the uncle to \u201cconsider the past.\u201d Knowing that the uncle is a devout Muslim, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah acknowledges the messengers he already recognizes \u2014 Moses, Christ, and Muhammad. He reiterates the stories of these great teachers but with a tight focus. For example, when telling the story of Noah, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah does not mention the flood or the ark. Instead, he describes the sufferings of that divine prophet, saying<\/a>, \u201c\u2026 the more closely you observe the denials of those who have opposed the Manifestations of the divine attributes, the firmer will be your faith in the Cause of God.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When referring to the past messengers, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah draws our attention to what they have in common, for those commonalities allow us to recognize the next messenger. If we look carefully at the stories of the messengers in The Book of Certitude<\/em>, we can see a familiar arc to them \u2014 they all begin with admiration for the individual divine messenger and then move on to their sufferings, which culminate in their eventual triumph. The triumphal part of the story differs from one messenger to the next, but if we focus on those differences, we tend to lose sight of what they have in common. Here, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah looks at the beginning of each story: how each holy messenger was admired and then how they subsequently suffered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah begins teaching the uncle of the Bab by confirming what he already knew. While there is no new information about their lives, it is presented in a startlingly new light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In these important paragraphs, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah also offers a method for us to emulate: He seems to recognize that there are some points, and some insights, that may be difficult to accept. He understands that there are some ideas presented that may elicit a natural reflex in us, an \u201cI\u2019m right\u201d reflex, as natural as the reflexive kicking of our leg when the doctor taps our knee with a hammer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n