Footnotes

01. For a textbook introduction to the Bahá'í Faith see J.E. Esslemont, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era. Wilmette, IL: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1970.

02. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. Trans. Shoghi Effendi. (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1976.), 287-8.

03. Jamshed Fozdar, who has studied Buddhism and Hinduism extensively, has speculated that the Pure Land of the West mentioned by the Buddha refers to the Holy Land. `Abdu'l-Bahá has stated that Zoroaster ``held converse'' with some of the prophets of Israel in the Holy Land.

04. For convenience, the Bahá'í system of transliteration is used for Persian and Arabic words. Most of the literature on the Bahá'í Faith is written using this convention.

05. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By. (Wilmette:Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1944), 179-196.

06. Peter Smith, The Bahá'í and Bábí Religions. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 131-138, 162.

07. David S. Ruhe, The Door of Hope. (Oxford: George Ronald, 1983),112.

08. God Passes By, 183.

09. Ruhe, 8.

10. The Vision of Race Unity: America's Most Challenging Issue. Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1991.

11. Shoghi Effendi,The Advent of Divine Justice. (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1963), 4.

12. Bahá'u'lláh,The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book. (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1993), 31.

13. See Smith.

14. Bahá'u'lláh sent letters to the rulers of his time proclaiming his mission. See Esslemont.

15. God Passes By, 177.

16. God passes By, xvii.

17. Ruhe, 14.

18. See the Bahá'í Long Obligatory Prayer. Bahá'u'lláh commands the Bahá'ís to pray at least daily. The Bahá'ís are free to chose one of the three prayers specifically revealed for this purpose. The Long Obligatory Prayer is the longest of the three. For the text of the prayer, see Aqdas, 93-9.

19. The Manifestations of God include, but are not limited to, Moses, Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, the Báb, and Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'ís do not believe in the finality of Bahá'u'lláh's revelation, and expect another Manifestation of God to appear after the elapse of one thousand years. The identities of the Manifestations of God who lived prior to the onset of recorded history, Bahá'u'lláh has stated, may have been lost due to the passage of time.

20. Gleanings, 50-52.

21. For Bahá'u'lláh's most important work about God, religion, and scripture, see the Kitáb-i-Íqán: The Book of Certitude, trans. Shoghi Effendi (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1946). The Kitáb-i-Íqán is Bahá'u'lláh's second most important work after the Book of Laws.

22. Gleanings, 54.

23. Synopsis and Codification of the Laws and Ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. (Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1973), 61

24. Ruhe, 9.

25. See Esslemont, 34-38.

26. Esslemont, 36.

27. See Ruhe, 107.

28. From a letter to the Bahá'í world dated June 5, 1975.

29. Robert Stockman. Interview with author. Boston, April 11, 1994.

30. Bahá'í Holy Places at the World Centre. Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1968.