Bahá'í Work as Worship, Prayer as Practice:

For Baháʼís, temples are not venues for holding their monthly nineteen-day Feast meetings which comprise devotions, community business and socialising; these occur in owned or rented Baháʼí Centres or private homes. Rather, each Baháʼí temple, according to Bahá’u’lláh, Prophet and Founder of the Baháʼí Faith, is a Mashriqu’l-Adhkar, meaning ‘the dawning place of the mention of God’ intended to become the centre of community life where all turn to God for regular spiritual sustenance (Baháʼí World, p. 321). Thus Baháʼís consider temples as places of unity where people from all backgrounds, cultures, nations and religions can come together to engage in personal prayer and meditation. This chapter explores how Baháʼí temples are beacons – signal lights – of unity.

In his book of laws, Bahá’u’lláh says, ‘O people of the world! Build ye houses of worship throughout the lands in the name of Him Who is the Lord of all religions. Make them as perfect as is possible in the world of being, and adorn them with that which befitteth them, not with images and effigies. Verily, by His remembrance the eye is cheered and the heart is filled with light’ (Bahá’u’lláh, 1993:29-30).

The metaphor of light filling our hearts depicts our evanescence and nearness to God. For example, Abdu’l-Bahá says, ‘…soar high toward the apex of heaven so that your blessed hearts may become illumined more and more, day by day, through the rays of the Sun of Reality… at every moment the spirits may obtain a new life, and the darkness of the world of nature may be entirely dispelled; thus you may become incarnate light and personified spirit, become entirely unaware of the sordid matters of this world and in touch with the affairs of the divine world’ (Abdu’l-Bahá, 1993:50). Such symbolic language addresses an ineffable quality that cannot be expressed in concrete terms. The guiding light emanating from the Sun of Reality is also embodied within us as ‘incarnate light’, underscoring our experience as embodied and our reality as essentially spiritual beings.

Metaphors are a ‘widely distributed phenomenon that encompasses our cultural reality’ (Kövecses, 2010: 3). The metaphor of light can be based on both our basic knowledge (conceptual metaphor) and experiential knowledge (image schema) – of what light is. Light also conjures our body’s experience, such as effects of sunlight. As Baháʼís study their scripture, the many metaphors of light and darkness likely influence a community’s shared image schema. In any community, conceptual metaphors exist in people’s minds, although there may not be an exact fit (Kövecses, 2010:308)

Light is a frequent metaphor in other religious teachings. For example in the Torah, Genesis 1:3 says, ‘Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light’. The Gospel says, ‘For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light’ (John 3:20-21). In Islam we find, ‘God is the Light of the heavens and the earth’ (Quran 24:35) and ‘He brings them out from darkness into the light’ (Quran 2:257). As these quotes indicate, religions share fundamental spiritual teachings.

The unity of religion is a key tenet in the Baháʼí Faith which considers all God’s Messengers to have the same essence and rank, though each has a specific mission. This fundamental belief stresses the essential unity of Beings who differ primarily in the specific era in humanity’s development when they appear. Although their spiritual teachings are harmonious, their social teachings are fashioned for the spiritual maturity level of their times. The term Messenger symbolises the focus of these founders of religion on their God-given tasks rather than their personhood. Examples of their spiritual unity are evident in Moses’ chronicling the lives of previous Messengers, Jesus referencing Moses’ teachings, Muhammad recounting the mistreatment of past Messengers, and Bahá’u’lláh reciting Biblical, Quranic and other Messengers’ (Noah, Saleh and Hud) histories and teachings. Although much physical evidence may be lost, Baháʼís believe that Messengers have visited all parts of the globe and guided humans from the beginning. Indeed, Bahá’u’lláh says, ‘Were it not for those effulgent Lights that shine above the horizon of His Essence, the people would know not their left hand from their right, how much less could they scale the heights of the inner realities or probe the depths of their subtleties!’ (Bahá’u’lláh, 2002:14).

In the Book of Certitude, Bahá’u’lláh unravels symbolism in Biblical and Quranic verses, showing how natural phenomena are used to convey spiritual concepts. For example, Bahá’í scripture considers Messengers as sanctified and stainless ‘mirrors’ reflecting the ‘light of unfading glory’ which is a target metaphor. Mirror is a concrete metaphor symbolising the concept of how each Messenger perfectly ‘reflects’ teachings from God, who is like the Sun showering creation with rays of light. The generality of humankind are imperfect mirrors who, when guided by their spiritual conscience, are free to choose whether or not to reflect the light conveyed to them by the Messengers. Bahá’u’lláh frequently uses the metaphor of the mirrors of human hearts that may be dusty, that is, their perceptions are fuzzy, but humans have the ability to polish them through prayer and meditation. The emphasis here is that God is the source of spiritual attributes, and our reality is the thought chosen by our spirit.

Each of the Messengers’ revelations from God illumined humanity with teachings meant to advance their spiritual condition at that stage in human development. Each revelation is like a divine springtime that renews all creation by redefining and reorienting people’s mental structures. Further, each Messenger promises that another will appear in the future as mentioned in the Book of Noah. ‘Blessed souls – whether Moses, Jesus, Zoroaster, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius or Muhammad – were the cause of the illumination of the world of humanity. How can we deny such irrefutable proof? How can we be blind to such light?’ (Abdu’l-Bahá, 1982:346). Indeed, humankind may never understand who or what the Creator is. In Bahá’í terms, God is an unknowable essence, a characterisation that echoes the ineffability expressed by Fox (this volume) and Campa (this volume). Further, Baháʼí scriptures portray the spiritual world as more real than the material and present our work in this material plane as the seemingly counter-intuitive task of adopting spiritual attributes. Baháʼí scripture clarifies that individual reality is essentially internal – our thought. Our actions are what make our spiritual journey tangible.

Light and illumination are widely understood physically as well as mentally: in religious terms light typically represents the workings of spirit. The passage indicates that the spiritual ‘light’ emanating from uniting human beings can transform societies. Light is the concrete source and unity is the abstract target of this conceptual metaphor. Extending the light of unity metaphor, light is itself a composite of colours becoming one, thus representing a type of unity itself. Vaughan (this volume) proposes another light of unity by replacing Homo sapiens, knowing being, to Homo donans, gifting being, which transforms the selfish focus of acquisitiveness into sharing. Similarly, small, local projects can add up to a new greater reality. The conceptual metaphor of a guiding light which manifests as a beacon – a target metaphor for God’s Messengers – is also often paired with its target metaphor of united community.

Clearly, individuals cannot function socially if their meanings are entirely personal. Blumer (1969) describes how meanings are interactional and negotiated. His theory of symbolic interaction indicates that language moulds human cognition from birth; because cultural perspectives are embedded in language, such perspectives are conveyed through language performance, attitudes and meanings which become reinforced through social interaction. Further, cultural myths are shortcut narratives containing cultural values. Everything can be considered a myth if conveyed in a historical discourse (Chukwuma et al., 2014:23). Thus, formulating thoughts and perceptions from within one’s cultural context may fortify a particular thought system unless individuals transcend their cultural preconceptions as well as the weight of the collective consciousness. A culture solidifies common thought patterns into a mutual world view (Fisher, 1984). For example, religious communities learn to interpret metaphors in their scriptures consistent with how others in the community understand them.

But cultural mythology can also obscure our immediate perceptions. Bahá’u’lláh counsels us to free ourselves from the ‘kingdom of names’ which could be interpreted to include, for example, the sayings of other people, and independently look for meanings in the words of the Messengers who work to correct our thinking, inasmuch as the goal of religion is to enlighten us so that we can free ourselves from darkness. When people change the way they think, they can break away from entrenched habits of thought. Bhogal (this volume) discusses how identities exist in one’s mind as a context for understanding one’s perceptions of the world, thus the practicality of thinking in terms of self and other.

About twenty years ago, Baháʼís in the DRC embarked on so-called community-building efforts in various parts of the country. This involved studying and discussing Baháʼí scripture in believers’ own tribes and neighbourhoods and considering how they could be useful tools in their lives. Thus, groups of individuals throughout that country came to understand each other’s needs, which helped them learn to solve common issues. For instance, one community that lacked a school for their children took to weaving bags that they sold in markets to earn enough to hire a teacher. Through this weaving enterprise, they now support an elementary school serving one hundred children. In another community, coffee farmers started a morning before-work ritual of gathering together to share a cup of coffee. This ritual eventually included saying prayers together, increasing the intimacy of the interpersonal bonds they’d established (Baháʼí World News Service, 16 January 2018).

The DRC had many challenges to overcome. As the world’s sixteenth largest country, with a population of 90 million comprising 250 ethnic groups and 240 languages, it boasts some of the world’s richest resources, including iron ore, gem-quality diamonds, coal and gold deposits. It has also been the most war-ravaged country on Earth. Tribes in South Kivu province had waged violent battles for more than a century; its residents are frequent victims of militia groups that cross the nearby Rwanda border. Its most recent war (1998-2002), also known as the Great War of Africa, was one of the world’s deadliest since World War Two, claiming an estimated 5.5 million lives. Also, 70,000 casualties resulted from a Pygmy extermination campaign. The UN estimates that the country had the highest number of people (about 1.7 million) displaced by conflict in 2017 (DRC humanitarian crisis, 2017-2018).

In this politically disturbed country, the Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly, a democratically elected Baháʼí body overseeing national activities, invited Baháʼí localities throughout the country to hold educational conferences to solidify their peace-building efforts (Bahá’í World News Service, 18 November 2008). These conferences brought together individuals throughout the country who had engaged in their local peace-building activities. In 2008, despite the perils of nearby war as well as financial and security challenges, about 800 people, some walking 300km, attended a conference in Uvira, the first Bahá’í event of its type held in that country, and another in Bukavu in 2013, where previously-warring chiefs consulted with each other while sharing food, the Word of God and exploring what they had in common. At the end of this latter conference, 26 chiefs signed a joint statement declaring, ‘We have seen that the world is evolving… We will no longer guide our people in darkness, now that the light has appeared through these teachings, which we shall never forget’. Further, the vice-mayor of Baraka, Emerite Tabisha, stated ‘I was therefore moved by the gathering and had never before heard such profound discussions that regard the participation of women as essential in community-building efforts’ (Bahá’í World News Service, 31 August 2021). The chiefs indicated that igniting the light of spiritual guidance had dispelled a moral darkness that allowed war and hatred to exist.

Following a 2018 youth conference focused on developing unity, an innovative approach to peacebuilding was hatched by a group of young people from two villages near Tuwe Tuwe, in South Kivu province. They studied such themes in Bahá’í writings as distinguishing spiritual versus material prosperity, making noble goals, being service-oriented and collaborating in meaningful action. The conference inspired them to try to resolve the tension and hostility between their villages over ownership of agricultural fields. During consultation, they decided to organise a football match in a field between the villages, involving youth from both villages. The consultative method asks individuals to seek underlying spiritual truths in all situations and find paths to resolution. Any opinion, once uttered, becomes group property. Participants must be detached and loving as they seek a common viewpoint and solution best for all concerned.

The teams integrated members of different tribes, attracting a sizable crowd from both villages. After the game, one of the youth told the audience how ‘there was no conflict between the youth of one village and the youth of the other village. And we believe that our villages are capable of this, of living like the children of one same family’. The village chiefs then took the stage and reaffirmed the need to start working together (Bahá’í World News Service, 16 January 2018).

Bahá’ís in Kakenge in the Kasai region, the least developed part of the nation which has experienced much ethnic violence, hosted a three-day conference where Bahá’ís from two opposing tribes explored together how Baháʼu’lláh’s spiritual principles showed how to restore peace. A local administrative official said he saw those who came to consult with him ‘about what was to be done to restore peace. This is why I have come here today to understand more about these teachings’ (Bahá’í World News Service, 29 January 2020). The chief determined that when he returned home, he would gather those whom he had regarded as enemies, make peace with them and seek mutual pardon ‘for the good of our community’ (Baháʼí World News Service, 29 January 2020). Further, Kakenge residents heard a live broadcast of a conversation among 60 village and tribal chiefs, many of whom had fought each other in armed conflict the previous year, exploring factors that contribute to peace, unity and social progress, discussing the true purpose of religion, the unity of humankind, the promotion of material and spiritual progress, and the critical role of women. They avowed that constructive social change grows out of religious teachings. During the three-day conference, participants from dozens of villages studied the correlation between the advancement of women and the building of a prosperous and peaceful society. This broadcast represents another conceptual domain for united community.

Bahá’ís in the capital city Kinshasa have for years explored with interfaith groups how to find ways to help heal their country. In 2019, they organised a day-long seminar featuring a short film of interviews with leaders of different faith communities who stressed the importance of sustainable development in establishing peace and how education can awaken a sense of duty and service. To publicise their agreement to commit to peace and unity, they publicly marched through Kinshasa before an audience of 3,000. This was followed by stage performances, all source metaphors for the conceptual domain of united community. Further, the chiefs convened with the women in their villages, having understood their essential role in successful reconciliation (Bahá’í World News Service, 17 June 2019).

Opportunities also existed for peacebuilding in other parts of the country (Bahá’í World News Service, 17 June 2019). According to the DRC’s Bahá’í National Spiritual Assembly Secretary, these gatherings showed the kind of progress that helps people realise how unity enhances prosperity. These events also illustrated the power to communicate the target metaphor of unity which blended with prosperity and peace. More than 200,000 people across the country, of all ages and faiths, regularly participate in Baháʼí devotional gatherings in their neighbourhoods and villages.

To understand how this peacebuilding led Baháʼís to build a temple, it’s important to know what temples signify for Baháʼís. In 1903, eleven years after the passing of Bahá’u’lláh, Baháʼís in the Chicago area wrote to Bahá’u’lláh’s son and successor Abdu’l-Bahá that they wanted to build a temple. He replied, ‘When the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is accomplished, when the lights are emanating therefrom, the righteous ones are presenting themselves therein, the prayers are performed with supplication towards the mysterious Kingdom, the voice of glorification is raised to the Lord, the Supreme, then the believers shall rejoice, the hearts shall be dilated and overflow with the love of the All-living and Self-existent God…’ (Abdu’l-Bahá, Baháʼí World Faith, p. 415). Baháʼís consider their temples to be places of light and unity that welcome all people to enter to pray and meditate (Bahá’í World News Service 28 March 2023).

In Arabic, a language Bahá’u’lláh used frequently, the word for temple, haykal, also means human body. Bahá’u’lláh wrote a tablet containing a mystical interpretation of the body as a temple indicating that like temples, we can become enlightened through prayer (Walbridge, 1996: 165).

Baháʼí temples stand in the United States, Panama, Chile, Germany, Uganda, Australia, Samoa and India. Each is conceived as a beacon guiding humanity which Bahá’u’lláh says fulfils the promise that all humanity has always been guided, and assured that there would be a day not followed by night. The erection of Baháʼí Temples celebrates the unifying activities in the DRC as well as in PNG where Baháʼís engaged in community-building activities similar to those in DRC. There are particular design requirements for the temples: the grounds should be circular, as a circle is a ‘universal symbol of the sacred, enclosed and seemingly free from gravity, its line eternal and unchanging’ (Badiee, 1992: 79). Their designs, absence of preaching, absence of musical instruments and focus on the Sacred Word and the human voice within are meant to exclude additions that could distort the message of unity (Bahá’í World News Service, 28 March 2023).

Each temple is nine-sided because Bahá'ís consider the number nine – the highest single digit – a symbol of oneness, comprehensiveness and unity. Lavoisier Mutombo Tshiongo, Secretary of the Baha’i National Spiritual Assembly, notes that each has nine doors that face ‘every direction and will be open to all people, allowing for the principle of unity in diversity to become a daily reality’, symbolising that people from all religions are welcome to meditate and reflect. Also, every Baháʼí temple has a central dome and gardens. While the nine-pointed star is not a Baháʼí teaching, it is commonly used as an emblem representing ‘9’ because of the association of the number nine with perfection and unity (Baha’i World News Service, 2 July 2020). The word Bahá (which means glory), has a numerical equivalence of 9 in the Abjad system of isopsephy. ‘Bahá’u’lláh’ means Glory of God.

The DRC temple design is inspired by traditional artworks, structures and natural features of the DRC, as well as by the Baháʼí sacred teachings, particularly the spiritual concept that God’s bounty flows unceasingly like water over all people. Indeed, the temple site overlooks the Congo River whose tributaries gather rain from every part of the country into one great stream, providing a powerful image of the coming together of all people. The river is also reflected in the design of the temple, with decorative tile cladding of the temple dome laid out in intricate tiles representing the tributaries that gather rain from every part of the country. This pattern, created in a style reminiscent of traditional artwork, provides an image of the assemblage of all people and reflects the Bahá’í principle of the oneness of humanity. The undulating roof of the temple makes reference to 19th century Congolese architecture that had finely woven bamboo facades and a parabolic roof made of palm leaves. The patterns adorning the outside of the dome express this idea in a style reminiscent of the artwork of various Congolese peoples. Referencing indigenous artwork and using local materials rather than importing them honours local history and culture. Similarly, in PNG, a country with more than 700 distinct cultural groups, the architectural team understood the art of weaving as something with which people interact daily, making woven baskets, mats and other objects and compared the act of weaving with the process of building unity in diversity where individual strands unite to form something stronger than the object’s parts, all of which contribute to the whole (See Kurjenoja/Carrera, this volume). Thus, they invited area residents to help build the roof by convening at the temple site to weave aluminium strips into a traditional pattern that now adorns the temple’s interior walls. The nine gable-roofed entrances reflect a traditional structure that is associated with the sacred throughout several major regions of the country. The temple is a space where the people of PNG can unite in worship of God and find inspiration to serve humanity together. A volunteer said, ‘This house of worship belongs to all of us. This is what motivates everyone here to work together’. The design of the temple dome and the interior weaving pattern are symbolic of unity and the coming together of people from diverse backgrounds (Baháʼí World News Service, 28 September 2022).

According to a volunteer from Hohola, ‘The house of worship will be open to anyone seeking solace and serenity… It will be a place for all people to reflect deeply on their lives, to think about how they can overcome challenges, and how they can serve their society (Baháʼí World News Service, 28 September 2022). Because they wanted all in the region to recognise the Temple as open to everyone, Baha’is called for a meeting just to bring people together (Baháʼí World News Service, 22 January 2021). Those who attended had agreed to observe World Religions Day in the temple by focusing on the Golden Rule of treating others as one would wish to be treated, highlighting that the purpose of religion is to foster love and harmony. Holy texts from different religions were recited in several languages. After weeks of collaboration, the world religion day event was an expression of what the religious communities had achieved together. Illustrating the sense of unity, when a representative of the Jewish community was unable to attend, a member of another faith who was fluent in Hebrew stepped forward to ensure Jewish scriptures would be heard. According to Gezina Volmer, Director of the Baha’i Office of External Affairs in PNG, ‘…in our society religion is an important part of the life of every individual, every family, and even institutions. Yet, people sometimes find it difficult to relate to one another because of the differences in their religious beliefs and practices. As a nation, we talk about being one, but how can we come together as one? The process leading up to World Religions Day and the event itself have given us a powerful example of how this is possible’ (Baháʼí World News Service, 22 January 2021). The Baha’i International Community office said in a report to the UN that unity of thought is ‘one of the lights of unity that will illumine the path to peace’ (Berger, 2021: 92-93).

An obstacle in peace negotiations has been a failure to consider participants’ sincere thoughts, especially their assumptions about human nature and power. The magic in these stories is the power of religious scripture to transform hearts and inspire people to change behaviour. Assembling in groups that share much in common – language, national identity, economics, child-rearing – praying and consulting together made it possible to feel each other’s humanity. Positive change occurred when the involved parties stopped reproducing the same patterns of antagonism and conflict (see Coletta, this volume). Thus, they describe peace as not just the cessation of conflict but a process toward building one universal family. That is, when the means and ends of discourse are unified, the peaceful, united act of problem-solving itself can determine the peaceful outcomes participants wish to see enacted by all (Berger, 2021: 97).

Like other Messengers, Bahá’u’lláh uses metaphors to convey spiritual concepts, a practice that has led to confusion by people misinterpreting symbolic language as magical rather than metaphorical instructions for personal growth. Metaphor borrows from among thoughts that exist in various contexts (Richards, 2001). Metaphoric process allows us to construct a particular reality according to how we describe it. For example, some religions believe that depending on our present behaviour, we’ll be rewarded or punished after our death.

In a Baháʼí image schema, perceiving each other as members of one human family who peacefully co-exist derives from our perceptions of reality. Attaining a unity of thought can come from frankly-expressed conflicting ideas, as occurred in discussions both in DRC and PNG. ‘Consultation bestoweth greater awareness and transmuteth conjecture into certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leadeth the way and guideth’ (Baha’u’llah, 1991: 93). Our individual and collective spiritual lives depend on our daily efforts so that at any moment we can become enlightened by freeing ourselves from the dark promptings of nature.