Insight into the Baha'i Faith: Attending a House of Worship Service

This essay provides a personal exploration of the Baha'i Faith through attendance at a service in a House of Worship. The author reflects on the faith's emphasis on unity, equality, and its global perspective, noting the absence of idol worship and the unique practice of individual prayer. The experience highlighted the welcoming nature of the community and the faith's focus on peace, meditation, and the integration of humanity. The author also touches on the historical roots of the Baha'i Faith in the Babi religion, its belief in individual growth and social transformation, and its unique features such as study halls for exploring other religions and the significance of the number nine. The essay concludes by emphasizing the value of experiencing a religion from a sociological perspective, gaining insights into its belief system and impact on individuals.

Running head: EXPLORING THE NEW RELIGION
EXPLORING THE NEW RELIGION
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1EXPLORING THE NEW RELIGION
The aim of the essay is to provide personal insight into the new religion that I personally
explored by attending one of their services. The religion that I chose to study was the Baha-I
religion. I attended their service in one of the nearest House of Worship.
This experience of my life gave me an exposure to the new religion and helped me
realize the nuances of the new religion. From my knowledge of the service I realized that the
Baha-I faith is based on the belief of unity and equality and it is called the World religion since it
is it does not narrow down its reach to the people one territory (Black 2016). Since I went in
person to attend the service, I noticed that the worship hall had no particular image of idle
instead it was a massive hall with full windows. Moreover, I also see that the house of worship
included highly ornamental ceilings and there are concrete panels placed on the head of the
structure. This led me to believe that the religion does not believe in any form of idol worship
and this made me more inquisitive about the unfamiliar religion.
The service that I attended was not a regular service where people would sing in chorus,
here in this faith people individually go up to the podium to pray and sing their message to the
god and the Holy Spirit. This is striking to that extent that they do not profess or preach their
religion through any mullahs or the priest; preferably it is a service which is based on the
individual worship and prayer to the god (MacEoin 2017). What was more astonishing in the
service was that the people greeted me with love and this instantly gave me a feeling of empathy
and affection towards the people present there. This made me realize that the people of this
particular religion are accepting and accommodating towards the people of different faith.
The religious service that I attended was the Baha religion; this had the genesis in Iran
and the Middle East. It grew from the sect known as the Babi religion (Wright et al. 2018). Their

2EXPLORING THE NEW RELIGION
main motto is to spread the message of peace among people. They gather in all forms of spiritual
assemblies and they have the house of worship. The people of the Baha faith believe in three
forms of religious practice; they are prayer, meditation and fasting. What was more striking
about this religion that I explored was that it believed in the unity of God as similar to the
integration of humanity. This religion is preaching the message of individual growth and social
transformation through the word of god and love. Unlike the other religions which are more
focused on religious practices, this particular religion believes in the union and growth of people
(Wright et al. 2018). Moreover this religion is not well known in many parts of the world and
their houses of worship are also limited in number. What took me to explore the faith is the fact
that there are no religious rituals present in the Baha religion. Another significant feature of the
religion is that they have study halls for the exploration and study of the other religions of the
world since it believes in amalgamation and inclusion of teachings from other religions (Smith
2016). The last most essential features of the faith that I explored was the prevalence of the
number nine and I found it that there is the particular significance of number for the people of
the religion.
It is to be acknowledged that exploring and experiencing the religion for the sociological
perspective is indeed a different experience as it provides the chance to learn about their belief
system, their system of prayers and their contribution in changing the lives of the people by not
being a part of the religion instead as an outsider who had no prior knowledge of the same few
months back.

3EXPLORING THE NEW RELIGION
References
Black, C.F., 2016. B Baha'i Faith and Families. Encyclopedia of Family Studies, pp.1-4.
MacEoin, D., 2017. Baha'ism. A New Handbook of Living Religions, pp.618-643.
Smith, P., 2016. A short introduction to the Bahá’í faith.
Wright, C., Williams, B., Nussbaum, M. and Dreyfus, H., 2018. The Journal of Bahá’í Studies
28.3 2018 88. THE JOURNAL OF BAHÁ’Í STUDIES, p.87.