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One world Baha'i School
Dunn Loring, Va.
(meeting at Falls Church High School)

by Peter Woods

The story of this religious encounter starts the way many adventures start, with a friend and a question. The friend was Leyla Mortazie, a girl who lives down the street. My brother and her are close, and I came to know her through him. She’s of Persian descent, and she had mentioned once or twice that her mother is devoutly Baha’i. In came the question: what does it mean to be Baha’i? How does it relate to other world religions? How does your faith relate to the world at large?

When I learned of this project, I immediately knew that I could use this as an opportunity to learn about this religion. I began the experience by researching Baha’i on the internet, going to the official website and to Wikipedia. A few things emerged that were surprising, or at least stood out. First of all, there was a prophet, Baha’u’llah, who lived in the 19th century. This was a contemporary event! This is a young faith! I read an account of a Westerner visiting the prophet, and he describes the man as if he were truly divine. The concept that this religion was based upon the words of modern day prophet provided an initial pull of interest, but once I started reading what he actually said, I found this faith to be doubly intriguing. The man lived over a century ago, yet his words were very modern, echoing the sentiments of a civil rights generation. He preached peace, unification of religions, tolerance. The faith itself grew out of what is today Iran, and now is found worldwide. These were initial findings, and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be biased, but that I had some knowledge of the concepts behind the Baha’i faith.

I realized early on that I couldn’t just drive over to a church. They don’t really have churches, other than a few temples scattered about the globe. The community meets informally, so I decided to accompany my friend Leyla to one of these meetings to get a firsthand look at what being Baha’i really means. I set a date to meet on a Sunday morning in early January. As that day approached, I wondered what these people would look like, think like. Would the service resemble the Christian service I was so used to? Would they recite creeds? Would there be singing? Were there rituals? Do you have to dress up? All these little things boiled in my head. The night before my encounter, my father mentioned that a lot of people of his generation became Baha’i. I began to wonder whether I would see a lot of grown-up hippies; so much for bias.

The morning came, and I met Leyla and her mother at their house down the street. They were well dressed, nothing fancy, but they looked put-together. We got into the car and began our journey. I asked Mrs. Mortazie about her life, where she grew up, whether being Baha’i was family tradition. She was raised in Iran and grew up Baha’i. She came to this country with her family in the mid-70s, anticipating the Revolution of 1979. They were fleeing the persecution of Baha’is by the fundamental Islamists. She said this had gone on in Iran ever since the faith was founded in the mid-19th century, but as things were taking a turn for the worse her family decided to send her away. I asked how could this be, how could Islam persecute them considering the Baha’i faith recognizes Islam. In fact, that was what impressed me so much about the religion. It takes an almost meta-perspective to the Abrahamic religions, seeing the lineage of prophets from Moses to Jesus to Muhammad as basis for their monotheism. She agreed, but qualified it by saying that they don’t necessarily believe that Muhammad was the be-all-to-end-all of monotheism, but rather part of a larger tradition. Muslims apparently could not react kindly to this. I told her that was why it seemed that Baha’i was so enlightened a vision: it accepts the slight differences and seeks to bring these monotheistic ideas together for the benefit of mankind. At least that's what I had read. She giggled and looked ahead. I was anxious to see what this meeting would be like.

We arrived at Falls Church High School and proceeded to the cafeteria, where we were met by a diverse crowd. I had assumed that Baha’i were mostly Persian, based on the fact it originated there and my companions were also Persian. I was proved wrong the moment we entered the meeting space. Black, White, Latino, and, yes, a contingent of Persians, were all present. There was no real distinction amongst them. They were all casually, but nicely, dressed, and neighbors cheerfully chatted with neighbors, catching up on the week’s trails and tribulations. 

One of the crowd stood up and began to address us on community business: fundraisers, an upcoming convention, and current events. It was all quite secular. I began to realize that this was a very tight-knit community. They shared both faith and matters of daily consequence; the distinction wasn’t cut and dry. I whispered to Leyla, who had been eagerly laughing along with the discourse, whether this man was a priest. No, she informed me, he’s the president of the committee that runs the community. This furthered my feeling that this was an egalitarian place, a place where people come together with other people, where they treat each other that way, where hierarchy and pomp weren’t given much thought. It all seemed very down-to-earth, but I was ready to see how they talked about their religion.

I accompanied Leyla to the Baha’i version of Sunday school. We entered a small classroom with a few other people that were also in the 11th grade. All of them, including the teacher, I had seen in the other room, and I could feel that this was a normal sort of meeting. All felt comfortable in this space. The teacher today would address issues that were close to home for high school students. They asked questions about how they should approach parties. I learned that the moral stance on issues like smoking and drinking wasn’t liberal as I had suspected from my father’s hippie comment the night before: Baha’is are forbidden to drink, and are strongly encouraged to refrain from smoking. Leyla asked what she should do if someone is smoking around her at a party. The teacher answered that it’s okay if that person is across the room, but if they are blowing smoke in your face, you’re better off leaving. I was interested to note that this both a health issue and a moral issue. I asked her to elaborate on why one shouldn’t smoke, and she replied that smoking and drinking degrade the soul, that they hinder a close relationship with God. The subject moved to how one can justify your faith in God using science. The teacher brought up the big bang, how this shows God to be the first mover, the reason for the bang. This whole discussion demonstrated that the Baha’i faith is very interested in approaching modern issues in a religious way. There is a strong moral center around which these questions are addressed. In every way, the Baha’i faith finds God as the supreme power, the supreme authority, the supreme giver and lover. And this is the same God as you can find in the Old Testament, the New, and the Quran.

What makes the Baha’i different is the fact that they have their own prophet that is viewed on equal terms with Jesus and Muhammad. He is not the Son of God, as Jesus was considered by Christians, but instead a prophet who received the Word of God and transmitted it to the human race. As such, his words, the words of Baha’u’llah, are central to the faith, though the words of Jesus and Muhammad are also considered valuable and divine. We read a bit from one of his books, the Book of Certitude. They are passages that could be found in the Christian Bible. They refer to the ultimate nature of God, one God, and go on to address the notion of the unified nature of mankind. This actually seemed to be more explicit than the Gospels in its insistence on political peace, and of course on religious tolerance. It is not as cryptic as Jesus; there were no parables. Instead there is a direct address on these matters of universal peace and brotherhood. It seemed to be a modern extension of the millennia old concepts found in the Bible. I felt very comfortable with the discussion, and in the end felt connected with these people, their faith, and their theology.

After our class, which lasted for about an hour, we met up again in the cafeteria were the adults had had their discussion. I asked what they had discussed, and Mrs. Mortazie said generally faith in daily life. They talked about divorce, and how to deal with that situation, and whether having kids makes it different. They read from the Book of Certitude as well for inspiration. This seemed on par with what we had handled in our discussion. We ended with a skit from one of the younger classes, and afterwards the president gave us his well wishes for the week, and sent us off confident that he’d see us all back there again next week. In the meantime there were fundraisers to be had, conventions to attend; the active Baha’i’s work did not stop when the meeting was over.

On the car ride home I reflected on the experience. I wondered how such a good group of people could ever be criticized. If those radical Muslims ever visited the Falls Church Baha’i community, there wouldn’t be a quarrel between them. I felt that at their core, both these faiths were preserving monotheism, and more importantly, they were pushing a moral life on a day-to-day basis. More than anything, I felt hopeful that these faithful few would continue to grow and prosper based on their message of peace and brotherhood. If they could continue their humanitarian activities, they would become renowned for their good works. We parted with hugs that day. There could’ve been no better introduction to a religion than what I had just experienced. Talking with the Sunday school teacher, with Mrs. Mortazie, and with Leyla about the Baha’i faith showed me just how human a religion it is, and I left feeling proud to be part of that monotheistic tradition.