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An Introduction to Bahā'ī Law: Doctrinal Foundations, Principles and Structures*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Udo Schaefer
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Extract

While the last and most recent of the revealed religions is generally considered to be Islam, religious scholars are gradually recognizing that a religion founded later in the modern era, the Bahā'ī Faith, displays all the characteristics of a universal religion. Whereas scholars working in the field of Islamic Studies tended in the past to treat this religion under the sub-heading “Islamic sects,” and Religious Studies scholars for many years paid little attention to it, more recent research counts the Bahā'ī Faith as one of the world religions.

The present study aims to provide an overview of the revealed law of the Bahā’ī Faith, which is of interest for students of both legal history and religious studies. We are entering virgin territory here, as no attempt has yet been made at a systematic jurisprudence, nor has a tradition of Bahā’ī jurisprudence been established that might compare with the Islamic Usūlu’l-figh. Since the foundations and principles of this law can be understood only within their theological context, and knowledge of this context is rare outside the Bahā’ī community, some basic background information about the faith will be provided first.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , 2003 , pp. 307 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2002

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Footnotes

*

The original German version was published in the journal Kirche und Recht (KuR), Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied, Issue 4/2001 (15.12.01) under the title Das Recht der Religionsgemeinschaft der Bahā'ī: Grundlagen, Prinzipien und Strukturen and reprinted in English with their permission. The author is much indebted to Prof. Dr. Fritz Sturm, Prof. Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt, Ihsan Halabi and Dr. Detlef Kröger for reading through the manuscript and offering valuable comments; to Dr. Geraldine Schuckelt for translating the text from the German and to Peter Scheffel for generously sponsoring the translation.

Editor’s Note: Most of the citations in the footnotes of this version are given in short form. For a complete form of the authorities cited, see the Bibliography appearing at the end of this article.

References

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COMPILATIONS

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JOURNALS

Bahā’ī Studies Review. A Publication of the Association for Bahā’ī Studies. English-Speaking Europe. London/England.Google Scholar
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The Journal of Bahā’ī Studies. A Publication of the Association for Bahā’ī Studies. Ottawa.Google Scholar
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ABBREVIATIONS

LThK=Lexikon fur Théologie und KircheGoogle Scholar
CīC=Corpus Iuris CanoniciGoogle Scholar
SEl=Shorter Encyclopaedia of IslamGoogle Scholar
WA=Martin Luther’s works “Weimarer Ausgabe”= Weimar editionGoogle Scholar

MANNER OF QUOTATION

In quotations from the works of Bahā’u’llāh, and ’Abdu’1-Bahā numbers cited refer to the section and paragraph numbers of the work, which appear in the margins of the most recent publications.Google Scholar
The author’s email adress: <http://[email protected]>>Google Scholar
His website: http://www.udoschaefer.com (last accessed Nov. 26, 2003)Google Scholar