Baháʼí Faith In Africa
The history of the Baháʼí Faith in Africa dates back to the lifetimes of the three individual heads of the religion, Baháʼu'lláh, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, each of who was in Africa at least once. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on ''World Christian Encyclopedia'') lists many larger and smaller populations in Africa with Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Zambia among the top ten numerical populations of Baháʼís in the world in 2005, and Mauritius highest in terms of percentage of the national population. There are Baháʼí Houses of Worship in Uganda, Kenya, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A plan for a House of Worship in Zambia was announced in 2023. History Baháʼu'lláh's lifetime Among its earliest contacts with the religion came in Egypt. The Baháʼí Faith in Egypt begins perhaps with the first Baháʼís arriving in 1863. Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the religion, was himself briefly in Egypt in 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Baháʼu'lláh
Baháʼu'lláh (, born Ḥusayn-ʻAlí; 12 November 1817 – 29 May 1892) was an Iranian religious leader who founded the Baháʼí Faith. He was born to an aristocratic family in Iran and was exiled due to his adherence to the messianic Bábism. In 1863, in Iraq, he first announced his claim to a revelation from God in the Baháʼí Faith, God and spent the rest of his life in further imprisonment in the Ottoman Empire. His teachings revolved around the principles of unity and religious renewal, ranging from moral and spiritual progress to world governance. Baháʼu'lláh was raised with no formal education but was well-read and devoutly religious. His family was considerably wealthy, and at the age of 22 he turned down a position in the government, instead managing family properties and donating time and money to charities. At the age of 27 he accepted the claim of the Báb and became one of the most outspoken supporters of the new religious movement which advocated, among o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl
Mírzá Muḥammad (), or Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání (1844–1914), was the foremost Baháʼí Faith, Baháʼí scholar who helped spread the Baháʼí Faith in Baháʼí Faith in Egypt, Egypt, Baháʼí Faith in Turkmenistan, Turkmenistan, and the United States. He is one of the few Apostles of Baháʼu'lláh who never actually met Baháʼu'lláh. His given name was Muhammad, and he chose the alias Abu'l-Faḍl (progenitor of virtue) for himself, but ʻAbdu'l-Bahá frequently addressed him as Abu'l-Fada'il (progenitor of virtues). Early life Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl was born in a village near Gulpaygan, Iran, in June or July 1844. His family were prominent religious scholars in the village; his father, Mirza Muhammad Rida Shariʻatmadar, was a religious leader, and his mother, Sharafu'n-Nisa, was related to the Imams#Prayer leader, prayer leader of the town. Abu'l-Faḍl completed his preliminary education in Gulpaygan, and then successively went to Arak, Iran, Arak, Ka ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Louis George Gregory
Louis George Gregory (June 6, 1874 – July 30, 1951) was a prominent American member of the Baháʼí Faith who was devoted to its expansion in the United States and elsewhere. He traveled especially in the South to spread his religion as well as advocating for racial unity. In 1922, he was the first African American elected to the nine-member National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada. He was repeatedly re-elected to that position, leading a generation and more of followers. He also worked to prosyletize the faith to Central and South America. Gregory was among the elite group of educated African American leaders whom W. E. Du Bois referred to as "the talented tenth." Gregory was posthumously appointed by Shoghi Effendi in 1951 as a Hand of the Cause, the highest appointed rank in the Baháʼí Faith. Early years Early life Louis George was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 6, 1874, the second son of Ebenezer F. and Mary Elizabeth George. Bot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Isabella Grinevskaya
Beyle (Berta) Friedberg (; 3 May 1864 – 15 October 1944), best known by the pen names Isabella () and Isabella Arkadevna Grinevskaya (), was a Russian Empire, Russian-Jews, Jewish novelist, poet, and dramatist. As a translator, she translated into Russian language, Russian works from Polish language, Polish, German language, German, French language, French, Italian language, Italian, Armenian language, Armenian, and Georgian language, Georgian. Biography Early life and career Beyle Friedberg was born in Grodno to Russian Empire, Russian Hebrew language, Hebrew writer Abraham Shalom Friedberg, later moving to Saint Petersburg. There she frequented Yiddish literary circles and, in 1886, married fellow writer Mordecai Spector. They moved to Warsaw the following year, where they would eventually divorce. Her first published story, a novella entitled ''Der yosem'' ( 'The Orphan'), appeared under the pseudonym "Isabella" in the first volume of ''Der hoyz-fraynd'' in 1888. She cont ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wellesley Tudor Pole
Wellesley Tudor Pole OBE (23 April 1884 – 13 September 1968) was an English Baháʼí, psychic, spiritualist and activist for vegetarianism. Pole authored many pamphlets and books and was a lifelong pursuer of religious and mystical questions and visions, being particularly involved with the Baháʼí Faith and a quest for the Holy Grail of Arthurian Legend. He founded the Silent Minute campaign which was followed internationally. Late in life he resuscitated the Trust running the Chalice Well. The musician and actor Edward Tudor-Pole is a grandson. Biography Born and raised Wellesley Tudor Pole was raised with stories of elders and understandings of French kin Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk and English and Welsh kin Owen Tudor. Pole was born 23 April 1884, in Weston-super-Mare, son of Thomas Pole and Kate Wansborough. Pole was confirmed in the Anglican Church but the family understood this to mean the Broad church which had liberal respect for many religious ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stanwood Cobb
Stanwood Cobb (November 6, 1881 – December 29, 1982) was an American teacher, author and prominent Baháʼí of the 20th century. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Darius Cobb and his wife, née Laura Mae Lillie. Darius and his twin brother Cyrus Cobb were Civil War soldiers and artists, and descendants of Elder Henry Cobb of the second voyage of the Mayflower. Their mother was Eunice Hale Waite Cobb, founding president of the Ladies Physiological Institute of Boston. Darius Cobb and his wife had four daughters and three sons. Stanwood Cobb studied at Dartmouth College, where he was valedictorian of his 1903 or 1905 graduating class, and then at Harvard Divinity School, earning an A.M. in philosophy and comparative religion 1910. His thesis work, ''Communistic Experimental Settlements in the USA'', observed that every such settlement had failed within a generation because of an inability of communism to get people to subordinate their own desires for the good ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Infidel
An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person who is accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or irreligious people. Infidel is an ecclesiastical term in Christianity around which the Church developed a body of theology that deals with the concept of infidelity, which makes a clear differentiation between those who were baptized and followed the teachings of the Church versus those who are outside the faith. Christians used the term ''infidel'' to describe those perceived as the enemies of Christianity. After the ancient world, the concept of otherness, an exclusionary notion of the outside by societies with more or less coherent cultural boundaries, became associated with the development of the monotheistic and prophetic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (cf. pagan). In modern literature, the term infidel includes in its scope atheists, polytheists, animists, heathens, and pagans. A willingness to id ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nasser-al-Din Shah
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (; ; 17 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. During his rule there was internal pressure from the people of Iran, as well as external pressure from the British empire and the Russian empire. He granted many concessions, most importantly the Reuter concession and the Tobacco concession. He allowed the establishment of newspapers in the country and made use of modern forms of technology such as telegraph, photography and also planned concessions for railways and irrigation works. Despite his modernizing reforms on education, his tax reforms were abused by people in power, and the government was viewed as corrupt and unable to protect commoners from abuse by the upper classes which led to increasing anti-governmental sentiments. He was assassinated when visiting a shrine in Rayy near Tehran. He was the first modern Iranian monarch who formally visited Europe and wrote of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Muslim community, being appointed at the meeting of Saqifa. This contrasts with the Succession of ʿAlī (Shia Islam), Shia view, which holds that Muhammad appointed Ali, Ali ibn Abi Talib () as his successor. Nevertheless, Sunnis revere Ali, along with Abu Bakr, Umar () and Uthman () as 'Rashidun, rightly-guided caliphs'. The term means those who observe the , the practices of Muhammad. The Quran, together with hadith (especially the Six Books) and (scholarly consensus), form the basis of all Fiqh, traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Sharia legal rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with Istislah, consideration of Maslaha, public welfare and Istihsan, jur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Al-Azhar University
The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic learning. In addition to higher education, Al-Azhar oversees a national network of schools with approximately two million students. over 4,000 teaching institutes in Egypt were affiliated with the university. Founded in 970 or 972 by the Fatimid Caliphate as a centre of Islamic learning, its students studied the Qur'an and Islamic law, along with logic, grammar, rhetoric, and how to calculate the phases of the moon. Today it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic studies, Islamic learning in the world. In 1961 additional non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum. Its library is considered second in importance in Egypt only to the Egyptian National Library and Archives. In May 2005, Al-Azhar in partnership with a D ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |