The teachings of the Bahá ' í Faith state that the nature of the afterlife is beyond the nature of those living, just as an unborn fetus cannot understand the nature of the world outside of the womb.

The Bahá ' í writings state that the soul is immortal and after death it will continue to progress until it attains God's presence.

In Bahá ' í belief, souls in the afterlife will continue to retain their individuality and consciousness and will be able to recognize and communicate spiritually with other souls whom they have made deep profound friendships with, such as their spouses.

The Bahá ' í writings also state there are distinctions between souls in the afterlife, and that souls will recognize the worth of their own deeds and understand the consequences of their actions.

* Feast of Kamál ( Perfection ); First day of the eighth month of the Bahá ' í calendar.

( Bahá ' í Faith )

* The ninth day of Ridván ( Bahá ' í Faith )

* Feast of Jamál (" Beauty "), the first day of the third month of the Bahá ' í calendar.

( Bahá ' í Faith )

* Ridván begins at sunset ( Bahá ' í Faith )

* 1863 – Bahá ' u ' lláh, the founder of the Bahá ' í Faith, declares his mission as " He whom God shall make manifest ".

* 1960 – Founding of the Orthodox Bahá ' í Faith in Washington, D. C.

* 1963 – The Universal House of Justice of the Bahá ' í Faith is elected for the first time.

( Bahá ' í Faith )

‘ Abdu ’ l-Bahá (‎; 23 May 1844 – 28 November 1921 ), born ‘ Abbás Effendí, was the eldest son of Bahá ' u ' lláh, the founder of the Bahá ' í Faith.

In 1892, ` Abdu ' l-Bahá was appointed in his father's will to be his successor and head of the Bahá ' í Faith.

During his youth he was " shaped " by his father and was regarded as an outstanding member of the Bahá ’ í exile community.

With his father's death in 1892, and his appointment as head of the Bahá ’ í faith, there was much opposition against him, including virtually all his family members.

Notwithstanding this, practically all of the worldwide Bahá ’ í community accepted his leadership.

His journeys to the West, and his " Tablets of the Divine Plan " spread the Bahá ' í message beyond its middle-eastern roots, and his Will and Testament laid the foundation for the current " Bahá ' í administrative order.

In Bahá ' í belief, this process of progressive revelation will not end ; however, it is believed to be cyclical.

In Bahá ' í belief, creation has neither a beginning nor an end.

In Bahá ' í belief, human time is marked by a series of progressive revelations in which successive messengers or prophets come from God.

In Bahá ' í belief, the coming of Bahá ' u ' lláh, the founder of the Bahá ' í Faith, signals the fulfilment of previous eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity and other major religions.

His claim resulted in the largest schism in the history of the Bahá ' í Faith, with a few groups still holding the belief that Remey was the successor of Shoghi Effendi.

In Bahá ' í belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the ark of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead.

The Bahá ' í scripture Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had a large number of companions, either 40 or 72, besides his family on the Ark, and that he taught for 950 ( symbolic ) years before the flood.

He also was concerned with matters dealing with Bahá ' í belief and practice — as Guardian he was empowered to interpret the writings of Bahá ' u ' lláh and ` Abdu ' l-Bahá, and these were authoritative and binding, as specified in ` Abdu ' l-Bahá's will.

In Bahá ' í belief, a single God has sent all the historic founders of the world religions in a process of progressive revelation.

Shoghi Effendi's reason was due to his belief in the weakness of the existing Bahá ' í institutions — there were a very limited number of national spiritual assemblies and local spiritual assemblies.

In Bahá ' í belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the " ark " of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead.

The Bahá ' í scripture Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had a large number of companions on the ark, either 40 or 72, as well as his family, and that he taught for 950 ( symbolic ) years before the flood.

Bahá ' u ' lláh claimed that, while being imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal in Iran, he underwent a series of mystical experiences including having a vision of the Maid of Heaven who told him of his divine mission, and the promise of divine assistance ; In Bahá ' í belief, the Maid of Heaven is a representation of the divine.

The Bahá ' í Faith believes that there is one God who sends divine messengers to guide humanity throughout time, which is called Progressive revelation ( Bahá ' í )— and is different from the Christian belief of Progressive revelation ( Christian ).

In Bahá ' í belief, the Manifestations have always been sent by God, and always will, as part of the single progressive religion from God bringing more teachings through time to help humanity progress.

Bahá ' ís recognise Queen Marie of Romania as the first member of royalty to have declared her belief in Bahá ' u ' lláh, the founder of the Bahá ' í Faith.

In the Bahá ' í Faith, religious history is seen to have unfolded through a series of divine messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time and the capacity of the people.

The Will and Testament of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá states that Guardians should be lineal descendants of Bahá ' u ' lláh, that each Guardian must select his successor during his lifetime, and that the nine Hands of the Cause of God permanently stationed in the holy land must approve the appointment by majority vote.

After the death of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá in 1921, the leadership of the Bahá ' í community entered a new phase, evolving from that of a single individual to an administrative order with executive and legislative branches, the head of each being the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice.

Its nine members are elected every five years from the male membership in good standing of the world community by an electoral college consisting of all the members of each Bahá ' í National Spiritual Assembly throughout the world.

` Abdu ' l-Bahá first used the term " Universal House of Justice " to distinguish the supreme body from those local ' Houses of Justice ' to be established in each community, and the secondary ' Houses of Justice ' ( current Bahá ' í national spiritual assemblies ).

* The Bahá ' í calendar is structured such that a year contains 19 months of 19 days each ( along with the intercalary period of Ayyám-i-Há ), as well as a 19-year cycle and a 361-year ( 19x19 ) supercycle.

Bahá ' u ' lláh wrote that since each Manifestation of God has the same divine attributes they can be seen as the spiritual " return " of all the previous Manifestations of God.

Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers of many confessions and wearied of their intolerance towards each other, I discovered in the Bahá ' í teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and misunderstood: Unity instead of strife, Hope instead of condemnation, Love instead of hate, and a great reassurance for all men.

The Association of Religion Data Archives ( relying on World Christian Encyclopedia ) lists many large and smaller populations in Africa with Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Zambia among the top ten numerical populations of Bahá ' ís in the world in 2005 ( each with over 200, 000 adherents ), and Mauritius in terms of percentage of the national population.

Shoghi Effendi wrote that the Bahá ' í Administrative Order incorporates within its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized forms of secular government: autocracy, aristocracy and democracy.

His objective in effectively designing the Bahá ' í Administrative Order was to embody, reconcile and assimilate within it " such wholesome elements as are to be found in each one of them ..." while excluding the " admitted evils inherent in each of these systems ..." such that it " cannot ever degenerate into any form of despotism, of oligarchy, or of demagogy which must sooner or later corrupt the machinery of all man-made and essentially defective political institutions.

The greater covenant refers to the covenant made between each messenger from God, which the literature of the Bahá ' í Faith name Manifestations of God, and his followers regarding the coming of the next Manifestation from God.

In Bahá ' í belief, this covenant is seen to be expressed in prophecy in the religious scripture of each religion, and each Manifestation of God, such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, the Báb, and Bahá ' u ' lláh, prophesied the next Manifestation.

The Nineteen Day Feasts are regular community gatherings, occurring on the first day of each month of the Bahá ' í calendar ( and so most often nineteen days apart from each other ).

“ Indirect ” election referred to the process, mentioned in the Will and Testament of ` Abdu ' l-Bahá, of the Bahá ' ís electing one or more delegates from each locality, who would represent them at a national convention and would vote for the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly.

Bahá ' u ' lláh wrote three obligatory prayers — the short, the medium and the long — and Bahá ' ís are free to choose to say one of the three each day.

In it Bahá ' u ' lláh describes the relationships between several Abrahamic prophets and how each accepted the previous, but was rejected by the previous prophet's followers.