What is Baha'i?

[Italianguy]

What is Baha'i? How does it relate to Islam?

[JoshuaD]

Summary of Bahá'í beliefs

God is transcendent and can't be known directly. God is known through the lives and teachings of his great prophets, the most recent of whom was Bahá'u'lláh.

All human beings have a soul that lives for ever. All human beings are members of a single race, which should soon be united in a single global community. All human beings are different, but equal; there should be no inequality between races or sexes. All religions have the same spiritual foundation, despite their apparent differences.

Bahá'í religion may be unique in the way that it accepts all other faiths as true and valid. Bahá'ís accept the divine nature of the missions of Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, the Buddha, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad. They believe each one was a further stage in the revelation of God. Other prophets and Manifestations are also accepted.
Bahá'í beliefs about God
Bahá'ís believe there is one God and that all the universe and creation belong to him
God is omnipotent, perfect and has complete knowledge of life
Bahá'ís believe that there has only ever been one God, who is called by different names in different religions
God is too great to be ever understood by the finite human mind
Knowledge of God means knowledge of the attributes of God
The only thing we can actually know about God is that God exists

So when we attribute properties to God we are actually making a false analogy based on human ideas - but it's the best that we can do.
Knowing about God

Since we can't comprehend God directly, the best way to get an idea of God is by looking at the lives and teachings of his messengers (the Manifestations of God) and at the world God created.
God and other religions

Any description of God is bound to be coloured and limited by the views and cultural background of the person making the description. Bahá'u'lláh thought that this was why different religions had different ideas of God.

It was not that each religion was looking at a different reality called God (whatever that was) - they were all trying to describe the same reality, but their descriptions were built out of their own experiences and cultures, and so were different.

Abdu'l-Bahá put it like this:

The differences among the religions of the world are due to the varying types of minds.

Abdu'l-Bahá

Thus for a Bahá'í the different views of God held by different religions are the closest that that particular culture and time can come to an idea of the absolute reality of God, and are helpful to the people of that culture.

But these ideas of God are nothing like the true reality of God, because humans don't have the mental ability to understand that reality.
Incarnation

Bahá'ís believe that God cannot become incarnate in a human being.
Gender

Bahá'ís do not regard God as having a gender. Although the Bahá'í writings use a masculine pronoun to refer to God, this is to suit the language in which they were originally written.

God's prophets

Bahá'ís believe that God's prophets or messengers (whom they call manifestations of God) provide the most complete knowledge of God available at their particular time.

The writings associated with these prophets are the means through which an individual can get a deeper knowledge of God.

Bahá'ís believe that God reveals his divine purpose through his manifestations. Their writings give guidance for the spiritual progress of individuals and by doing so help to shape society.

The Manifestations of God include:
Adam
Abraham
Moses
Krishna
Zoroaster
Buddha
Jesus Christ
Muhammad
The Báb
Bahá'u'lláh

While these are among the Manifestations mentioned in the Bahá'í writings, there are others mentioned by name in Bahá'u'lláh's writings and he indicates that there are many more prophets than are named.

Bahá'í holy texts

The writings of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh are regarded as Divine Revelation.

The writings of Abdu'l-Bahá are recognised as sacred.

The scriptures of other faiths, which include the teachings of previous Manifestations of God (such as Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad) are also regarded as Divine Revelations.

The Qur'an is recognised as fully authoritative and the Judaeo-Christian Bible as substantially authentic.

While readings from other religions form part of Bahá'í worship, their teachings are not binding in matters of Bahá'í belief and practice. This is because Bahá'í teaching asserts that each Manifestation brings laws and teachings appropriate for its own time.
The Qur'an

Many religious ideas appear similar to some in the Qur'an because Bahá'í believe in the progression of religious revelation.

Bahá'u'lláh makes many references to the Qur'an and gives it great importance, since he was working in an Islamic context and the Bahá'í faith grew from an Islamic matrix (rather as Christianity grew from a Jewish matrix).

However, close study of Bahá'u'lláh's writings show that he interpreted Qur'anic verses and the non-Qur'anic hadith in ways that were quite different from what had become orthodox amongst Muslim 'ulama in the 19th century.
Other texts

Bahá'u'lláh also referred to other texts, notably the New Testament, Persian mystical poetry, and ancient Greek philosophy. But his interpretations and his content are always original.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/bahai/

[Supreme]

They're seen as an offshoot of Shia Islam, and from what I know about them:

-Their holy city is Acre in Israel.
-They believe in a fellow call Bahalluh and that he's a messenger from God.
-They regard the Bible in good respect.
-Omid Djalili is one
-Iran, being the good tolerant society that it is, executes them as the government sees them as apostates.