Kitab-i-Aqdas

Audience

Kitab-i-Aqdas is a book of laws written for present and future use, to be culturally translated and appropriated while remaining an authoritative pronouncement from the most recent manifestation of God, Baha’u’llah himself. Its immediate audience, then, would have been the Babi community and the first Baha’is. It is noteworthy, though, that large passages of the text specifically address the Babis and employ theological allusions specific to the Shaykhi sect of Shia Islam. Clearly, Baha’u’llah believed that the Kitab-i-Aqdas would become the foundation of a new world order and would likely be read by Muslims and eventually by adherents of all of the world’s religions.

Today the Baha’i community is a religion spread very thinly throughout the world, claiming around five million members and with official organizations in 236 countries and territories. Some 2.2 million Baha’is reside in India, while the faith has a considerable oppressed community remaining in Iran. The religion has met with relative success in conversions within Africa and the small nations of Oceania. Baha’i writings have been translated into more than eight hundred languages. Less than 2 percent of Baha’is belong to small schismatic groups that have resulted from disputes over succession of leadership within the mainstream faith.