Baháʼí literature

The Faith's scriptural texts are the writings of the Báb, Baháʼu'lláh, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, written in Arabic or Persian in the late 19th and early 20th century Middle East.

Some Answered Questions is a compilation of table talks between ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and a western pilgrim that was recorded in the original Persian language.

The writings of the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh are regarded as divine revelation, superseding but not in conflict with the Qur'an, Bible, and other major religious works.

[3] In the Baháʼí view, the Universal House of Justice does not have the position to interpret the founders' works, nor those of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá or Shoghi Effendi.

[7] As such its directives are considered authoritative,[3] as long as they are in force (the Universal House of Justice may alter or revoke its own earlier decisions as needed),[7] and are often collected into compilations or folios.

[10] Ruhiyyih Rabbani's Ministry of the Custodians details the interregnum between Shoghi Effendi's death in 1957 and the election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963.

[3] Notably, Balyuzi's and Taherzadeh's works have focused on the history and biographies of the central figures of the religion and their significant contemporaries.

This book, originally published in 1923, has undergone several revisions over time to update, correct, and clarify its contents[13] though ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was able to personally review several of its chapters.

In addition to being significant doctrinal works, his Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude) and Epistle to the Son of the Wolf address both Islamic and Baháʼí audiences.

Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl wrote extensively on both Christian and Shiʻa apologia, most notably in his book The Brilliant Proof.

), a book which was published and promoted by the Evangelische Zentralstrelle für Weltanschauungsfragen (Central Office of the Protestant Church for Questions of Ideology) in the 1980s.

[28] Though a small percentage of Bahá'u'lláh's original writings have been translated into English, those completed include many of his most important works.

[34] The primary duty of the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice and the International Baháʼí Library is the collection, cataloguing, authentication, and translation of these texts.

[37] The Star of the West, published in the United States from 1910 to 1924, contains many pilgrim's notes and unauthenticated letters of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.

The 1992 publication of the English translation of Baháʼu'lláh's The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and the more recent Gems of Divine Mysteries (2002), The Summons of the Lord of Hosts (2002), and The Tabernacle of Unity (2006) are significant additions to the body of work available.

[42][43][44] Bábí texts are proving very difficult to authenticate, despite the collection of a variety of documents by E.G. Browne in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Compounding the difficulties of collecting reliable manuscripts at such a distance – Browne was at Cambridge – was the widespread Azali practice of taqiyya (dissimulation), or concealing one's beliefs.

William P. Collins, in his Bibliography of English-language Works on the Bábí and Baháʼí Faiths, 1844–1985,[54] gives a list of 2,819 items, which includes multiple editions.

English and French language versions contain extensive Baháʼí, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, and other religious texts.