Divinity and Manifestation (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780853986874)

A thorough and scholarly introduction to the philosophical aspects of the Bahá'í Faith and a demonstration of Bahá'í positions on the core questions about God and His revelation.

Divinity and Manifestation is a concise, yet detailed and systematic, treatise on Bahá'í theology, metaphysics and ontology. It is, in simpler terms, a work explaining the Bahá'í teachings on the nature of reality, the existence and essence of God and the relationship between Him and His creation as mediated through His Manifestations - those incomparable figures in history who express His will and reflect His attributes in the human realm.

It provides a wealth of passages from the diverse source texts of the Bahá'í revelation - some made available in English for the first time here in provisional translation - in support of each point made, including the writings of Bahá'u'lláh and the authoritative interpretations of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, His son and successor.

Dr 'Alí-Murád Dávúdí was a professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran; secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran; and eminent Bahá'í thinker of the 20th century who suffered martyrdom, on account of his faith and of his great renown in the Bahá'í community, after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Throughout the course of his life Dr Dávúdí composed influential and highly acclaimed philosophical works and also contributed to the depth and richness of Bahá'í thought through his many and famous talks and written pieces on particular and general philosophical, theological and ethical questions pertaining to the Bahá'í Faith.

Naeem Nabile-akbar and Joshua Hall, the translators, have used their deep knowledge of the Bahá'í teachings and scripture, of Islam and of Persian literature to provide an elegant and accessible English translation of this unique treatise. Naeem Nabile-akbar is an independent scholar of the Bahá'í Faith with a keen interest in the Persian language and its literature. Born in Iran and having been a personal student of Dr Dávúdí, he has served for decades as a professional translator specialising in Persian and Arabic for the Bahá'í Institutions. Joshua Hall

has a MPhil in Islamic Studies and History from Oxford University and his doctoral work is on Avicenna. His interests are Persian literature and Islamic thought and philosophy.