Being Human: The Shaykhiyya

The word ‘humanism’ can and does mean different things in different contexts. Secular humanism or materialistic humanism is often the demon of religious fundamentalists who see it as the opposite of godliness. Such a simple-minded view is challenged by the teachings of the Baha’i Faith, especially those teachings having their roots in the philosophical theology of the Shaykhi school. Here the human being is a locus of unbounded potential and knowledge precisely because of the unutterably lofty station of firstly, the divine manifestations (who for Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i included the Imams) through whom, secondly, God himself is ‘known’ or, more precisely, ‘indicated’.