"All the great religions of the world are divine in origin…", or in other words, all religions have come from God. This is one of the most important principles of the Bahá'í teachings.

Conflict based on religion is regarded by Bahá'u'lláh as a denial of the purpose of religion itself. He put it this way:

The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity.

Unfortunately, in contrast to the unifying purpose of religion as described above, religious differences are a major cause of disagreement and even warfare in the world today. What is the solution to this serious problem?

As growing numbers of people are coming to see, the truth underlying all religions is essentially one. Although there are many different religious doctrines, rituals, and legal codes, the heart of spiritual life is a single reality that everyone can share in. Spirituality has no borders.

Religions differ only on the surface. The differences have arisen because of historical forces.

Over thousands of years, the world's religions have been providing new insights to suit the changing needs of human civilization as it evolves. Each religion has addressed a unique set of circumstances. Naturally, the religions have generated a wide variety of practices and ideas among their followers — but these differences do not justify religious prejudice and hatred.

Rather than religions being in competition with each other, if they are instead accepted as equally coming from one God, then the followers of all religions will want to learn from one another and work together to build a better world.

Bahá'u'lláh's concept that all religions are essentially one religion is termed "progressive revelation". This means that over the course of history, God has progressively revealed more and more of the truth, according to the developing capacity and needs of the human race.

The Founders of religions, such as Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, the Báb, and Bahá'u'lláh, have each brought a specific social message for their time and place. However, they have all brought the same spiritual message, encouraging people to treat each other with kindness, love, truthfulness and justice.

The specific social message of Bahá'u'lláh is that now is the time for humanity to become unified. He called on the followers of all religions to participate in the great process of creating world peace.

Quotations in context

Click on the links below to search for quotations from this page, in the Bahá'í reference library.

• "All the great religions of the world are divine in origin…" See Shoghi Effendi, "Statement to the UN Special Committee on Palestine", 1947.
• "The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race..."
• For more on the concept that "spirituality has no borders", see the "Message of the Universal House of Justice to the World's Religious Leaders", April 2002, p. 5. This document is available in both HTML format and pdf format.
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