what is bahai?

Answer 1

The Bahai Faith is a religious movement with its roots in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia if I'm not mistaken) started by a man named Bahaullah. The premise of Bahai is that the world religions are part of a single continual process--God calling prophets with a new message for the time, tailored for the era and the people of that time. Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and all the other world religions were started as an attempt by God to gather the believers together and update them with the most current, most correct teachings and doctrines. The Bahai believe their faith is the most recent of these movements, and in recognizing all religions as having at their center the same God, hope they can be the instrument for ending millenia of religious hate and persecution.

Unfortunately that's most of what I know. I'm not sure about their customs or rituals, but that's the origin story at least. I hope it helps. If you'd like more information I'd check www.wikipedia.org as they tend to have very well written and accurate information on just about any topic.

Answer 2

The person above me gave a very nice, fairly accurate summary. The Baha'i Faith originated in Persia (now Iran) in the late 19th century. We believe that there is only one God, the Creator of the universe and Origin of all religions (ok.. not the FSM, but the real ones...).

For more information, try here: www.bahai.org. wikipedia is good, too.