Far East Prophets

Summons and message of Bahá'u'lláh never intended to reach or benefit one land or people only[edit]

"The summons and the message which We gave were never intended to reach or to benefit one land or one people only. Mankind in its entirety must firmly adhere to whatsoever hath been revealed and vouchsafed unto it. Then and only then will it attain unto true liberty. The whole earth is illuminated with the resplendent glory of God's Revelation. In the year sixty He Who heralded the light of Divine Guidance--may all creation be a sacrifice unto Him--arose to announce a fresh revelation of the Divine Spirit, and was followed, twenty years later, by Him through Whose coming the world was made the recipient of this promised glory, this wondrous favour. Behold how the generality of mankind hath been endued with the capacity to hearken unto God's most exalted Word--the Word upon which must depend the gathering together and spiritual resurrection of all men."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 89)

There were no Followers of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh from the Far East During Their Ministry[edit]

"As there were no followers of the Bab or Baha'u'llah derived from the religions of the Far East in Their days, this may be the reason that They did not address any Tablets directly to these people. Also we must remember that every religion springs from some root, and just as Christianity sprang from Judaism, our own religion sprang from Islam, and that is why so many of the teachings deduce their proofs from Islam."

(Shoghi Effendi, 5 March 1957, Revised September 1990, in Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster and Related Subjects, no. 25, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1695)

Asian or Far Eastern Prophets[edit]

"Regarding your questions: The only reason there is not more mention of the Asiatic prophets is because their names seem to be lost in the mists of ancient history. Buddha is mentioned and Zoroaster in our scriptures—both non-Jewish prophets or non-semitic prophets. We are taught there always have been Manifestations of God, but we do not have any record of their names."

(October 4, 1950, to an individual believer, from a compilation of extracts from letters written on behalf of the Guardian on these and related subjects, enclosed with a letter to an individual believer on November 30, 1980 from the Universal House of Justice, Lights of Guidance, no. 1696)

"The teachings bear no reference to any genealogical tie between the Prophets of the Near and Far East."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, March 31, 1941, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1695)

Possibly Indians of America were Influenced by Prophets in Asia[edit]

"It is possible the Indians of the Americas were influenced in the remote past by Prophets in Asia. But again, as there is nothing in our teachings about it, we cannot do more than speculate."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, November 25, 1950, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1576)

Prophet of God in Scriptures have appeared in a very limited area of the East; no authenticated records of Chinese or Japanese Prophets[edit]

"You raise two basic issues, that all the Manifestations of God known to us have been men, and that they have appeared in the East.

"‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself in a talk given in Maiden, Massachusetts, confirms that "The East has ever been the dawning point of the Sun of Reality. All the Prophets of God have appeared there. The religions of God have been promulgated, the teachings of God have been spread, and the law of God founded in the East. The Orient has always been the center of lights." (The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 289) Indeed, one can see that the Prophets of God named in the Scriptures have appeared, not just in the East, but in a very limited area of the East, stretching from the Levant and Egypt across Iran as far as India. We have no authenticated records of Chinese or Japanese Prophets. However, to complement this we must remember that the Founders of the Great Religions are but one of the kinds of prophet..."

"We must just accept that there are undoubtedly many prophetic figures of whom all authentic record has been lost."

(On behalf of the Universal House of Justice, Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001, sec. 7.3-7.5 passim)