| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abraham | Jewish, Christian and Muslim believers regard Abraham as a founding patriarch of their peoples. Abraham was ordered by God to sacrifice his Isaac as a test of faith. When Abraham was in the process of fulfilling this order, God revoked the command and rewarded Abraham for his faith. He forged a covenant with Abraham and stated that through his offspring, all the nations of the world would come to be blessed. Bahá’ís regard Abraham as a Manifestation of God. |
| abyss | Something that is immeasurably deep or bottomless; a situation of apparently unending awfulness. |
| anachronistic | Belonging to another time; out-of-date or inappropriate to the time in question. |
| anthropological | Relating to the study of humankind, especially the study of cultures. |
| arrogating | Taking or claiming something for yourself without the right to do so. |
| autocracy | A government in which a single ruler holds unlimited power. |
| Avatars | Derives from the Sanskrit term Avatāra, meaning "incarnation" and refers to the descent of a divine being into the mortal realm. The term is used primarily in Hindu texts. For example, Krishna is considered an Avatar of Vishnu, whom many Hindus worship as God. |
Prepared in 2005 under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice, this commentary reviews relevant passages from both the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and the scriptures of other faiths against the background of the contemporary religious crisis. (source: link)