The Covenant of God
God's covenant with humanity ensures that divine guidance never ceases; whenever humanity needs guidance, a new Manifestation appears.
The Bahá'í Faith teaches that God has established an everlasting covenant: divine guidance will always be available to humanity. This covenant guarantees progressive revelation — there will never be a time when humans are left without divine guidance. The covenant also establishes specific provisions for institutional authority that prevent schism.
The most important of all things is to educate the people, and to this end should every Bahá'í direct his attention.
The Bahá'í covenant concept builds on Jewish and Islamic covenant theology while giving it a distinctly progressive and institutional character.
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
Written about in
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about doubt
The Covenant promises guidance will never cease — and it also fixes institutional authority expressly to prevent schism. This is where free investigation meets its boundary: you are obliged to investigate your way in, but once in, questioning the line of authority is treated differently from questioning a teaching, and not every Bahá'í finds that line comfortable.