Marriage with incest and relatives in Baha’i
Seyyed Fatimah Hosseini
In Bahá’u’lláh’s Holy Book, marriage with the father’s wife is prohibited with the phrase “Glory be to you for the marriage of my fathers” and there is no mention of the prohibition of marriage with other incestuous women. Bahá’ís reject marriage with cohabitants, as far as it has been researched, they do not do so, but simply by not reporting this type of marriage, they cannot ignore the silence of Aqdas regarding marriage with other than the father’s wife, even in his other books, he did not address this important issue. And his followers are suspended.
According to the book “Treasure of Bahá’í Boundaries and Precepts”, his son Abbas Abd al-Bahá, who has the role of expounding the texts, in response to the objections to this issue, does not refer to any text or phrase in his father’s works that complements this phrase, and determining the duty of marriage with Refers the relatives to Bayt al-Adl!
Shoghi Effendi has not said anything contrary to this article, so that all the responsibility is placed on Beit al-Adl.
Bait al-Adl was established in 1963 and about 18 years later, on January 18, 1981, in response to a question from one of the Baha’is who asked about inter-family marriage, it clearly stated that the prohibition of marriage with incest and relatives is still limited to the father’s wife. . The Secretary of the House of Justice writes: In this letter, you have asked about the restrictions on marriage with relatives, except for the case that prohibits marriage with the father’s wife. Issuing supplementary laws regarding marriage with relatives is not necessary. Therefore, the decision in this matter was entrusted to the believing people themselves (Quoted from Anwar Hidayat Baha’i book).
Of course, the issue was not resolved so easily and the House of Justice had to extract the categories of forbidden women from the book of interpretation of Surah Yusuf (Qayyum al-Asma) in the message of January 15, 2010, in response to one of Canada’s Bahá’ís. Dear brother Rouhani, the e-mail dated October 11, 2009 of that dear brother about the Baha’i law regarding marriage with relatives was sent to the Supreme Court of Justice. They ordered that the answer should be written as follows. The House of Justice has clearly stated that it is not permissible for a Bahá’í to have sex with his mother or father and with their siblings and their ancestors and with his brother or sister and their children and grandchildren and with their son or marry his own daughter and their children, as well as marry with similar classes of relatives that have come into existence due to marriage, such as stepmother, stepfather, stepdaughter, stepdaughter or daughter-in-law, son-in-law, mother-in-law or father-in-law, or other cases related to legal and social ties. It is not permissible, such as adoption, which leads to the formation of a joint family.
In addition to these prohibitions, Baha’is must be careful not to marry against the customs and laws of their country of residence.
Although Bayt al-Adl currently refrains from determining other relatives who are forbidden to marry and has referred it as a legal requirement in every country.
But the important issue is why Bahá’u’lláh, claiming to be a prophet, has put this important matter in a pending state and has not issued an explicit ruling on it!!
