Nine pointed star as a Baha'i symbol...

arthra

arthra

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The following article was actually a ltter in response tio an inquiry about the nine-pointed star and symbol commonly associated with the Baha'i Faith..

9-pointed_star.jpg


The following is an excerpt:

The 9-pointed star is not a part of the teachings of our Faith, but only used as an emblem representing "9".... Strictly speaking the 5-pointed star is the symbol of our Faith..… (Published in Baba’i News, no. 228 (February 1950), p. 4, and in Lights of Guidance: 2 Baba'i Reference File [rev. ed. ], comp. Helen Hornby (New Delhi: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1988), p. 415)​
Further, the Universal House of Justice, in a letter dated 22 August 1963 to a National Spiritual Assembly, affirmed that:
We wish to point out that the symbols of the Most Great Name and the nine-pointed star, although Bahá'í symbols, are not in any way the symbols of the Bahá'í Faith in the sense that the cross is the symbol of Christianity or the crescent the symbol of Islam.​
The use of the nine-pointed star as a symbol of the Faith was permitted by Shoghi Effendi, as explained in the following extract from a letter dated 30 August 1981, written on behalf of the House of Justice to an individual believer:
In a letter to the Temple Guides Committee, dated 5 December 1944, the Guardian's secretary stated on his behalf that the nine-pointed star was not a symbol of the Faith in any special sense, but that it was developed by Mr. Bourgeois (the architect of the House of Worship in Wilmette) and other Bahá'ís as a symbol that could be used. Shoghi Effendi also approved the use of the nine-pointed star on Bahá'í gravestones....​
For more info. read:

The Nine-Pointed Star
 
Symbolic meaning of numbers nine and nineteen:

In the Bahá'í Sacred Writings, the numbers nine and nineteen have symbolic meaning.

In both the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets, each letter has a numerical value. The Bab, the Founder of the Babi Faith, and Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, often used the numerical value of words to symbolize concepts.

Nine, as the highest single-digit number, symbolizes completeness. The Bahá'í Faith regards humanity as an organic entity which has developed through its embryonic state to infancy, then to adolescence and is now coming of age, which is the state of fulfilment; so likewise the number nine reflects a sense of fulfilment or culmination and perfection. Bahá'í Houses of Worship, for example, have nine sides, and one commonly used symbol of the Bahá'í Faith is a nine-pointed star. Nine is the minimum number of members in a Spiritual Assembly or House of Justice, the administrative bodies elected by Bahá'ís around the world.

In Arabic, the word Vahid holds the numerical value of nineteen and symbolizes "unity". In the Bahá'í calendar, which was formulated by the Bab, there are nineteen days in a month and nineteen months in a year. In the history of the Babi Faith, the Bab and His first eighteen followers constitute the first vahid of His religion.

While the symbolic use of numbers in the Sacred Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and the Bab is important, there is no occult meaning to them, nor do Bahá'ís susbscribe to divination by numbers or other such practices.

The Nine-Pointed Star
 
Yes..that's right Bruce...


The numerical value of Bahá is:
B = 2
A = 1
H = 5
A = 1
9

For more information see:

Explanation of the Symbol of the Greatest Name

The abjad numerical equivalent of "Baha" is nine. The
Universal House of Justice and the National and Local
Spiritual Assemblies currently have nine members each, the
minimum number prescribed by Bahá'u'lláh.

From The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 189
 
wil said:
Is numerology part of bahai belief?
Click to expand...

Not any sort of central belief, no!

There's simply some remainder of it because it tends to be more significant in Persian and Arabic cultures because just as with Greek, some words can be expressed and numbers and vice versa.

A good example is the town of Adrianople, where Baha'u'llah was exiled. The letters for the Persian equivalent of the town have the same value as the word "mystery," so Adrianople was sometimes referred to in Baha'i scriptures as "the land of Mystery."

But again, this is largely anecdote: the only significant equiivalences are "Baha" (which, as 2+1+5+1 equals nine) and the word for unity, which adds up to nineteen. (Nine is also significant as the highest single integer value in the conventional decimal system, and is thus also taken as a symbol for unity.)

So there you have it.

And please feel free to ask any further questions! :)

Bruce
 
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