The first Bahá’í principle is the independent investigation of truth. It abolishes the need for clergy and sets us free from imitation and blind adherence to unexamined, dogmatic beliefs. Bahá’ís believe that no soul should follow ancestral or traditional beliefs without first questioning and examining their own inner landscape. Instead, this Bahá’í principle gives each individual the right and the duty to investigate and decide what they believe on their own.
Bahá’ís of Zambia
Independent Investigation of the Truth
The principles of the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh should be carefully studied, one by one, until they are realized and understood by mind and heart—so will you become strong followers of the light, truly spiritual, heavenly soldiers of God, acquiring and spreading the true civilization….
— ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 22
Supporting Quotations
…every individual member of humankind is exhorted and commanded to set aside superstitious beliefs, traditions and blind imitation of ancestral forms in religion and investigate reality for himself. Inasmuch as the fundamental reality is one, all religions and nations of the world will become one through investigation of reality.
— ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 433
Bahá’u’lláh continually urges man to free himself from the superstitions and traditions of the past and become an investigator of reality, for it will then be seen that God has revealed his light many times in order to illumine mankind in the path of evolution, in various countries and through many different prophets, masters and sages.
— ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Divine Philosophy, p. 8