Across families
Bahá’í Faith and Twelver Shia Islam
Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.15 (0 would be identical).
One unknowable God revealed progressively through a succession of messengers, of whom Bahá’u’lláh is the most recent — so the world’s religions are stages of one revelation rather than rivals. Highly inclusive about other paths and highly centralised about its own administration.
Shares Sunni tawhid and adds a line of divinely appointed Imams, a living scholarly authority one formally follows, and a devotional life built around lament and intercession. Authority sits markedly more centrally than in Sunni practice.
Where they agree
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.00.
C1 Survival of the self
Both sit at continues in some form — a gap of 0.00.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at clergy and tradition decide — a gap of 0.03.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at one life, then judgment — a gap of 0.03.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at an intentional act — a gap of 0.03.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at leaning revealed and fixed — a gap of 0.05.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight — a gap of 0.07.
D3 The body
Both sit at between to be disciplined and to be celebrated and leaning to be disciplined respectively — a gap of 0.08.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at strictly one — a gap of 0.10.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at leaning a personal being one can address and a personal being one can address respectively — a gap of 0.10.
Where they part company
E1 Exclusivity
Bahá’í Faith: leaning many valid paths. Twelver Shia Islam: one true path. A gap of 0.60 on an axis running from “one true path” to “many valid paths”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Bahá’í Faith | Twelver Shia Islam | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | a divine reality certainly exists | 0.00 |
| A2 Personhood | leaning a personal being one can address | a personal being one can address | 0.10 |
| A3 Plurality | strictly one | strictly one | 0.10 |
| A4 Locus | between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it | leaning wholly beyond the world | 0.13 |
| B1 Source of truth | leaning revealed and fixed | leaning revealed and fixed | 0.05 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | between literal and binding and metaphorical, or no text at all | leaning literal and binding | 0.37 |
| B3 Institutional authority | clergy and tradition decide | clergy and tradition decide | 0.03 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | continues in some form | 0.00 |
| C2 Shape of time | one life, then judgment | one life, then judgment | 0.03 |
| C3 The human condition | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | between fallen and in need of rescue and ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.13 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | 0.07 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | leaning essential and prescribed | essential and prescribed | 0.25 |
| D3 The body | between to be disciplined and to be celebrated | leaning to be disciplined | 0.08 |
| E1 Exclusivity | leaning many valid paths | one true path | 0.60 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | an intentional act | an intentional act | 0.03 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning an individual choice | leaning a people, inherited | 0.38 |
| E4 Standing of nature | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | 0.14 |
Positions for Bahá’í Faith rest principally on Bahaʼuʼllah, Kitab-i-Aqdas and Kitab-i-Iqan; for Twelver Shia Islam, on Nahj al-Balagha, al-Kafi, and Twelver usul al-din. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.