infallibility

[ "Mana" connotations are below. ]

Baha'is believe in a sort of manna for their religious leaders that also encompasses morality, spirituality and governmental policy, this is known as infallibility (ma'sum) of which there are different types:

a) absolute, for manifestations of God (mazhar-i illahi), `ismat-i dhatiyya [ "essential infalliblity" ], `ismat-i kubra

b) conferred, for leaders less then manifestations, i.e. `Abdu'l-Baha, `ismat-i sifatiyya [ "attributional infallibility" ], this is how most BUPC members see Doc, the BUPC teaches that the only infallible institution is the Universal House of Justice with the Aghsan Guardian (Davidic King) as it's Executive.

Rasul-Mazharu'llah, infallible and sinless.

Nabi, infallible but not sinless. see and hear angels

David was a Nabi but not sinless, he committed adultery and murder of his lovers husband

for which his "iniquity" (`avon) was forgiven by God after seeking forgiveness.

Muhaddaths (Seer), fallible and sinful but still has visions and revelations. only hear angels

[this would probably be the best categorization for Dr. Jensen, as an angel appeared to him auditorily.]

on Infallibiltiy see, Lambden, The Emergence of the Babi Baha'i Interpretation of the Bible, pg. 79

http://bahairants.com/the-concept-of-infallibility-in-the-bahai-faith-399.html

[is Zech 3:3 about being protected against a slip up?]

Only the Mazharu'llah is ismat-i kubri (Most Great Infallibility):

"However, the Most Great Infallibility belongs to the One Whose station is a holiness above ordinances and prohibitions and an exemption from sin (khataa’) and forgetfulness (nisyaan).] " (s. mcglinn)

nisyaan, usually means to "forget" about God, to not have faith in God.

The first of these root words is ‘nisyan,’ which means ‘forgetfulness.’ This is the basic state of humanity. It is something about which Allah repeatedly remarks in the Quran – ‘we have created man forgetful,’ ‘man is ever forgetful.’ My shaykh used to tell us, ‘the child is born in remembrance of Allah; it is we who make them forget,’ which (as with many of the things Hazrat says) is a direct interpretation of a hadith of Rasulullah (s): ‘every child is born in a state of fitra; it is the parents that make them Muslim, or Christian, or Jew.’ The child comes from a realm of spirituality and remembrance (`alam al-arwah), into a realm of forgetfulness and illusion (`alam al-dunya). Its spiritual eyes are open, but as it spends more time among us – people of forgetfulness – it is continuously distracted by the bright lights and shiny toys of this world, until its spiritual eye closes and it enters a state of forgetfulness.

http://wayfarersrest.blogspot.com/2006/08/journey-of-man.html

Ma'sum is related to the concept of Mana in anthropology and has several parallels in many cultures:

Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and (debatably) inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian.

In anthropological discourse, mana as a generalized concept is often understood as a precursor to formal religion. It has commonly been interpreted as "the stuff of which magic is formed," as well as the substance of which souls are made.

Concepts analogous to mana in various other cultures include the power of magic, sympathetic magic and of seeking the intervention of a specific supernatural being, whether deity, saint or deceased ancestor.

The concept of a life-energy inherent in all living beings is a common archetype, appearing in many ancient religions and systems of metaphysics.

Analogies[citation needed] to mana in other societies include:

Also related are the philosophical concepts of:

Mana came to the attention of the anthropological community with the English missionary Robert Henry Codrington's (1830–1922) work The Melanesians(1891). It has since been discussed by anthropologists such as Émile Durkheim (1912), Marcel Mauss (1924), Claude Lévi-Strauss (1950) and Roger Keesing(1984).