The Long and Winding Road...

As is clear from the example of Baha'u'llah and the Baha'i, the creation of a new religion is long, complex, and often trying task. It combines two elements of life that people tend to avoid and fear: change and contradiction to prominent beliefs. As discussed in the Rastafari book (by Weber), a spark of charisma is needed to propel a new idea into the realm of popular acceptance if that idea hopes to prevail and survive. In this context, the Bab was the creator of this new idea and the charisma of his followers (especially individuals like Tahirih, Quddus and Baha'u'llah himself) was the reason the idea persisted. After establishing what the new faith is to be about, the religion then goes through phases, almost like software upgrades, in order to fully develop and become something that many people can embrace. This is often the long part of a new religion's journey. With regards to the Baha'i, they started of with Babi version 1.0, but it was often unstable. Because there were many claims to leadership and severe opposition from Government forces it became difficult for the Babis to "settle" down with their religion. This is especially evident with the example of the Babis reduction to the "low morale and degraded state of the Babi community" (in Baghdad when Baha'u'llah was gone and living as a hermit). As division between sects was a major "bug" in the Babi community, what the new version needed--and what most religions need--to become stable was a unifying leader. This is were Baha'u'llah's claim to be the awaited messiah-esque figure comes in. Through this claim, and its acceptance in the community, the sometimes wavering seeds of this Babi faith were able to be unified and solidified, reforming/fixing Babi version 4.0 so much that it warranted the new name Baha'i. As a side note, it is possible, though not necessary, to say that persecution is often an element in the formation of a religion. As many new religions are faced with opposition due to their "radical" ideas, this oppression can often act as a force to unite people under that cause and empathize with fellow believers.