Zoroastrianism

The originally Persian religion of Zoroastrianism does not easily take converts, so it has one of the smallest congregations in the UK, at just 4,000 souls. Indeed, Mumbai in India probably has the largest proportion of the Zoroastrian community across the world. It is said to be an ancient religion which influenced Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with its ideas of judgement and good deeds, not riches, being important.

Zoroastrianism is named after its prophet, Zarathustra/Zoroaster, who had a vision of Ahura Mazda (God) and six lesser beings after wandering around Persia and despairing of the wickedness he had witnessed.

He subsequently proclaimed that: “Happiness comes to those who bring happiness to others” and “Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds”, undeniably splendid guidance for life. ‘Asha’ is the good, honest, lawful way and ‘Druj’ is the opposite, to be avoided if one does not want to suffer the consequences in the after-life.

In the UK we had a famous, well-loved and highly talented Zoroastrian on the pop-rock music scene, namely Queen‘s Freddie Mercury (1946-91), whose birth name was Farrokh Bulsara. His ancestors were ‘Parsi’ ~ Persian Zoroastrians who fled to India from persecution by the spread of Islam between the 7th and 10th centuries.

(Image of Zoroastrians in the West Midlands: Paresh Solanki at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)