February 7. On this date in 1977, a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer stated "As for the status of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Faith, he is not considered by Bahá'ís to be a prophet, minor or otherwise."

February 7. On this date in 1977, a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer stated "As for the status of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Faith, he is not considered by Bahá'ís to be a prophet, minor or otherwise."

1728. Status of Joseph Smith
"As for the status of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Faith, he is not considered by Bahá'ís to be a prophet, minor or otherwise. But of course he was a religious teacher sensitive to the spiritual currents flowing in the early 19th century directly from the appearance of the Bab and Bahá'u'lláh and the Revelation of Their Messages of hope and divine Guidance. In this respect you might find chapter ten in the late Hand of the Cause George Townshend's book, 'Christ and Bahá'u'lláh,' interesting."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, February 7, 1977)

The Bahá’í notion of progressive revelation exlcudes many key figures who have generated significant religious movements, whether in the distant past like Confucius or Lao-Tzu or in the 19th Century like Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Joseph Smith. All religious founders are not universally accepted as prophets.