There is no teaching in the Bahá’í Faith that "soul mates" exist. What is meant is that marriage should lead to a profound friendship of spirit, which will endure in the next world, where there is no sex, and no giving and taking in marriage; just the way we should establish with our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters and friends a deep spiritual bond which will be everlasting, and not merely physical bonds of human relationship.

The prohibition of sexual intercourse outside the marriage bond does not by any means imply that there cannot be strong bonds of friendship between persons, whether of the same sex or not. On the contrary, affection and friendship are qualities highly praised in the Bahá’í teachings.

This whole question of love and friendship is distorted these days because our civilization has exalted sex and sexuality to a level of importance far beyond its proper place in our lives. Sex has also been wrenched out of its proper context. On the one hand our current culture suffuses every aspect of our lives with sex but, on the other, it isolates the sex act from its natural corollaries of marital life and the bearing and rearing of children.