These are, O my Lord, the days in which Thou hast bidden Thy servants to
observe the fast. Blessed is he that observeth the fast wholly for Thy sake
and with absolute detachment from all things except Thee.
[Prayers and Meditations, §VII]
Glory be to Thee, O Lord my God! These are the days whereon Thou hast
bidden all men to observe the fast, that through it they may purify their
souls and rid themselves of all attachment to any one but Thee, and that out
of their hearts may ascend that which will be worthy of the court of Thy
majesty and may well beseem the seat of the revelation of Thy
oneness. Grant, O my Lord, that this fast may become a river of life-giving
waters and may yield the virtue wherewith Thou hast endowed it. Cleanse Thou
by its means the hearts of Thy servants whom the evils of the world have
failed to hinder from turning towards Thine all-glorious Name, and who have
remained unmoved by the noise and tumult of such as have repudiated Thy most
resplendent signs which have accompanied the advent of Thy Manifestation
Whom Thou hast invested with Thy sovereignty, Thy power, Thy majesty and
glory. These are the servants who, as soon as Thy call reached them,
hastened in the direction of Thy mercy and were not kept back from Thee by
the changes and chances of this world or by any human limitations.
[Prayers and Meditations, §LVI]
You had written of the fasting month. Fortunate are ye to have obeyed
the commandment of God, and kept this fast during the holy season. For this
material fast is an outer token of the spiritual fast; it is a symbol of
self-restraint, the withholding of oneself from all appetites of the self,
taking on the characteristics of the spirit, being carried away by the
breathings of heaven and catching fire from the love of God.
[Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá, §35]
Besides all this, prayer and fasting is the cause of awakening and
mindfulness and conducive to protection and preservation from
tests...
[`Abdu'l-Bahá, quoted in Bahá'í World Faith, page 368]
These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou didst enjoin Thy servants to
observe the fast. With it Thou didst adorn the preamble of the Book of Thy
Laws revealed unto Thy creatures, and didst deck forth the Repositories of
Thy commandments in the sight of all who are in Thy heaven and all who are
on Thy earth. Thou hast endowed every hour of these days with a special
virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee, Whose knowledge embraceth all
created things. Thou hast, also, assigned unto every soul a portion of this
virtue in accordance with the Tablet of Thy decree and the Scriptures of
Thine irrevocable judgment. Every leaf of these Books and Scriptures Thou
hast, moreover, allotted to each one of the peoples and kindreds of the
earth.
For Thine ardent lovers Thou hast, according to Thy decree, reserved, at
each daybreak, the cup of Thy remembrance, O Thou Who art the Ruler of
rulers! These are they who have been so inebriated with the wine of Thy
manifold wisdom that they forsake their couches in their longing to
celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy virtues, and flee from sleep in their
eagerness to approach Thy presence and partake of Thy bounty. Their eyes
have, at all times, been bent upon the Day-Spring of Thy loving-kindness,
and their faces set towards the Fountain-Head of Thine inspiration. Rain
down, then, upon us and upon them from the clouds of Thy mercy what
beseemeth the heaven of Thy bounteousness and grace.
[Prayers and Meditations, §LXXXV]
Do not bring our fasts to an end with this fast, O my Lord, nor the
covenants Thou hast made with this covenant. Do Thou accept all that we have
done for love of Thee, and for the sake of Thy pleasure, and all that we
have left undone as a result of our subjection to our evil and corrupt
desires. Enable us, then, to cleave steadfastly to Thy love and Thy
good-pleasure, and preserve us from the mischief of such as have denied Thee
and repudiated Thy most resplendent signs. Thou art, in truth, the Lord of
this world and of the next. No God is there beside Thee, the Exalted, the
Most High.
[Prayers and Meditations, §LVI]
We have commanded you to pray and fast from the beginning of maturity;
this is ordained by God, your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers. He has
exempted from this those who are weak from illness or age, as a bounty from
His Presence, and He is the Forgiving, the Generous.
[Kitáb-i-Aqdas, ¶10]
We have enjoined upon you fasting during a brief period, and at its close
have designated for you Naw-Rúz as a feast... The traveller, the
ailing, those who are with child or giving suck, are not bound by the Fast;
they have been exempted by God as a token of His grace.
[Kitáb-i-Aqdas, ¶16]
Praised be Thou, O my God, that Thou hast ordained Naw-Rúz as a
festival unto those who have observed the fast for love of Thee and
abstained from all that is abhorrent unto Thee. Grant, O my Lord, that the
fire of Thy love and the heat produced by the fast enjoined by Thee may
inflame them in Thy Cause, and make them to be occupied with Thy praise and
with remembrance of Thee.
Since Thou hast adorned them, O my Lord, with the ornament of the fast
prescribed by Thee, do Thou adorn them also with the ornament of Thine
acceptance, through Thy grace and bountiful favor. For the doings of men are
all dependent upon Thy good-pleasure, and are conditioned by Thy
behest. Shouldst Thou regard him who hath broken the fast as one who hath
observed it, such a man would be reckoned among them who from eternity had
been keeping the fast. And shouldst Thou decree that he who hath observed
the fast hath broken it, that person would be numbered with such as have
caused the Robe of Thy Revelation to be stained with dust, and been far
removed from the crystal waters of this living Fountain.
[Prayers and Meditations, §XLVI]
In the Prayer of Fasting We have revealed: "Should Thy Will decree that
out of Thy mouth these words proceed and be addressed unto them, 'Observe,
for My Beauty's sake, the fast, O people, and set no limit to its duration,'
I swear by the majesty of Thy glory, that every one of them will faithfully
observe it, will abstain from whatsoever will violate Thy law, and will
continue to do so until they yield up their souls unto Thee." In this
consisteth the complete surrender of one's will to the Will of God.
Meditate on this, that thou mayest drink in the waters of everlasting life
which flow through the words of the Lord of all mankind, and mayest testify
that the one true God hath ever been immeasurably exalted above His
creatures. He, verily, is the Incomparable, the Ever-Abiding, the
Omniscient, the All-Wise. The station of absolute self-surrender
transcendeth, and will ever remain exalted above, every other
station.
[Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, §CLX]
I beseech Thee, O my God, by Thy Name through which Thou hast hearkened
unto the call of Thy lovers, and the sighs of them that long for Thee, and
the cry of them that enjoy near access to Thee, and the groaning of them
that are devoted to Thee, and through which Thou hast fulfilled the wishes
of them that have set their hopes on Thee, and hast granted them their
desires, through Thy grace and Thy favors, and by Thy Name through which the
ocean of forgiveness surged before Thy face, and the clouds of Thy
generosity rained upon Thy servants, to write down for every one who hath
turned unto Thee, and observed the fast prescribed by Thee, the recompense
decreed for such as speak not except by Thy leave, and who forsook all that
they possessed in Thy path and for love of Thee.
[Prayers and Meditations, §CLXXVII]
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