Baha'i Fast March 1st to March 19th

arthra

arthra

Baha'i
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The Baha'i Fast is nineteen days... between sunrise and sunset. We abstain from solid and liquid food..water, etc. Baha'is fast between the ages of fifteen and seventy years of age. Those who are ill or have medical conditions where fasting is not recommended by a doctor are exempt.

I've decided to resolve my focus on the prayers for the fast this year and see if I can have an opportunity to perform an act of service... I suppose one of the virtues of the fast is that of detachment and these days being detached is for me a blessing:

"O my Lord! Suffer me to be detached from aught else save Thee, to hold fast to the hem of Thy bounty, to be wholly devoted to Thy Faith, to remain fast and firm in Thy love and to observe what Thou hast prescribed in Thy Book."

"We are servants of Thine that have turned with devotion to Thy Holy Face, that have detached ourselves from all besides Thee in this glorious Day"

There are I think certain advantages to the Baha'i Fast...

If we are ill and miss a day or more of fasting... there are no make-ups needed later on...

People who are working in heavy labor during the day are exempt from fasting...

The Baha'i Fast is close to Spring time..actually ends on the vernal equinox or Naw-Ruz each year... so we don't have a problem with fasting in extremely hot months of the year.

People who are travelling over nine hours a day are exempt from fasting... of course I think travelling as more of the kind of travelling people used to do on horse back... more arduous and difficult than we do today...with automobiles, aeroplanes and
trains.
 
“This is, O my God, the first of the days on which Thou hast bidden Thy loved ones to observe the Fast. I ask of Thee by Thy Self and by him who hath fasted out of love for Thee and for Thy good-pleasure—and not out of self and desire, nor out of fear of Thy wrath—and by Thy most excellent names and august attributes, to purify Thy servants from the love of aught except Thee and to draw them nigh unto the Dawning-Place of the lights of Thy countenance and the Seat of the throne of Thy oneness. Illumine their hearts, O my God, with the light of Thy knowledge and brighten their faces with the rays of the Daystar that shineth from the horizon of Thy Will.”
-Baha'u'llah
 
Another prayer for the Fast:

"In the Name of Him Who hath been promised in the Books of God, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed!

The days of fasting have arrived wherein those servants who circle round Thy throne and have attained Thy presence have fasted.

Say: O God of names and creator of heaven and earth!

I beg of Thee by Thy Name, the All-Glorious, to accept the fast of those who have fasted for love of Thee and for the sake of Thy good-pleasure and have carried out what Thou hast bidden them in Thy Books and Tablets.

I beseech Thee by them to assist me in the promotion of Thy Cause and to make me steadfast in Thy love, that my footsteps may not slip on account of the clamor of Thy creatures.

Verily, Thou art powerful over whatsoever Thou willest. No God is there but Thee, the Quickener, the All-Powerful, the Most Bountiful, the Ancient of Days"

~ Bahá’u’lláh
 
On another forum a friend asked what Baha'is do if they are say in the polar regions where the sun hardly sets or where it hardly rises... Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Aqdas has relieved us of the problem by allowing us to use clocks to begin and end the Fast...

In regions where
the days and nights grow long, let times of prayer be
gauged by clocks and other instruments that mark the
passage of the hours. He, verily, is the Expounder, the
Wise.

~ Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 23

"Concerning the times for prayer and fasting, it is correct that, in the high latitudes, where the lengths of day and night vary considerably from season to season of the year, it is permissible to observe the laws of prayer and fasting in accordance with the clock rather than with the rising and setting of the sun. As Iceland lies in such latitudes, it is for your Assembly to decide this matter for the believers in your country. All should then abide by whatever your Assembly lays down.

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly, July 27, 1976; Notes on Obligatory Prayers Ablutions, a compilation of the Universal House of Justice)

(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 466)
 
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