FHU Audio Recordings of Fasting Reflections 2023

Our Bahai 19-Day Fast is from the evening of March 1, 2023 to the evening of March 20, 2023

- We'll return on March 27, 2023 for Our Reflection Gathering.

Fasting and obligatory prayer constitute the two pillars that sustain the revealed Law of God. Bahá'u'lláh in one of His Tablets affirms that He has revealed the laws of obligatory prayer and fasting so that through them the believers may draw nigh unto God. 

Shoghi Effendi indicates that the fasting period, which involves complete abstention from food and drink from sunrise till sunset, is  ...essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character. Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and carnal desires.  (Kitab-i-Aqdas, page 176)

Fasting and obligatory prayer are as two wings to man's life. Blessed be the one who soareth with their aid in the heaven of the love of God, the Lord of all worlds. 

These are the days of the Fast. Blessed is the one who through the heat generated by the Fast increaseth his love, and who, with joy and radiance, ariseth to perform worthy deeds. Verily, He guideth whomsoever He willeth to the straight path.  Bahá'u'lláh 

The spiritual fasting comes first, and is the soul's refusal or denial of all kinds of evil actions and habits -- this is the important fasting.  The bodily fasting or abstinence from food, is a sign or witness to the inward fasting, and is of no value by itself. But when both kinds of fasting go together, then the effect upon the soul is as "light upon light.”

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers 9, p. 48)

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. Assist me and assist them. O my Lord, to obey Thee and to keep Thy precepts. Thou, verily, hast power to do what Thou choosest.  There is no God but Thee, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. All praise be to God, the Lord of all worlds.  - Bahá'u'lláh  246    (Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 245)  

Well is it with you, as you have followed the Law of God and arisen to observe the Fast during these blessed days, for this physical fast is a symbol of the spiritual fast. This Fast leadeth to 

the cleansing of the soul from all selfish desires, 

the acquisition of spiritual attributes, 

attraction to the breezes of the All-Merciful, and 

enkindlement with the fire of divine love. 

 XXVII. Fasting is the cause of the elevation of one's spiritual station.  

(Compilations, The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting)