Guest Author - Vahid Ajepuh Oloro

�We have commanded you to pray and fast from the beginning of maturity (15 years); this is ordained by God, your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers � Abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sundown, and beware lest desire deprive you of this grace ��
- Baha�u�llah in Kitab-i-Aqdas.

Fasting is a spiritual responsibility synonymous with all religions. It�s a spiritual undertaken viewed to be with a potential to inculcate discipline for the soul.

Baha�u�llah, as indicated in the above quotation, commanded His followers to observe fasting once each year. The period for fasting was set on March 2 to 20 the days that make the Baha�i month of Ala (Loftiness) which is a month that precedes the Baha�i New Year. The Baha�i Fast begins each sunrise and closes at sunset throught the 19 days.

Since the fast falls on the last month of the Baha�i calender, it gives it an important position in an individual�s and the community�s spiritual regenaration as they prepare for the New Year.

Abdu�l-Baha in the Star of the West vol. 3, p. 305, states: �Fasting is the cause of awakening man. The heart becomes tender and the spirituality of man increases. This is produced by the fact that man's thoughts will be confined to the commemoration of God, and through this awakening and stimulation surely ideal advancements follow...�

During the fast Baha�is abstain from material nourishments of the body during daylight.

Every Baha�i has an obligation to observe the fast each year. However pregnant and nursing mothers, the sick, the aged, travellers, those involved in heavy work and children under the age of 15, are exempted from fasting.

In the Kitab-i-Aqdas Baha�u�llah states: �The traveller, the ailing, those who are with child or giving suck, are not bound by the fast ��

The Baha�i teachings indicate that the material fast is an outer expression of the inner or spiritual fast; it is a symbolic representation of a spiritual detachment from bodily desires, a renounciation of the self in total submission to God.

Fasting, according to Baha�I teachings, is one of the two pillars that uphold an individual�s spiritual growth. The second pillar is prayer. It is important threfore for Baha�is to observe fasting as a requirement for individual spiritual sustance and growth.

A high standard of spirituality is an important requirement for every Baha�i during the fasting period. The material fast must be complemented by a higher standard of spirituality. If it lacks this its intended benefit would be lost and non-existant.

In the Naw-Ruz (New Year that begins at the end of the fast) prayer, Baha�u�llah outlines that what is important in fasting is not just abstaining from food and drink but the spiritual quality in which it is conducted.

�Shouldst Thou (God) 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 ��

Before the beginning of the fasting month Baha�is go through a period of Ayyami-Ha (intercalary days) that fall between February 26 and March 1. These days are observed as a period of sharing and charity, during which Baha�is host friends and visit the needy and sick. But it is also a time of preparation for the month of fasting.