# Fasting

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: John Walbridge, Fasting, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Fasting
> 
> John Walbridge
> published in Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time: Bahá'í Studies volume 1
> 
> Oxford: George Ronald, 1996
> 
> Fasting is the voluntary abstention from nourishment, especially as a
> religious practice. The Bahá'í fast occupies the nineteenth month (`Ala') of
> the Bahá'í year, 2-20 March. Bahá'ís over the age of fifteen abstain from food
> and drink each day from sunrise to sunset.
> 
> Fasting as a religious practice
> 
> Fasting has been practised from the beginning of history and in virtually
> every culture. It can take various forms: abstention from certain favoured
> foods, often meat; complete abstention from food and sometimes drink for a
> specified time; or constant abstemiousness in diet -- eating only one meal a
> day, for example. It is frequently associated with other austerities, such as
> abstention from sexual relations and the abandonment of all sorts of luxury.
> As a religious practice fasting serves various purposes: Preparation for a
> great deed or a new stage of life Mourning Penitence Purification
> Supplication Quest for dreams and visions Moral or religious protest
> 
> Some random examples will give an idea of the forms and purposes of fasting:
> As part of their initiation as adults American Indian boys fast in the
> wilderness seeking a vision of a guardian spirit. Fasts are often part of
> the rituals associated with birth, marriage and death. The ancient Jews
> fasted in times of danger or disaster, both as a sign of repentance and in
> order to avert God's wrath. Modern Jews fast for twenty-four hours as a
> penitence on Yom Kippur. Priests, holy men and sorcerers of various
> societies fast in preparation for particular rituals. In most mystical and
> monastic traditions fasting is practised as a means of purification,
> especially for novices. Roman Catholics traditionally abstain from meat on
> days associated with the passion of Christ. In the modern world fasting is
> sometimes a form of moral protest.
> 
> The Islamic fast
> 
> After the obligatory prayer, fasting is the most important ritual obligation
> of the Muslim; it one of the five pillars of Islam. Leaving aside the complex
> regulations deduced by the Islamic clergy, fasting in Islam consists of
> deliberately abstaining from all food, drink and sexual relations from the
> time of the first light before dawn until the last light after sunset. The
> principal fast occupies the entire month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the
> Islamic year. This fast is binding on all Muslims past the age of puberty,
> with the exception of those who are travelling or unable to fast for reasons
> of health, such as sickness, pregnancy, old age or the like. Those who do not
> fast are obliged to compensate, preferably by fasting on another occasion or
> else by feeding the poor. Those who deliberately fail to fast or deliberately
> break the fast must compensate by fasting for two months or feeding sixty poor
> people. Because the Muslim year is eleven days shorter than the solar year,
> the fast of Ramadan can occur during any season of the year. The beginning of
> the month following Ramadan is celebrated as the `Idu'l-Fitr, the holiday of
> fast-breaking, and is one of the great holy days of the Islamic year. It is
> observed with feasts and celebrations lasting several days. Fasting is also
> encouraged at other times of the year, particularly the two months preceding
> Ramadan, on certain days of the week and month, and on certain anniversaries.
> Fasting is also prescribed in the Qur'an as expiation for offences ranging
> from manslaughter to the breaking of an oath. The rules for such fasts are the
> same as those for the fast of Ramadan. The Qur'an specifically identifies
> fasting as an obligation that had been imposed in earlier religions. Muslims
> generally consider the purpose of fasting to be the purification and humbling
> of the human soul.
> 
> The Babi and Bahá'í fast
> 
> The Bahá'í fast is established in the Kitab-i-Aqdas1 and occupies much the
> same preeminent position that it does in Islam. Several passages in the
> writings of Bahá'u'lláh lay stress on its importance, listing it with the
> obligatory prayer as among the greatest of the ritual obligations. According
> to Bahá'u'lláh Himself, the Bahá'í fast is adapted from the fast ordained in
> the Bayan. The Bab's fast, mentioned in both the Arabic and Persian Bayans,
> occupied the last month of the Babi calendar, the month of `Ala', roughly 2-20
> March. Believers were to fast from the age of eleven (numerically equivalent
> to huva, `He') until forty-two (bala, `Yea'). Children could fast until noon
> for the first eleven days. Those over forty-two were exempted from fasting.
> Those fasting had to abstain from food, drink and sexual relations from
> sunrise to sunset -- preferably from slightly before sunrise until slightly
> after sunset. No exemptions are mentioned. The real meaning of the fast, the
> Bab said, was abstention from the love of other than the Manifestation of God.
> The continuation of the fast was contingent on the acceptance of Him Whom God
> shall make manifest.2
> 
> Although Bahá'u'lláh accepted the fast of the Bab, He
> altered the details of its regulations in many important respects. The Bahá'í
> fast is binding on all believers from the age of maturity, which for Bahá'ís
> is fifteen, until seventy. There is no provision made for children fasting.
> The following individuals are exempted from fasting: Travellers, providing
> their journey is to last at least nine hours or two hours on foot. If they
> break their journey for more than nineteen days, they are only exempt for the
> first three days after their arrival. If they return home, they must begin
> fasting on arrival. The sick. Women who are pregnant or nursing. Women
> who menstruating, who must instead repeat the phrase `Glorified be God, the
> Lord of Splendour and Beauty' ninety-five times between one noon and the
> next.3 Those engaged in heavy labour, who are advised to be discrete and
> restrained in availing themselves of this exemption. These groups are also
> exempted from fasting in Islam. Bahá'u'lláh does not require missed days of
> fasting to be made up later, nor does He mention abstention from sexual
> relations. An individual who is exempt from fasting at any part of a day is
> exempt from fasting the entire day. Smoking, `Abdu'l-Bahá explained, is
> called `drinking smoke' in Arabic, and so smoking is banned while one is
> fasting.4
> 
> The fast is binding on Bahá'ís in all countries but it is an
> individual obligation, not enforceable by Bahá'í administrative institutions.
> The secondary regulations of fasting, such as the prohibition on smoking, are
> at present only binding on Bahá'ís of Middle Eastern background.5 Bahá'ís are
> allowed to fast at other times of the year but as this is not encouraged, it
> is rarely done. Bahá'u'lláh permitted the making of vows to fast but preferred
> that such vows be `directed to such objectives as will profit mankind'.6
> While in Edirne Bahá'u'lláh revealed a number of prayers for fasting (munajat
> or alvah-i-siyam), although one of them contains a reference to `Akka. These
> prayers, some rather lengthy, are the most important statements on the
> spiritual meaning of the fast in the Bahá'í scripture: for example, `. . .
> 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 . . .'7
> Fasting itself is only acceptable if it is done purely out of love for God.
> 
> Notes
> 1 Bahá'u'lláh, Kitab-i-Aqdas, para. 10.
> 
> 2 The Bab, Arabic Bayan 8:18; Persian Bayan 8:18.
> 
> 3 Bahá'u'lláh, Kitab-i-Aqdas, para. 13.
> 
> 4 Bahá'u'lláh, Kitab-i-Aqdas, n. 32.
> 
> 6 Bahá'u'lláh, Kitab-i-Aqdas, question 71.
> 
> 7 Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations, p. 79.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views44852 views since posted 1999; last edit 2025-07-19 02:33 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../walbridge_encyclopedia_fasting;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
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> Citation: ris/433
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> — *Fasting (Used by permission of the curator)*