Fasting
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-18 - 1 clipping

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.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

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
Language
English
Permission
author
History
Scanned 1999 by Jonah Winters.
Share

Shortlink: bahai-library.com/433
Citation: ris/433

select Collection:
Archives
Articles
Articles-unpublished
Audio
Bibliographies
BIC
Biographies
Books
Chronologies
Compilations
Compilations-NSA
Compilations-personal
Documents
East-asia
Encyclopedia
Essays
Etc
Excerpts
Fiction
Glossaries
Guardian
Histories
Introductory
Letters
Maps
Music
Newspapers
NSA-documents
NSA-letters
Personal
Pilgrims
Poetry
Presentations
Resources
Reviews
Scripts
Software
Statistics
Study
Talks
Theses
Transcripts
Translations
UHJ-documents
UHJ-letters
Video
Visual
Writings

home

sitemap

series

chronology

search:
author

title

date

tags

adv. search
languages

inventory

bibliography

abbreviations

links

about

contact

RSS

new
-- Fasting (Used by permission of the curator)