Baha'ism

Practices

Fasting

The Baha’i sawm ‘fast’ occurs during the month of ‘Ala’ which is the final month of the Baha’i solar calendar: that is, from March 2 to March 20. The fast is similar to Ramadan, except that it lasts for nineteen days and is observed from sunrise to sunset. During the hours of the fast, Baha’is between the ages of fifteen and seventy abstain from food and drink (however married couples are free to engage in sexual intercourse) and like in Islam the fast is suspended in the case of travellers;62 the sick; those engaged in heavy work; the elderly and menstruating, pregnant or lactating women. Unlike in Islam, a person exempted from fasting during ‘Ala’ is not required to make it up at another time, nor give charity as expiation. At the end of the fast, the Baha’i festival of Naw-Ruz is observed which falls on the same day as the Iranian New Year.63

Baha’is are encouraged to say special fasting prayers composed by Baha’ Allah, and the spiritual meaning of the fast, as an obligation performed for the sake of God, is emphasised. Baha’ Allah wrote:

…through [the fast] they may purify their souls and rid themselves of all attachment to any one but Thee, and that out of their hearts may ascend that which will be worthy of the court of Thy majesty and may well beseem the seat of the revelation of Thy oneness.64

Generally speaking, it is not the practice of Baha’is to observe voluntary fasts in the manner of the Muslims, however when Baha’ Allah was asked whether it was permissible to offer a voluntary fast to God for a wish or hope, he replied that such fasts are permissible but should be in honour of something profiting humankind.65

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References

62Those travelling more than two hours by foot or more than nine hours by other forms of transport.

63Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1992) 24.

64Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, trans. Shoghi Effendi, (Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1938) 79.

65Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1992) 148.

Next > Baha'ism: Practices: Pilgrimage