This
is, O my God, the first of the days on which Thou hast bidden Thy loved ones to
observe the Fast. I ask of Thee by Thy Self and by him who hath fasted out of
love for Thee and for Thy good-pleasure - and not out of self and desire, nor
out of fear of Thy wrath - and by Thy most excellent names and august
attributes, to purify Thy servants from the love of aught except Thee and to
draw them nigh unto the Dawning-Place of the lights of Thy countenance and the
Seat of the throne of Thy oneness. Illumine their hearts, O my God, with the
light of Thy knowledge and brighten their faces with the rays of the Daystar
that shineth from the horizon of Thy Will. Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth
Thee. No God is there but Thee, the All-Glorious, Whose help is implored by all
men.
(Baha’u’llah, ‘The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting’, compiled
by Research Department of the Universal House of Justice; published in The American Baha'i, September 2000)
