The fasting period, which lasts nineteen days starting as a
rule from the second of March every year and ending on the twentieth of the
same month, involves complete abstention from food and drink from sunrise till
sunset. It is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation,
during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in
his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in
his soul. Its significance and purpose are, fundamentally spiritual in
character. Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and
carnal desires.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter written
on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United
States, January 10, 1936; Lights of Guidance)
