Holy Day

Fasting Spiritual and Material

Source: Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha | ‘Abdu’l-Baha in London

‘Abdu’l-Baha responded to a letter from an early believer:

“Ye had written of the fasting month. Fortunate are ye to have obeyed the commandment of God, and kept this fast during the holy season. For this material fast is an outer token of the spiritual fast; it is a symbol of self-restraint, the withholding of oneself from all appetites of the self, taking on the characteristics of the spirit, being carried away by the breathings of heaven and catching fire from the love of God.”

Responding to another Baha’i during His travels in London:

A friend interested in healing quoted the words of Bahá’u’lláh: “If one is sick, let him go to the greatest physician.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: “There is but one power which heals—that is God. The state or condition through which the healing takes place is the confidence of the heart. By some this state is reached through pills, powders, and physicians. By others through hygiene, fasting, and prayer. By others through direct perception.”

On another occasion ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said with regard to the same subject, “All that we see around us is the work of mind. It is mind in the herb and in the mineral that acts on the human body, and changes its condition.”