This mystical month has come again
A time which no words can adequately represent
When our minds are purified from self and passion
Our souls rejuvenated by Your intoxicating scent
The tests come stronger, the pain deeply rooted
But the successes triumph and the losses are muted
We fast not for fear or self and desire
But as an outer token of our spiritual fast
A time for us to strive to acquire
The virtues of the truly ablaze and steadfast
To restrain ourselves from aught but Your love
And be carried away by your breath from above
Each hour of each day is endowed with a power
A virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee
That’s two hundred and twenty-four radiant hours
Of striving towards setting our higher selves free
Each hour a blessing of struggle and pleasure
Which through Your mercy we may cherish and treasure
"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."
- Baha'u'llah
"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."
- Baha'u'llah
