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Festival of Ridvan

  • Ridvan celebrates Baha’u’llah’s time in 1863 in the garden of Ridvan in Baghdad when He publicly declared His station as a Manifestation of God. The Ridvan Festival is 12 days long and is also the time of year when Baha’is elect their governing bodies.
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Featured in: The Baha’i Fast

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The Baha’i Fast

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The Baha’i Fast falls during the month of Ala–the last month of the Baha’i calendar. During these 19 days, Baha’is abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset. While this abstention from food and drink is a test of one’s will and discipline, the Fast is not just about abstaining from food. The Fast is, primarily, a spiritual practice.

9 Mini Meditations for the Fast

March 9, 2024, in Images > Graphic Design, by

This year we’ve been sharing images of quotations from the Baha’i Writings each day of the Fast on Facebook and X. It’s a very small initiative–and a departure from what we’ve done in the past which has been primarily to share Fast-related resources already found on Baha’i Blog–but even very short passages of the Writings are priceless and immeasurably profound. In this post we want to share the first nine images in this series with you.

"… O ye illumined youth, strive by night and by day to unravel the mysteries of the mind and spirit, and to grasp the secrets of the Day of God. Inform yourselves of the evidences that the Most Great Name hath dawned. Open your lips in praise. Adduce convincing arguments and proofs. Lead those who thirst to the fountain of life; grant ye true health to the ailing. Be ye apprentices of God; be ye physicians directed by God and heal ye the sick among humankind. Bring those who have been excluded into the circle of intimate friends. Make the despairing to be filled with hope. Waken them that slumber; make the heedless mindful." – Abdu'l-Baha

"The Word of God may be likened to the life-giving breezes of the divine springtime […] It bringeth forth a garden of roses from the pure soil, and wafteth its musk-laden fragrance throughout the world." – Abdu’l‑Baha

"Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity." – Abdu'l-Baha

"… the eye sees and the heart is affected. The ear hears and the spirit is influenced. The heart finds peace, the thoughts expand, and all the members of the body experience a state of well-being." – Abdu'l-Baha

"Human frailties and peculiarities can be a great test. But the only way, or perhaps I should say the first and best way, to remedy such situations, is to oneself do what is right. One soul can be the cause of the spiritual illumination of a continent." From a letter dated 30 September 1949 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, in Living the Life, p. 39

"One must live in a continual attitude of prayer. When man is spiritually free his mind becomes the altar of prayer and his heart the sanctuary of prayer." – Abdu'l-Baha, Star of the West, Volume 5, p. 41

"The greatness and honour of man reside in purity, truthfulness, benevolence, virtue, and constancy, not in earthly wealth and riches." – Abdu'l-Baha

"Sanctify mine eye, and mine ear, and my tongue, and my spirit, and my heart, and my soul, and my body, and mine entire being from turning unto anyone but Thee." – Baha'u'llah

"This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer." – Abdu'l-Baha

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Sonjel Vreeland

In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.
Sonjel Vreeland

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