rdain
for the choicest among Thy creatures.

These are, O my Lord, the days in which Thou hast bidden Thy servants to
observe the fast. Blessed is he that observeth the fast wholly for Thy
sake and with absolute detachment from all things except Thee. Assist me
and assist them, O my Lord, to obey Thee and to keep Thy precepts. Thou,
verily, hast power to do what Thou choosest.

There is no God but Thee, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. All praise be to
God, the Lord of all worlds.

--Baha'u'llah

"THESE ARE, O MY GOD, THE DAYS WHEREON THOU..."

These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou didst enjoin Thy servants to
observe the fast. With it Thou didst adorn the preamble of the Book of Thy
Laws revealed unto Thy creatures, and didst deck forth the Repositories of
Thy commandments in the sight of all who are in Thy heaven and all who are
on Thy earth. Thou hast endowed every hour of these days with a special
virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee, Whose knowledge embraceth all
created things. Thou hast, also, assigned unto every soul a portion of
this virtue in accordance with the Tablet of Thy decree and the Scriptures
of Thine irrevocable judgment. Every leaf of these Books and Scriptures
Thou hast, moreover, allotted to each one of the peoples and kindreds of
the earth.

For Thine ardent lovers Thou hast, according to Thy decree, reserved, at
each daybreak, the cup of Thy remembrance, O Thou Who art the Ruler of
rulers! These are they who have been so inebriated with the wine of Thy
manifold wisdom that they forsake their couches in their longing to
celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy virtues, and flee from sleep in their
eagerness to approach Thy presence and partake of Thy bounty. Their eyes
have, at all times, been bent upon the Dayspring of Thy loving-kindness,
and their faces set towards the Fountainhead of Thine inspiration. Rain
down, then, upon us and upon them from the clouds of Thy mercy what
beseemeth the heaven of Thy bounteousness and grace.

Lauded be Thy name, O my God! This is the hour when Thou hast unlocked the
doors of Thy bounty before the faces of Thy creatures, and opened wide the
portals of Thy tender mercy unto all the dwellers of Thine earth. I
beseech Thee, by all them whose blood was shed in Thy path, who, in their
yearning over Thee, rid themselves from all attachment to any of Thy
creatures, and who were so carried away by the sweet savors of Thine
inspiration that every sing