I ask of Thee [God] 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 (‘The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and
Fasting’, compiled by Research Department of the Universal House of Justice;
published in The American Baha'i, September 2000)
