The Baha’i year consists of 19 months of 19 days each. The months are named after the attributes of God. Each Baha’i community holds a Nineteen Day Feast on the first day of each Baha’i month.
The Feast has spiritual, administrative and social functions and is the primary locus of fellowship and community decision-making in each Baha’i locality.
Some Reflections for the Feast of Will (Mashiyyat in Arabic) – begins at sunset September 26
“Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation….”
- Baha’u’llah
Photo by Sholeh Loehle
“I have no will but Thy will, O my Lord, and cherish no desire except Thy desire. From my pen floweth only the summons which Thine own exalted pen hath voiced, and my tongue uttereth naught save what the Most Great Spirit hath itself proclaimed in the kingdom of Thine eternity. I am stirred by nothing else except the winds of Thy will, and breathe no word except the words which, by Thy leave and Thine inspiration, I am led to pronounce.”
- Baha’u’llah
“It behoveth thee to consecrate thyself to the Will of God. Whatsoever hath been revealed in His Tablets is but a reflection of His Will. So complete must be thy consecration, that every trace of worldly desire will be washed from thine heart. This is the meaning of true unity.”
-Baha’u’llah
“This is but a leaf which the winds of the will of thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised, have stirred. Can it be still when the tempestuous winds are blowing? Nay, by Him Who is the Lord of all Names and Attributes! They move it as they list.”
- Baha’u’llah
“Thou art He Who hath made my desire to be the same as Thy desire, and my will the same as Thy Will.”
- Baha’u’llah
Photo by Leili Towfigh
“Consider the rational faculty with which God hath endowed the essence of man. Examine thine own self, and behold how thy motion and stillness, thy will and purpose, thy sight and hearing, thy sense of smell and power of speech, and whatever else is related to, or transcendeth, thy physical senses or spiritual perceptions, all proceed from, and owe their existence to, this same faculty.”
- Baha’u’llah
“By self-surrender and perpetual union with God is meant that men should merge their will wholly in the Will of God, and regard their desires as utter nothingness beside His Purpose.”
- Bahá’u’lláh
“O thou who hast surrendered thy will to God! By self-surrender and perpetual union with God is meant that men should merge their will wholly in the Will of God, and regard their desires as utter nothingness beside His Purpose. Whatsoever the Creator commandeth His creatures to observe, the same must they diligently, and with the utmost joy and eagerness, arise and fulfil. They should in no wise allow their fancy to obscure their judgment, neither should they regard their own imaginings as the voice of the Eternal. ”
-Baha’u’llah
“Release comes by making of the will a Door through which the confirmations of the Spirit come.”
- Abdu’l-Baha
View photos on the website “Nineteen Months” taken by photographers inspired by reflection on the month of Might – nineteenmonths.com is an international collaborative photo blog using spirituality to inspire photographers and in turn, inspire others.