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Religion

Feeding the spirit in a time of fasting

A Tampa Palms woman will join others in the Baha'i faith by abstaining from food and drink to cleanse and develop the soul.

By SHERYL KAY
Published March 3, 2006

TAMPA PALMS - For the next two weeks, Farah Sanchez is waking up a good 45 minutes earlier than usual. She joins more than 5-million people of the Baha'i faith who will abstain from eating any food or drinking any liquid from sunrise to sunset.

Most believers who keep the fast rise well before sunrise to have a big breakfast to prepare.

They recite special prayers as well.

"There's a certain magic about getting up before dawn - a quietness, a serenity," said Sanchez, 45, of Tampa Palms. "Usually you get up in the morning and its rush, rush, rush, but this puts the brakes on."

The Baha'i faith traces its roots to the mid 1800s in Iran, as a break-off religion from Islam. Early leaders included Sayyid Ali Muhammed, known as the Bab, and his follower, Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri, who proclaimed himself to be a messianic figure.

Today, the world headquarters is in Haifa, Israel. Followers believe in the oneness of all peoples, equality between men and women, harmony between science and religion and elimination of all prejudice.

The Baha'i fast has no official name, but it always occurs worldwide in the 19th month on the Baha'i calendar, which always corresponds to the vernal equinox in March. Baha'is believe that the fast elevates them to a more sacred plane.

Sanchez, a doctoral student at the University of South Florida, was born into the Baha'i faith in India and has been practicing the fast since she was 15, when the obligation begins. She compared the abstinence to observances in other mainstream religions: Christians and Lent, Jews and Yom Kippur and Muslims and Ramadan.

"Every human being is endowed with a soul, and this is a cleansing, a way to enhance and develop the spiritual part of our bodies," she said. "It's a purification, a way to reinvigorate the spiritual forces within you."

The fast also builds character, Sanchez said. Those older than 70, pregnant or ill are exempt.

A two-time cancer survivor, Sanchez said the deprivation empowered her when she needed it most.

"I was able to go through those dark days of cancer much better because of my fasting," she said. "It's developed a whole mental discipline that has strengthened me in many ways over the years."

As the period of fasting comes to a close, Sanchez said she will rise even earlier, as the days will begin earlier. Still, she will cherish the fast and the new year, called Naw Ruz, that it ushers in.

"There's no greater elated feeling than to come out of this period of fasting and meditations, and to welcome in the new year with all of these boosted spiritual cells in my body," she said.

- Contact reporter Sheryl Kay with any religion news at skreporter@hotmail.com or call 813 230-8788.

For more information on the Baha'i faith, call the Baha'i Center of Tampa at 963-0080.

[Last modified March 2, 2006, 13:56:08]