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.

VIII:  “Glorified be Thy name, O Lord my God!  Thou...”

Glorified be Thy name, O Lord my God!  Thou beholdest my dwelling-place, and the prison into which I am cast, and the woes I suffer.  By Thy might!  No pen can recount them, nor can any tongue describe or number them.  I know not, O my God, for what purpose Thou hast abandoned me to Thine adversaries.  Thy glory beareth me witness!  I sorrow not for the vexations I endure for love of Thee, nor feel perturbed by the calamities that overtake me in Thy path.  My grief is rather because Thou delayest to fulfill what Thou hast determined in the Tablets of Thy Revelation, and ordained in the books of Thy decree and judgment.

My blood, at all times, addresseth me saying:  “O Thou Who art the Image of the Most Merciful!  How long will it be ere Thou riddest me of the captivity of this world, and deliverest me from the bondage of this life?  Didst Thou not promise me that Thou shalt dye the earth with me, and sprinkle me on the faces of the inmates of Thy Paradise?” To this I make reply:  “Be thou patient and quiet thyself.  The things thou desirest can last but an hour.  As to me, however, I quaff continually in the path of God the cup of His decree, and wish not that the ruling of His will should cease to operate, or that the woes I suffer for the sake of my Lord, the Most Exalted, the All-Glorious, should be ended.  Seek thou my wish and forsake thine own.  Thy bondage is not for my protection, but to enable me to sustain successive tribulations, and to prepare me for the trials that must needs repeatedly assail me.  Perish that lover who discerneth between the pleasant and the poisonous in his love for his beloved!  Be thou satisfied with what God hath destined for thee.  He, verily, ruleth over thee as He willeth and pleaseth.  No God is there but Him, the Inaccessible, the Most High.”

IX:  “Magnified be Thy name, O Lord my God!  I know...”

Magnified be Thy name, O Lord my God!  I know not what the water is with which Thou hast created me, or what the fire Thou hast kindled within me, or the clay wherewith Thou hast kneaded me.  The restlessness of every sea hath been stilled, but not the restlessness of this Ocean which moveth at the bidding of the winds of Thy will.  The flame of every fire hath been extinguished except the Flame which the hands of Thine omnipotence have kindled, and whose radiance Thou hast, by the power of Thy name, shed abroad before all that are in Thy heaven and all that are on Thy earth.  As the tribulations deepen, it waxeth hotter and hotter.