Time, as we all know, moves in just one direction \u2014 forward, always forward. Could it ever stop, or slow down, or even move backwards?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout history countless curious writers, philosophers, and scientists have pondered that question, contemplating the linear nature of the onward progress of the ticking time clock that regulates this material existence, and wondering how we might possibly step outside of its relentless tyranny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But nobody has a time machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RELATED: How the Bab\u2019s New Calendar Transforms Time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Time moves on, second after second, in mounting minutes, hours, and days. Once the present turns into the past, we\u2019ve lost it forever. The clock and the calendar stop for no one \u2014 which may explain why the Baha\u2019i<\/a> teachings designate a special period each year for joy and gladness that symbolically transcends time, the annual Baha\u2019i holy days known as Intercalary Days, or Ayyam-i-Ha. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Baha\u2019is all around the world are celebrating those holy days right now, remembering that an eternal Creator is not bound by physical time. That timeless concept \u2014 as well as the definition of the Arabic word \u201cHa\u201d \u2014 takes some explaining to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how it works on the physical level: every year, the four-day (or five-day, in a leap year) Baha\u2019i Intercalary period precedes the last month in the Baha\u2019i calendar, known as \u201cAla,\u201d or \u201cLoftiness.\u201d During that subsequent month, Baha\u2019is all over the world take part in the annual Baha\u2019i Fast, 19 days of inner reflection, abstention from food and drink during the daylight hours, and prayer and meditation. During the Fast, this \u201cseason of restraint,\u201d as Baha\u2019u\u2019llah <\/a>called it, Baha\u2019is endeavor to observe<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n On a more spiritual level, during the Baha\u2019i month of fasting and in the Intercalary days that precede it, our limited human perceptions can sometimes allow us a brief impression, an experience of the transcendent reality beyond the mere material aspects of our existence \u2014 or, as Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha\u2019i <\/a>Faith, put it<\/a> in the book \u201cPrinciples of Baha\u2019i Administration,\u201d gazing \u201cbeyond the curve of time:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meditating upon these sublime attributes, man is enabled to gaze beyond the curve of time, wherein the swing and change of planetary movements exists, to the eternal qualities that stabilize the soul. As the seasons return with their quaternary beauty, as the seed sacrifices to the mystery of the harvest, we see reflected in the mirror of the physical world the spiritual spring-time when the Word of God is planted in the heart of man by the coming of God\u2019s Messengers. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n RELATED: The Inner Meanings of the Baha\u2019i Intercalary Days<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So the Baha\u2019i observance of Ayyam-i-Ha \u2014 which literally means \u201cthe Days of Ha\u201d \u2013 in one sense represents the act of transcending that \u201ccurve of time.\u201d The Baha\u2019i Intercalary Days are named after the Arabic word Ha<\/em>, the fifth letter of the Arabic alphabet, because it symbolizes the timeless essence of God, as just one of its many meanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the Baha\u2019i Intercalary Days, those sacred days \u201coutside of time,\u201d unbounded by any specific month in the calendar, we can all celebrate and commemorate the greatness of God beyond any individual attributes we associate with the Supreme Being. Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/a>, the prophet and founder of the Baha\u2019i Faith, wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have ordained that these, amid all nights and days, shall be the manifestations of the letter Ha, and thus they have not been bounded by the limits of the year and its months. It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name … <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So during these Intercalary Days the joy, good cheer, and exultation of the world\u2019s Baha\u2019is encourages everyone to celebrate the liveliness and exuberance the Creator has instilled in all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time, as we all know, moves in just one direction \u2014 forward, always forward. Could it ever stop, or slow down, or even move backwards? 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