Eid is not just about celebrations and feasting, there is a spirit of Eid that we need to live up to.
AS we say goodbye to the month of Ramzan and welcome the festivity of Eid, it is as always those questions lurking in the mind. What do we make of all this? Have we done enough? What do we do in the rest of the year?
Ramzan is a school of patience, thoughtfulness, brotherhood, abstinence, empathy, mercy, kindness, love and humility. It is a time for spiritual refinement – a time where we reflect on our relationship not only with God but with our fellow human beings as well. To feel their pain; to share their joy; to care for the needy and the suffering; to bring a smile to someone’s face, even by our small acts and gestures; to share with the needy and less privileged; to share our food with the hungry; to share water with the thirsty; to make the sick a part of our prayers; to seek redemption; to become a better human being and help in creating a just and fair society. If this is what all of us sincerely believe in, then it should not end with Ramzan. It should not merely be restricted to the month of Ramzan and Eid should be just one milestone on that long journey to rekindle hope in humanity. Eid should actually be time to re-energize ourselves on that path; to make positive contributions for a better world. To achieve these goals, the qualities that we associate with the Ramzan should not remain exclusive to this month. As we bow our heads in repentance to God, let us also try to build relations with fellow humans, our own family and friends. Let us be grateful to God for the privileges that He has bestowed on us. Let us not crib about small issues. Let us think about the suffering we witness around us. Think about the orphans, in Kashmir, about the half-widows, about the innocent people lodged up in jails.
It is a time to reflect upon, especially for us Kashmiris, about what we have done to alleviate the suffering of the orphans and the half-widows in the State. Children who have nowhere to go and women, who, on the one hand, despite all the odds, keep their hopes alive that someday their husbands may return to them, but on the other have to go through the difficult and agonising grind of the day today life. The life of a widow, or a half-widow, is not easy anywhere in the world, let alone in a conservative society like Kashmir, where there is no institutional mechanism of redressing their pain. Where their own family and in-laws, rather than being a handhold, blame them for bringing misery in their lives. In the last more than two decades of conflict in Kashmir, the number of orphans has alarmingly increased. The State hardly has any time and inclination to have resources earmarked for the welfare of these orphans. In the absence of any State or institutional mechanism, it becomes imperative upon the civil society and the separatist leadership in Kashmir to take ownership of the problem of the orphans and the half-widows.
On this Eid, as a tribute to the innocent blood that has been shed in the State over the years, let us temper our celebrations a bit. Let us reflect on the endless violence that has engulfed us, before we become insensitive to the violence and suffering around us. If we want to rid ourselves of our hypocrisy, we have to seriously foster a deep and loving relationship with the needy, destitute, orphans and the sick. We have to be in their shoes to feel their pain.
ISLAM as a religion is not merely about rituals. It would be naive to assume or suggest that Gods only concern is about our ability to conform to a set of rules and rituals. These rules and rituals are just the way, the means and not the end and the destination. They just facilitate this spiritual journey of humans which would otherwise lose direction and purpose. Islam wants its followers to reach a stage where not only do they conform externally to the rules but instil righteousness of the heart. Similarly Islam helps grow humans into responsible and ethical living beings whose aim is not merely the satisfaction of their personal needs and desires but helping grow a balanced and just society which is at equilibrium and at peace with itself. Islam lays a lot of emphasis on overall human good, which will come about if we dedicate ourselves to the service of the orphans, the widows, the needy, the sick and the downtrodden. This should be the benchmark if we want to know whether fasting and praying in Ramzan has made any serious and positive difference to our lives.
Let us pray for those who stand up for truth and justice, who stand up for the cause of humanity. Let us show, at least in our prayers, solidarity with all those people. If not anything else, let, at least, a prayer on our lips be for them. Let us bring joy to at least one person, if not more, on this Eid, if only by a small gesture. To participate in the process of positive change, we do not have to necessarily get into any acts of heroism, small gestures would do. Small actions on our part, individually, when multiplied, can bring in transformation. Let us rise above mere grandstanding. Let us not make it a consumerist carnival. Because the more we worry about our own personal comforts and put our individual happiness at the centre of our lives, the less we care for others.
Here is wishing you all a happy Eid. May its radiance and happiness spread far and wide and may it be the cause of spreading joy and brotherhood. May it be the reason to remind us of the forgotten cause of human brotherhood!
Note: The article was first published in 2012. It is reproduced with minor changes.
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