Eid Challenge… Ma’as Salama ya Ramadhan Mubarak

Sadly,we will soon have to usher out Ramadhan 1435H. May Allah bless and reward us for our Ramadhan deeds. May He grant us good health and long life to greet more Ramadhans InsyaAllah.

As we busy ourselves with preparations to greet Eid (baking, cooking, cleaning the house), we should pause to reflect to ensure our Eid celebration is a continuation of our triumph over our nafsu in Ramadhan. InsyaAllah our Ramadhan has been a month  of spiritual and physical abstinence from backbiting and controlling our anger. Spiritually we hope to have increased our Ibadah (worship) by doing more supererogatory solat (non fardh), establishing regular duha and tahajjud, qiyamullail, reciting and understanding the Quran (tadarus), and performing sunnah fasts on Mondays (the day our beloved Prophet Muhammad, SAW, was born) and Thursdays as well as 13th, 14th, 15th of Hijri month. 

What then is the challenge of Eid? For me its definitely not to overeat and to continue with my amal Ibadah. However this year more than any other, as my 8 year old daughter acquires better understanding, I need to start teaching her the difference between religious and cultural practices of Eid. Why do I see this need? Because I see many youths today still not fully grasping the essence of Eid.They see Eid as a month long celebration of feasting just as Ramadhan was a month of abstinence. I myself only understood it as an adult.

What exactly am I talking about? Its the cultural practice of of visiting graves, of visiting friends and family to seek forgiveness, of throwing open houses, and feasting for a month. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against visiting friends & relatives, seeking forgiveness nor having feasts, but throughout the month? I know some laugh it off – we fast a month so we feast a month. Its our culture. What’s wrong? It’s wrong if we’re in the “Eid Spirit” and turn up at someone’s door at 10.30 pm, or call at 10 pm saying you are mere 10 mins away, and do not turn up until midnight? Your host may need to work the next day, or may have young children or elderly parents. And why only seek forgiveness on Eid day or in the month of Syawal? Is seeking/giving forgiveness only done in Syawal? Why not do it at every parting of ways because who knows when we may have offended someone with an off the guard remark, or if we indeed live long enough until the next Eid?

Let us continue in the months following Ramadhan to maintain our body in a spiritually and physically optimal state, InsyaAllah.

 

by A.a. Sumadri
by A.a. Sumadri

 

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