Eid-ul-Fitr: Meaning and Celebration by Mr Tariq Rasool- a kashmir based

ournalist
Festival represents the cultural and civilizational aspect of a particular
nation or religion. In this world of nationalistic diversity, every nation or
religion has it own particular festival celebrated on a particular day and date in
a particular context, with happiness and ecstasy.

There is specific historicity behind every festival celebrated in this diverse

world.
In this post-modernistic world, these reformative, lessoned and enlightening
festivals are now confined to carnality, voluptuousness and hilarity. People are
celebrating these festivals in such a manner that every body fails to get the
essence of a particular Festival, self development. People have distorted the real
illustration of the things. Be it Eid or Christmis, Dewali or Ram Navami; all
these and other festivals have lost the real sprit which needs immediate
attention. There is specific mode of celebrating a particular festival in the
religion of Islam, which is beyond human distortions, carnality, voluptuousness
and hilarity; therefore one feels real happiness while celebrating a festival
according to demands of Islam. Muslims have two important and main festivals Eid-
Ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azaha.
Festivals usually commemorate some famous event (some religious personality's
birth or some victory they achieved over their opponents) but the celebration at
'Id-ul-Fitr does not commemorate any such event. We celebrate our own achievement
during the previous month of Ramadaan. It is actually Ramadaan which marks a
famous event, that of the beginning of the revelation of the Holy Quran to the
Holy Prophet.
Eid-Ul-Fitr is celebrated at the end of the Ramadaan, which is the most important
month in Islamic Calendar. Allah's words were revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
through the angel during the month of Ramadaan, and the words were written down to
form the Holy Qur'an. Prophet Muhammad declared the last day of Ramzan to
celebrate Eid ul Fitr and strengthening the feeling of brotherhood.
These Islamic festivals have some distinguished peculiarities, like religious and
congregational consciousness along with nationalistic virtuosity. Islam
encompasses everything related to the day to day life and demands absolute and
unconditional devotion to Almighty Allah in all aspects of life including
celebrating twin Islamic festivals. There is no place for emulating other
religions, cultures of civilizations or nations; Islam has its unique culture and
civilization, which is weakening day by day due to the incomprehension among the
Muslim Community. Islamic has its peculiar point of view about life and its
activities. The way of Islam encompasses all aspects of human life is its
peculiarity. Our twin Islamic festivals are no more now Islamic but people are
emulating things from outside and have distorted the festivities by intermixing
Western and European cultural elements with these festivals, with out knowing the
ill effects of this mixing. Islam has its own unique culture and one should not
follow un-Islamic patterns while celebrating festivals, instead should adhere to
the ways that are taught by Islamic culture.
Today in this Post-Modernistic wolrd, the Muslim community instead of preferring
the Islamic teachings in celebrating festivities is feeling proud to follow
outside cultures from Western and European world. Almighty Allaha has bestowed
Muslim Ummah (brethren) with tow gifts - the Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azaha, so we
should take utmost care and follow Islamic teachings while celebrating this
festival. Instead of indulging in carnality, voluptuousness and hilarity, we
should stress on religious and collective consciousness. It is tragic that
without trying to know the real sprit of Eid the Muslim community in the world
remains busy in an unending feast from dawn to dusk, even the preparations for the
grand day begin days in advance which indicates that the people have linked Eid
day inextricably with feasts which is totally against the very spirit of the day.
The essence of Eid is to develop unity among the Ummah, but in contemporary
materialistic world we are going after our own instincts and keep the Quran and
Sunnah aside. We prefer and are proud to be the followers of so called modernized
cultures and never try to think about following Islamic Culture; instead, we are
modernizing, and Westernizing the same. We are individualizing the congregational
happiness rather than sharing our happiness within Muslim brethren.
We should wipe out all the religious, sectarian or social inequalities. Let us
start from this Eid and let us celebrate it with the consciousness of beig a part
of a bigger entity. We should prefer Islamic teachings over our instincts. Eid
demands from us the creation of united, peaceful and humanistic society. We should
celebrate Eid in way that bring us closer to it, so that we can benefit our
society. It is tragic that Muslim community is celebrating, with great amount of
enthusiasm festivals that are no part of our history and cultural identity and
about their own cultural events they are not very much conscious.
Another disturbing thing about our ways of celebration is that we are given to
much mundane activities and fun and hardly visit our neighbors, relatives and
friends who may require us on the day of celebration. We never share our joys with
the larger fraternity and remain confined to our own selves. We make no attempt to
get closer to our neighbors, friends and relatives on this day. One can not get
the happiness of Eid until he helps the needy in his society who are not able to
celebrate the day as they have no money to buy some good food and fresh clothing.
One should make it a point to find out if any of the neighbors, friends and
relatives required some help.
Eid must remind us of our cultural moorings and moral values. One should not
neglect fundamental principles of our religion, prime values and central beliefs
in this modernistic world. We should revitalize the old memories when Eid was
celebrated with simplicity, and with the element of pomp and show. When people
never left their elders in solitude, when neighbors would sharing the joy with Eid
with each other, when rich people would feel happy about visiting a poor family;
when eid was a collective affair rather that highly individualistic.
Let us celibate today's Eid without indulging in pompous ways, which is creating
distances among our own people. Let us retrieve our lost Islamic values and
traditions by celebrating the Eid according to Islamic traditions. Let us
celebrate it the way it should be celebrated.

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