After a month long fasting, here is the day of Eid. The moment of celebration. But this celebration is not like any other worldly occasion where having fun is the end of it all.
Eid symbolises a sanctified joy. We are happy that we spent a month where we nurtured our soul. Ramadhan is the time to get closer to our God.
It is the time we clean our souls off all wrong and ugly. We purify ourselves. We come closer to God, and we earn his pleasure.
During this month we pray more, we remember God more, we help others more, and we do good deeds with a sense of earning more reward.
This is the time we desist from wrongs, and embrace piety. It is a month that instills in us the loft ideal called God-Conciousness, Taqwa as the book of Allah explains it.
This God-Conciousness is the fountainhead of goodness, of sublime character, and of humility. It connects us to God, on the one hand. On the other, it connects us to mankind.
What does that mean. Connecting to God means that we are conscious of the fact that whatever we do, God knows it all. A day is going to come when we will be rewarded for all our good deeds, and punished for the bad.
Connecting to mankind means that all good flows from us towards fellow humans.
It means we help those who are in need. It means all our transactions with the people are based on trust, on compassion, and on love. It means we cannot even think of doing harm to others.
It means we prefer others over ourselves. It means we do everything we can to bring ease to others. It means we are truthful in all our dealings. We are honest to core, and we mean what we say.
We are truthful, upright, and virtuous in all the ways we relate to others. Eid is an occasion we celebrate this character – being close to God and His creatures in a truthful and beneficial manner.
Unfortunately, we are far from this point of celebration. The way we conduct our business during Ramadhan, especially the last days, it tells an entirely different story about our character.
We resort to hoarding, profiteering, and all the wrong practices during these days. Nothing can be more tragic than this.
It turns the occasion of joy, into a moment of remorse and guilt.