EID – Recurring Happiness
By Imam Abdullah El-Amin
December 31 will close out the solar calendar year and it will be the day of the holiday for Muslims the world over. Eid commemorates and celebrates the two most significant times of the year for Muslims; the fast in the month of Ramadan, and the completion of the hajj. The literal meaning of Eid is a recurring happiness. Eid is the time of the year when we are most happy. Eid ul Fitr brings us happiness because we have finished our thirty day fast and we are able to eat any time of the day. You are also thrilled to see people you may not have seen since last Eid.
Eid ul Adha brings us a recurring happiness as we relive great moments in religious history. We focus on the Prophet Ibrahim as he and his son, Ismail raised the Kaaba to the worship of only one G-d. We focus on the Prophet Muhammad (s) as he observed and demonstrated the hajj. We retrace his steps from Mecca to Medina, to Arafat, Muzdalifa, and back to Mecca. Each step brings us great happiness and pleasure as we reminisce the rituals.
Further, we are in absolute awe as we retrace the steps of Mother Hagar (as) in her desperate attempt to find water for her son Ismail – and the blessing of Zam Zam springing up. These events are certainly great reasons for feeling a recurring happiness and they come every year as a blessing to the believing Muslims.
This year, the blessing of recurring happiness is a blessed relief from the stress, strife, and turmoil of the past year. There has been an excessive amount of violence, mostly emanating from the religious quarters of the world. It seems the “holiest place on earth,†Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions have their birth and/or historic base. It is especially sad to see so much violence among people who profess to follow the Islamic faith.
The war in Iraq was started and based on a lie by an American president who had the lowest ratings of any president just into his first full year. President Bush was in deep trouble until some “so-called†supposedly Muslims gave him a roadmap for the destruction of Islam. Of course the destruction of this faith will never happen because ALLAH has decreed that Islam will not only survive, but will become victorious.
Nevertheless, these guys put the brakes on the enhancement and escalation of the best religion on earth. And who is hurt most by their actions? We are. The world looks at Islam with a negative eye and gives the enemies of ALLAH ammunition to fight with. I was with a young sister from Lebanon the other day and she was so angry at Hamas and Fatah, she was almost venting fire. “If these guys hate Israel so much, and they both claim Israel as their enemy, why are they making Israel’s work so easy,†she said. It makes me wonder if they, and “All Israel has to do is sit back and watch them kill each other…and laugh. And the pitiful thing about it is neither group can get past the separation wall unless they are allowed to by Israeli guards.
And while we’re on the subject of Israel, someone needs to tell the Iranian president that having conferences that doubt the Jewish Holocaust ever happened is another tool for Arab and Muslim rejection. Why waste time denying the Holocaust when no one believes you anyway. And to bring in someone like David Duke to verify your outrageous accusations only makes it worse. The Qur’an clearly states that “when someone of dubious character comes to you with something, first ascertain the truth – lest you unwittingly harm someone.†I can think of few people in the world with less character than David Duke.
ALLAH sends us relief by giving us Recurring Happiness. Let’s focus on that blessing.
As Salaam Alaikum
(Al Hajj) Abdullah Bey El-Amin
2006
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