on to celeberate id

As the faithful finish with the shab-e-qadr (equivalent to 1000 nights as per Quran) the zealotry of the faithful for Ramzan is suddenly on wane……it even takes a 180 degree turn. For here after, it is only the id preparations that the people will be busy with. The mad rush of the believers to Masjids is replaced by their mind boggling shopping spree of eatables and garments in the markets (bazaars). For the next many days before and after id newspapers and hoardings would carry ads of id Mubarak to ‘ahl-e-islam’ for having observed fasts. It would not be many days before the people come out of the frenzy of id celebrations.

The last ashra (ten days), the ashra of azaadi (the liberation from Hell) of Ramzan has since set in. It succeeds the ashras of rahmat (blessing/mercy) and magfirat (salvation).  As the month of piety, sacrifice, patience and earning virtues is about to finish, believers are sad. Tears welled up in their eyes the emotionally charged lot bid goodbye reciting ‘alwida, -aiy mah-e-Ramzan, alwida’. With her eyes wet when ‘mother’ was alive, she would recite ‘Arfa choui aalmus, id chaii aashqus’.

The month long fasting has been a realm in which believers learnt about discipline because there was so much at stake. During Ramzan, as devils were locked up, the faithful could take notice of their shortcomings; jealousies, envy, overzealous competition, love of gossip etc. As these traits became clear as enemy it was easier to defeat than slinking one. The general fasting of stomach and other biological needs could be had by any one, but the fasting of elect--- protecting the eyes, ears, tongue, hands, stomach, genitals and feet against sin, small or large----was something people were not sure whether they succeeded in or not.

What if they were amongst those wretched fellows who fasted but gained nothing except hunger and thirst? It worried them a lot that outwardly their fasts seemed fine, but inwardly they might have broken their fasts with such things as backbiting, lustful glances, lies, and other violations of the inward fast. Imagine their fasts, nimaaz, reciting Quran, alms (Zakaat), khairat and the waking for in search of the shab-e-qadr did not fetch them anything. 

But then a section of the believers that diffidently observed fasts, heave a sigh of relief. To them the days of their suffering/miseries are now over. There won’t be any more curfews on freak outs; life will once again return to normal. No body on earth would stop them from nibbling, smoking and the like. For a month of many Sundays and Fridays, in the dead of ‘the wakey nights’, the insomniac sahar khan unceasingly beat the cacophonic drum, so much so they would rather strangle the mad guy for driving off their dewy –feathered sleep. Now onwards they would be able to sleep like logs.

During the holy month of Ramzan imams, preachers, and religious leaders had all the time to celebrate. Their professional competence, their eloquence to persuade audience, their skills of oratory and recitation of Quran (qiraat) were all on test. For poor and wretched these were the days of piss and vinegar, and for the professional beggars, swindlers and charlatans Ramzan was nothing but a ‘nabba treth’, the windfall, and a gift from God. In the name of Zakaat, sudaqa and khairat (charity) they would rake in heaps by employing every possible method of trickery.       

The holy month is god given opportunity for Muslims to earn ‘sawaab’, by following the teachings of Islam and purifying heart after refraining from violence, anger, envy, greed and the like. It is now up to the people whether they succeeded in getting along each other better than normal. For the lucky fellows certainly the id is the reward…..Id Mubarak