A Call to Compassion, Patience and Peace between Muslims in this Season

Personally, as I was saying on my Facebook status, my family and I are not in a very festive mood on this festival. But our prayers are for everyone to receive all the blessings of Eid.

One very important note that I have been working on, on behalf of the MPV, is the following. Please do ponder it and sign the pledge if you see fit:

(Click on the graphic to download Eid Song)

In The Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Mabrook! Eid Mubarak. Have a Blessed Eid.

Ramadan Kareem! The Noble Month of Ramadan is coming to and end and the blessed festival of Eid-ul-Fitr is upon us. It is a time when Muslims the world over focus on spirituality, compassion, patience, peace and the joys of having completed a month of fasting for the pleasure of God. Two months and ten days from now, we will all celebrate Eid-ul-Adha, the time of the year when we focus on sacrifice, humility, dedication to our faith, and the blessings of the pilgrimage for our community. ‘Tis the season, as the saying goes, to renew our deen, our faith in Islam, a religion that derives its very name from the same root as a word for peace.

Over the years, three or four clear positions have evolved within the global Muslim community and particularly in North America with regards the method of determining the dates of these holy days and month, with some advocating for local moonsightings, others preferring to follow Saudi Arabia, yet others relying upon astronomical calculations, and so on. Each group holds its position in all sincerity and with great passion; each group has faith, tradition, and logic to back up its position. Unfortunately, the differences in approach, and the strength with which each position is held, often lead to disrespectful exchanges within the community, and even to lasting grudges and ill will between neighbors, friends, and members of local congregations.

This year, and in future years, we at the Muslims for Progressive Values would like to invite everyone who identifies themselves with the community of Muslims, or who participates in the cultural life of the Muslim community, to make a commitment to engage with people who hold different positions on the matter of dates and calendars (or any other issue) with respect, good will, and compassion. If we can pass this test of fraternity within the community, if we can treat other Muslims with respect whether we agree or disagree, and do so without losing sight of what holds us together and makes us brothers and sisters in our faith and our humanity; if we can do that, then we can try to begin fulfilling our role as the upholders of peace and justice and truly be the best of communities.

The month of Ramadan, the Hajj season, and the days of the Eids are some of the most blessed moments of our calendar, let us try to fill them with peace, compassion, and good will towards all humanity; and let us start within our community.

Have a blessed Eid, and please sign this pledge:

We pledge to engage with respect and good will towards those who hold views different from ours on the calendar of our festivals. Wa Allahu Aalam, only the Almighty has perfect knowledge.

at http://www.petitiononline.com/EidPeace/petition.html

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Eid - Moon Fighting

Eid Mubarak: A Discussion about Compassion, Patience and Peace

Published on alt.muslim, November 3, 2005.

Eid Mubarak, we say today; Mabrook! Have a Blessed Eid.

It's a wholesome, almost New Age greeting.

But within the community, we all know there is a whole lot of whining and carping, with almost all of us taking one of three stands: a) the need to stay true to tradition and actually sight the moon, b) the need to follow the dates in the Holy Land (currently manifested in the form of the geo-politicaly entity known as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) or c) the need to get with the times and science and use the wonderful blessings of science in these highly evolved times and go totally scientific and take the uncertainty out of the calendar (never mind that the suggested "fixed" calendar has been around for centuries--our wonderfully well-educated friends still insist it is the fruits of modern science that make this possible, but I digress). All three sides complain that it is a sign of the state the Ummah is in that we don't all just agree on one date--of course, with their preferred option being the one that should be adopted.

But let's look beyond the carping: what happens in practice is pretty cut-and-dried; some mosques hold prayers one day, some do it on others. And for the common Muslim, that rarely-mentioned aspect of Islam, Ijma, or the democratic consensus of the community, rules the day, and you go to pray where your neighbours and friends--that is, your community--does. And all the while the three types of whining proceed without interruption, A very few of us, in my experience, point to that one tradition of The Prophet that we have been told about: the one that says that even if you see the moon yourself but your community celebrates on the "wrong" date, you should celebrate with the community.

But here's the point I would really like to make on this eve the festival--a night our elders tell us is one of the most blessed, sanctified nights of the year, right up there with the Night of Mi'raj (the Acsension) and the Night of Qadr (Power):

Why not look at the issue of community from the opposite angle; have you considered the possibility that, uncertainty or not uncertainty, this is a test? If we can't stay civil while we disagree on this matter and continue to love each other as fellows in one faith, what chance do we have of ever rising above other disagreements; like the ones that so often lead some of us to call others kafirs and murtad and so on?

Think about it; we never tire of telling others that Ramazan is the month when we are supposed to work on building the spirit of charity, patience, and compassion within ourselves--but the moment it's over, in fact, on the very topic of when it's over, we turn into inflexible, it's-my-way-or-you're-a-braindead-bigot fanatics. And I AM talking about all sides; those who would rather follow traditional interpretations AS WELL AS those who would rather follow the Holy Land AS WELL AS those who love science and go on endlessly about how much wonderful progress humanity has made and how we can now determine to the milimicrosecond the birth of the new moon. If this wasn't such a holy night, my next sentence would have included the words "pox", "all" and "houses". Instead, in the language of the industry I spend my days working for:

The uncertainty is a feature, not a bug--read the doc.

Let us try to see if we can agree to disagree with each other in Peace, with patience and compassion, as a community, a Jama'ah, an Ummah.

We never tire of saying that the word "Islam" comes from the root "Salaam", or peace. When we claim to be Muslims, we are saying we are "those that have Peace" (Ma'As Salaam); the community that adopts peace as our way. So my brothers and sisters--let's adopt peace in our own persons and within the community. Let us, in this holy season, not just tell CSPAN and CNN about it; let us start with our own communities and practice it towards each other; let us feel it; let us live it.

As Salaam Alaikum, and Eid Mubarak; Peace Be On You and have a Blessed Eid.

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Postscript, November 3, 2005:
The Zaytuna Institute's position this year on the matter, while critical of the decision to celebrate on Thursday, repeats the spirit of my post in their penultimate paragraph:

"However, there is another consideration, that is the spirit and intent of 'Id. As one of the great signs of Allah, whose underlying spirit is unity, and celebration, we feel that if a Muslim is in an area where the overwhelming majority of his/her community, family, and friends are celebrating the 'Id on Thursday, November 3, 2005. He/she should join them if his/her heart is at peace with that decision. However, he/she should make up the day out of precaution as soon as possible."
[The full article is at: http://www.zaytuna.org/articleDetails.asp?articleID=86 ]