A different kind of Raya
All for the best
THIS Hari Raya Aidilfitri will change what Malaysian Muslims have been doing after a month of Ramadan since time immemorial. Balik kampung, the mass movement back home in every direction across land and sea, Hari Raya Aidilfitri (or Eid-ul-Fitr elsewhere) prayers in congregation at mosques, open houses and everything nice associated with the celebration will just be what we did last year. Call it Covid-19 caution. The Movement Control Order (MCO) that began on March 18 and moulted into Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) later does not permit interstate travel. Balik kampung is not possible without interstate travel as almost all Muslim families trace their roots to distant states. Balik kampung is such a habit, though a bad one during the Covid-19 pandemic, some 3,200 motorists were caught attempting to cross states at its peak. The police were kind enough to send them back where they came from. Let’s say the police spared them a more miserable Hari Raya Aidilfitri in detention centres.
Ramadan is essentially a time of rediscovery for Muslims, of the very purpose why we humans have been placed as khalifah or vicegerent of God on this Earth for a time. This is a “weighty burden of trust” in the words of Islamic scholar and philosopher Professor Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas. Writing in his tome, Prolegomena
to the Metaphysics of Islam, he says it is “the trust and responsibility to rule according to God’s will, purpose and His pleasure”. The “trust and responsibility” aren’t just for the rulers. Every individual must do that which is good, right and just. Not only to oneself, but also to fellow humans and other created things on this planet Earth. Ramadan is in one sense a month in which Muslims assess the right and the wrong things they have done in the previous year. For the former, they seek God’s blessings, and for the latter, they turn to Him in repentance with the promise to make all their tomorrows better than their yesterdays. It is for this reason that it is called a month of introspection and prayers, all aimed at the faithful getting closer to God. There is even a special prayer called
Tarawih that is only prayed during Ramadan. It is a month of restraint from food and other desires. Sadly, restraint is just a Ramadan affair for some. As these bid farewell to Ramadan, they tend to say goodbye to a life of moderation, too. Celebration is adorning garments that glitter like gold. Eating buffets from breakfast through lunch to dinner. Never mind if there are among us those who eat only a meal every other day. Or have no home to call their own. After a point, such affluence becomes effluence, neither useful for the rich nor the poor. Celebration is certainly not wrong. After all, the Arabic Eid means festivity. Like the restraint of Ramadan, so must those of other months be. The good, right and just must not only be a one-month way. It must be a way of life, as Islam is. Perhaps Covid-19 has come to tell us to return to the way of moderation. The way of placing everything in its right place, as Professor Syed Naquib would put it. For this, thanks be to God. Have a blessed Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
Perhaps Covid-19 has come to tell us to return to the way of moderation. The way of placing everything in its right place...