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Let this be the turning point for love to blossom

Nov 27, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
Allow me to share special Eid of Sacrifice greetings with all during this auspicious time of sharing and praying.
In the understanding of many, this is the time of having a meaty-feast and lots of family visiting, as the Believers globally enter a passionate race to donate their best animals and enjoy the best cuisines.
However, it must not be lost upon us, that this event is the commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to let go the most prized gift of his – his first born at a golden age- for attaining the ultimate spiritual experience. The good news is that God doesn’t need the meat or the sacrifice of one’s love in order to measure your sincerity nor gauge your truthfulness. The intention is what counts – rather the thoughtfulness is what really enriches any meaningful relationship.
In times of discourse sometimes one hears woefully hurtful things being said about our Patriarch that he did not fulfil his domestic duties when he chose to sacrifice his boy or when he had to leave his family in desert of Arabia. While we believe that Prophets are simply saintly and do not violate their infallibility yet many choose to make them the target of whimsical vilification. The truth of the matter is migration and its woes, sacrifice for love and its trials are as old as Adam and Eve. Many choose to migrate to another land with intention to join their loved ones later or vice versa. That’s the building block of most societies.
While I totally condemn and abhor suicide and pray people receive timely pastoral care in their depressive states, it’s no doubt that this sacrifice of Ishmael never took place and a lamb replaced him instead. How therefore can this be used to justify suicide or murder? Similarly it’s a fact of history that not only did Hagar and Ishmael not die in the dessert but an unstoppable fountain of water, a seed of unmatched vegetation and the foundation of a civilization rose out of their lotus of selfless devotion.
So as we share in the gleeful moments of this period where pilgrims remember Abraham and his family’s dedication, let’s not chase the moral of the dream to the edge of oblivion. Rather, let this be the turning point for love to blossom, prayers to be sincere, charities to be pure, friendship to be meaningful and respect of human life to be overarching.
Quran  2:177 It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards East or West; but it is righteousness- to believe in God and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfil the contracts which you have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the God-fearing.
As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams said on the occasion of Eid: My great hope for the coming year is that our festivals will increasingly be occasions of mutual gladness for our different communities and for the wider society of which we are part.
God bless!
Habeeb Alli

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