Eid'ul-Fitr: The Celebration of the Festival of Quran's Revelation by Dr.

Manzoor-ul-Haque Inquiries from numerous places have been initiated to know as to the honor of which ceremony, the Eid-ul-fitr is celebrated and that what the purpose of this festival is. The answer tendered to this question is that at the eve of Ramazan - and that of its ending - Eid-ul-Fitr is, in deed, a sacred function of the annual celebration of the Quran's revelation. Allah (twt), in Surah Younas, ordains the Messenger (S) to announce: "It is only through the Rahmat of your Rabb that you have received this (Book). You should, therefore, rejoice over it. This is more precious to you than all the wealth that you may amass."(10:58) Usually the festivals of jubilation and rejoicing are celebrated in the world for the change of the seasons or for establishing the monument of any person or for preserving any prominent event of history. But what Islam declares is this: The change of season takes place according to the Law of Allah; the human's monuments can perish and the world's events can be made to forget. But the message of Allah preserved in the Quran can never vanish - the charge of its preservation He got unto Himself; He who is alive and can never die; is so lasting that He has neither any decadence, nor is destined to decay. This rejoicing Festival of Eid is the monument of the revelation of The Quran, the living and lasting Book of Allah, the Allah who is the Living and the Everlasting. For this purpose preparations are made all over the month of Ramazan for the celebration of this festival (those preparations are, in deed, the integral part of this Festival, and the E'takaaf as well). Islam is the name of obedience to the Divine Laws - not the obedience by compulsion but the obedience from the core of the heart. It is the accomplishment of the Laws in such a way that a true subordinate to these Laws can not even touch a thing, unlawful and unrecognized. It is s/he, in whose hands, no illegitimate loss can be rendered to the property, life, honor and chastity of any human. For the consolidation of this very passion of obedience, it has been ordered that in compliance to this Law, even the thing lawful and pleasing be left for some time so that there be never any casting of the eye to the thing unlawful and unrecognized. They, the Muslims, are made habitual in the month of Ramzan to bear the intense pangs of hunger and thirst all the day over so that they are addicted to pass smilingly and steadfastly through the extremely difficult stages of their life struggle. This month of Ramzan is, as if, an Annual Training Camp in which provisions are made to revitalize the new inspirations in life. It is a refresher course, a memoria technica, to reinvigorate the memorandum, - that in which the direct link between Allah and man is refreshed to consolidate the Law of Requital and, of course, the development of the personality. It is stock taking through which we have to evaluate the sum total of our deeds and consequences spread over the whole year to oversee as to what extent we have marched ahead on this scale in one year. It is the process for inculcating growth in the tender feelings of heart, the development of vision in eyes, the sharpening of minds and the invigoration of psyche during the obedience to Allah's Laws in the program of a complete month with the labor of hard work. When this month elapses, they are ordered to assemble at a place to sit jointly and to contemplate as to what they have to do to achieve and regulate the life at par with the characteristic features of those who follow the Laws of Allah. They are made to manifest the contracts enfolded in the Quran vividly glistening, like the true diamonds. As a result of this contemplation they may develop such a program, which their selected leader (Imam) may announce in his address. After that, their representatives with this decisive program may start going to the concrete capital of the Islamic Ummah (i.e. the House of Allah at Mecca) where, in the light of these various local programs, a common system is devised for the all Ummah. It is these - the various integers of this mirthful festival and the brief outline of its integral parts. This is the EID-UL-FITR. Keep these in view. And then reflect how have these very festivals, which were to make the living hopes bounce on every facet of its vastness, and to fresh the thrilling invigoration of the human psyche, have gradually transformed into the icons of rituals? Allama Iqbal (R) has very rightly

mourned over this sad state of affairs: That Blood no longer remain in thy veins That heart, that craving no more in thy life Thou hast the prayer, the fasting, the sacrifice, the Hajj: All in rituals alive in thee But thou hast lost thyself. Are we prepared to accept it and act accordingly? Dr. Manzoor-ul-Haque PAKISTAN