While celebrating the holy festival of Eid-ul-Fitr today with traditional religious fervour, amid tight precautionary measures to thwart any unpredictable terrorist onslaught, many among the faithful in Pakistan will undoubtedly share the perception as based on the pleasant turn of the situation, generally speaking, of peaceful conditions throughout the holy month of fasting. For, thanks to the Blessings of Allah, they were enabled to fulfil their religious obligations in an environment of relative calm.
However, while enjoying the seemingly pleasant change at home, many will be saddened by the plight of their brethren-in-faith in the war ravaged Muslim lands, from countless killings of civilian population and destruction and desecration of holy places, particularly in Iraq.
Hence, amid solemn festivities to mark the day, the people will be inclined to pray for Almighty Allah's forgiveness to the Muslim Ummah for its sins of omission and commissions over a very long period in history.
At this particular juncture, the sad plight the Muslim peoples resulting from recourse to terrorism by an influential minority, among them, is also largely attributable to their thoughtless deviation from His chosen Path as defined in the Holy Quran and the traditions of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The silent majority of simple, peaceful and God-fearing Muslims the world over, including Pakistan, have been increasingly concerned over the sway of extraneous ideas emanating from ill-conceived pretensions of Islamic thrust.
This, indeed, has reference to the creeping influences of really unacceptable social, political and cultural attitudes in the Muslim societies on a widening scale. That these dangerous trends, built around intolerance and extremist ideas, climaxed into insidiously planned terror, has spelled disaster for the entire Muslim Ummah, is indisputable.
However, the shock waves sent by its alarming consequences unfolding from time to time and from place to place seem to have started beckoning the enlightened among the Muslims to focus the searchlight for serious heart searching.
It is certainly a challenging task, but there is no alternative to it. Due note of its urgency has certainly been taken by Pakistan as also by certain other countries, which indeed, a healthy trend, quite in keeping with the teachings of the Holy Quran, the last of Allah's Messages to the humankind.
Now that peace can be seen gradually returning to Pakistan from the long sway of mounting killings and disturbances, thereby enabling the people to observe Eid in true Islamic spirit, it certainly provides an ideal occasion for making a firm resolve to return to the social values proclaimed by Islam, which are essentially aimed at ensuring peace and tranquillity that holds the key to the progress and prosperity of the human race.
Needless to point out, this is one sure way of making the world a better place to live in as also to practice our true faith. As this approach alone can help rehabilitate the real image of the Muslims and remove the stigma now attaching to them it is high time, for the Muslim countries as a group, to pursue the effort for renascence in all seriousness.
While wishing a happy Eid to Muslims the world over, we would also urge them to dedicate the day for praying to Allah for the spread of real Islamic spirit among the Muslim peoples.