In celebrating the thanksgiving festival of Eid-ul-Fitr, following the holy month of fasting, with traditional religious fervour, the occasion is dotted with a deep sense of sadness, unlike in the past.
This, of course, has reference to the unprecedented earthquake of October 8 that instantly spelled massive disaster in large parts of NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
The calamitous shaking of the mountains and valleys, leading to uncountable deaths, and leaving innumerable number of men, women and children, badly injured, with many buried alive under the debris of their homes, sent a wave of trauma all over the country.
However, coming in the month of fasting and prayers to Almighty Allah, it made most among the faithful genuinely reflect on their sins of omission and commission, seeking His forgiveness with a genuine sense of humility. For natural calamities, like earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis, are believed to serve a Divine purpose in the scheme of human existence.
For one thing, they serve as a warning to man, who has remained engaged in constant pursuit of deriving more and more material advantages and luxuries from nature's phenomena, the effort being lately identified as some kind of a bid for the conquest of universe.
However, viewing the mind-boggling advancement of science and technology as part of that endeavour, many may be inclined to attribute such calamities as paying a price for it.
Generally speaking, natural calamities down the ages, as perceived by the believers, mean a test of their faith in Allah's mercy, as also their capacity to endure nature's furies. Needless to point out, such disasters are always apt to promptly arouse an irresistible urge readily to submit to Allah's Will.
This was, precisely why people all over country, understandably, overwhelmed by a sense of deep grief over the human sufferings from the nightmarish calamity, took to earnest prayers for forgiveness from the Almighty Allah, more so in Taravih prayers.
Sudden awakening to the reality of oneness of their faith, the ardour displayed in prayers for the life and safety of those directly, or indirectly, affected by the devastating tremors, has remained fully discernible in response to spontaneous appeals for their relief and rehabilitation.
Unprecedented, indeed, was the sense of compassion with which, forgetting all ethnic, sectarian and political differences, they rose like one man in rushing with whatever they could contribute to alleviate the woes of the earthquake victims, individually and collectively.
Recalling that until very recently Pakistan constituted a variously divided country, the unity in thought and action, as now amply visible has welded it into a well-knit nation. It will also be noted that the welcome change has affected the usual preparations for Eid-ul-Fitr.
For from all indications, the traditional element of extravagance in expenditure has remained rather subdued, with more thought going into the duty of contributing more to the relief and rehabilitation of the earthquake victims, in which the world community's contribution has been found much less than matching to the task.
One has every reason to hope that the welcome change in thought and action of the Pakistani people, will be strongly reflected in everybody's earnest prayers to the Almighty Allah, this Eid, to make Pakistan a truly progressive and prosperous nation capable of not only solving its own problems but also making a worthy contribution to world peace.