One believes that Eid-ul-Fitr celebration on Sunday in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) will not only generate a traditional but heightened interest on the subject of two Eids in the country, but it will lead to the expression of angry and bitter argument on numerous controversies in the country.
Controversies of longstanding defiance, and those that have been inducted freshly into the system. The dissent on the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtoonkhwa is a thought that crosses the mind. It is so distressing that we have so many controversies in our lives. So many pending decisions. So many half measures. Suddenly we will believe (or pretend) that if were there to be no moon sighting controversy, all would be well. We become escapist, when we want to.
I write this column on Saturday night after the announcement of the sighting of the Shawwal moon by the local and zonal Ruet-e-Hilal committees and backed by the provincial government.
This announcement has initiated opinion, argument, and a kind of disapproval. I find it inexplicable. What is the problem if there are two Eids? Would one Eid have a positive impact on the quality of the nation, so divided on almost every issue under the sun? While the rest of the country is preparing to fast on Sunday, the NWFP is preparing to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr. So be it. What does it matter.
It was possibly five or six years ago in Peshawar that I had the first ever-experience of an Eid-ul-Fitr that was shared by two Eids. An official Eid, and an unofficial one. It didn't really matter except that in the very same provincial capital, Peshawar, there were people who were fasting on the day that others were celebrating Eid. And of course the rest of the country was on its own, and celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr according to the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee's decisions. Personally it was so insignificant a matter that I do not recall other details of the dissent on the moon sighting, and everyone went on to enjoy the festival as best as was possible. Each in his own time, as some would opine.
As I walk down memory lane on this count tonight, I am able to recollect the moon sighting controversy that surfaced in the late fifties. Somewhere around that time, while the Government made one announcement about the moon, the Ulema made another. There is no point in names here. The end result was that there was downright confusion - and while some faithfuls who were fasting on a day when other faithfuls were celebrating Eid, there isn't much to fret about today.
Of course, the argument about the possibility of the scientist or the Met office deciding the moon sighting as against the Ulema or the Islamic scholar still rages. And the issue remains unresolved, with the Ulema suggesting that the scientists stay out of what is regarded as within the purview of matters Islamic. Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman Chairman of the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee has expressed his views on the inherent deeper significance of the sighting of the moon, and stressed the status of worship in Ramazan, where each day of fasting is of infinite irreplaceable value. And of course there are controversies and differences of opinion among the Ulema as well, to put it mildly.
Over the years it has come to be acknowledged as a unwritten tradition that the northern parts of the country, or rather the NWFP, to be specific, have had the Eid-ul-Fitr ahead of the rest of the country. I have noticed that, in Karachi for instance it doesn't seem to matter, and I would like to believe that except for academic debate and theoretical value, or some perceptions that there is politics in the moon sighting for Shawwal, we perhaps overdo the focus.
Given the extent to which there is division in the country, and the grave and grim issues, and the long list of pending challenges that the nation has yet to stand up and fight, and resolve, independent of foreign intervention and assistance, what would be the benefit were there to be one Eid-ul-Fitr across the nation. It is interesting to note that the Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics of the Karachi University said on Juma-tul-Wida that the Islamic World would celebrate Eid together (on the same day) this year.
This would be on Monday, 21st September which would be the first of Shawwal. Without sounding cynical, one could ask about what kind of impact would this have on the Islamic world. Better Muslims? Or a united Ummah against the forces that are seeking to weaken it or destroy it?
One assumes that this column will appear on Eid day, with the successful moon sighting on Sunday evening by the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee having decided that the festival begins on Monday. Which makes it pertinent to contemplate about the holy month of Ramazan this year. What kind of a Ramazan has it been in our individual and collectives lives? What have we really done for the poor, the less fortunate amongst us, in a context of spiralling food prices, and the obvious countrywide failure of the administration (read government) to deliver what it had promised before the month began.
As one looks at the state of the country, and the growing challenges that it is faced with, attention shifts to the post-Eid deadlines and problems that are waiting both for the government and for the people. Perhaps, in Ramazan, the focus on numerous national questions was somewhat blurred, or sidelined. It would be natural if this has happened. The compulsions of Ramazan have more and eternal meaning.
Autumn 2009 is here and what kind of season will it be this time? It was on the 12th of October 1999 that the country was subjected to yet another military intervention, the fourth in the nation's history. Is there a relationship between these military interventions and moon sighting controversies? These interventions have produced distortions and twists in our lives that will take a long while to go. Moon sighting controversies are amongst the small issues that we have.
Finally, and sincerely, this is wishing readers Eid Mubarak, even though the gray mood of the festival this time is rather obvious. But let us not let this mar the occasion for the children, and for the poor. That is a thought to consider seriously.
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