Let me begin by wishing you all, including the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world, a happy Eid Al-Adha.
The pilgrims are back in Mina after wuquf, the standing on Mount Arafat, yesterday. It was a moving sight. The next few days will be spent in prayers, beseeching the Almighty and asking for forgiveness.
Many of these pilgrims come from lands where peace is but a dream. Some Muslims have suffered through decades of war, occupation and persecution. Let us join the pilgrims in praying for peace and a return to normalcy in a world devastated by man’s inhumanity to man.
The standing at Arafat is a sublime moment, perhaps the most sublime in a Muslim’s life. Oblivious to all that is going on around them and in utmost tranquillity, the pilgrims, black and white, rich and poor, women and men, young and old, extend their arms to Almighty God and pray for His mercy. It is this genuine call for deliverance that is the very essence of the Haj.
For those lucky enough to perform one of the tenets of Islam, the joy is indescribable. The Haj is not a set of unrelated rituals. Each is an integral part of the whole aimed at purification of the soul. The pilgrims returned to Mina after stopping en route in the valley of Muzdalifa to collect pebbles for the stoning of the Jamrat. Here in the Kingdom they will accomplish each ritual in complete security. But for many around the globe these same days will be spent in fear, shock and horror.
In occupied Palestine, men, women and children live and walk in the shadow of death. It can take many forms. Bombers may rain death and destruction from above or army personnel may indulge in cold-blooded murders on the ground. Those who escape death are still not alive. Day by day under the watchful eye of the Bush administration their occupiers slowly strip away every vestige of Palestinian progress. There will be no celebrating in occupied Palestine for Eid Al-Adha. Instead the thuds of Zionist jack boots will reverberate throughout the land as hordes of Israeli soldiers fan out, intimidating peaceful Palestinians and depriving them of the pleasures of this great occasion.
There can be no excuse or justification for the inaction of the West. Nothing can now move me away from the belief that this terror is tolerated due to the religion of those in the occupied lands. This conspiracy of silence is because the oppressed belong to a different faith. If the bellicose rhetoric emanating from some capitals is anything to go by, this is only a small beginning. A new kind of McCarthyism directed at Muslims as individuals and Muslim countries seems to be taking the place of what began as a war on terror.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 incidents, some European commentators, alarmed by the war cries coming out of the US, wondered whether America was going to behave like a bigger Israel. Developments since then have proved them right. Now Washington seems to be dividing the world the way Israel divided the occupied territories. The violence that will be allowed and justified with such policies can only be imagined.
We must all remember though that even with all his tanks and planes, and with the US media and an American president parroting all his gibberish, Sharon still fears Yasser Arafat. The Palestinians have stones and the right cause on their side. They are armed with a grim determination to die with dignity and honor rather than submit to the Zionist tyranny. This should fill all Muslims with pride and give us reason to struggle against those who would try to destroy our nations and peoples.
To be sure, the Middle East is not the only place where Muslims suffer. The Kashmiris have nothing to celebrate. Death stalks their once beautiful and serene valley. Let us pray for peace in the subcontinent so that these tired and neglected people will get a chance to move ahead.
And what about the Chechens, poor souls? Does anyone even think of them anymore? In so many lands Muslims are hungry, uneducated and ill. What about the orphans, the oppressed, those who have no voice, nor anyone to turn to? What about those who are in jails for practicing their beliefs or speaking out on matters of conscience? They should not be forgotten. Many of the pilgrims, I am sure, will pray for them.
As a journalist my heart goes out to the family of the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl. It is now thought that Pearl has been killed by some misguided elements in Pakistani society who kidnapped him. May God have mercy on his loved ones. Let us also pray for the families of all those, Americans and others, who were killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The world in the last thirty years has progressed and advanced technologically much faster than it did in the past 500 years. Mobile communication, satellite feeds and simultaneous translation should have helped bring us closer together and enabled global understanding and brotherhood. Instead, the bloodshed and violence have only increased. In fact we seem to be more efficient killers than ever before. In today’s world, where the media bring images of death and destruction right into our drawing rooms, this type of behavior by man is totally unacceptable. What particular forces of evil push humans to commit such acts? We don’t know.
During the Haj, the pilgrims will ask Allah to bless this world. They will beg Him to soften the hard hearts of cruel men and let reason and humanity reign. What they will ask for is not a material world but a changed one, where hopefully morality will hold sway. Like those on the pilgrimage we too will hope for such blessings.
Let us, on this solemn occasion, pray for the well being and prosperity of the whole world irrespective of creed, ideology or system of government.