Assalamu Alaikum, peace be upon you and Happy New Year. Having said these words and also to avoid any misconception or confusion, let me make it clear that the greeting is on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha that Muslims the world over have recently celebrated. I took a while off during the Eid holidays and felt it would be inappropriate if I began my column without greeting the readers although, I admit, the greeting comes a bit late.
The atmosphere, however, continues to be one of festivity. Otherwise, how can you explain the fact that a week after the holidays business is still not back to normal? Ask any member of the public with government business and they will tell you that not a single document was finalized during the first two days after the holiday. Some would even say nothing was done for three days, or even an entire week, after the holidays. Over the past week or 10 days, employees, teachers and everybody has been too busy exchanging Eid greetings, telling tales of Haj, sacrificial animals, overcrowded public places and whatever other trivia they can dredge up to delay their return to work.
Exchanging greetings and paying visits are noble traditions that help foster closer social ties among people. The two occasions of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha are of special importance. This does not mean, however, that employees should continue celebrating well after the end of the holidays and also ignore their work responsibilities.
In the past, employees used to allocate one or two hours at a maximum on the first day after Eid for exchanging greetings before resuming work. Now, however, with more people working, the custom has taken a different turn and the time reserved for exchanging greetings has been greatly expanded. From two or three hours, office workers spent the entire first working day greeting each other. Then this is further expanded to cover the first two or three days and sometimes even the entire first week.
If things continue like this, it only means we are going to witness an even further deterioration in public performance. We must hope that things will not reach the point where the entire period from the end of Ramadan until after Haj — a little over two months — is reserved for exchanging greetings.
