MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, July 28 (PIA) --- You wake up daily as early as 1:00 a.m. to pray and eat. You pray Tahajud (early prayer) and eat breakfast until 4:00 a.m. or when the call of prayer (dawn prayer) is heard.
That breakfast serves as your morning, lunch and mid-afternoon meals. It has to sustain you for the next 14 hours because you’ll break your fast once the dusk prayer (6:00 p.m.) is heard.
But fasting isn’t about getting hungry and thirsty. It’s not about burning calories. It’s about burning the bad habits until you are trained to do nothing but all forms of goodness.
Fasting also means fasting of the senses. It’s about “see no evil, hear no evil, and talk no evil.” This practice lasts for a month and hopefully, it won’t just be good for this month but for the rest of our lives.
Eid’l Fitr is a one day celebration of the Muslims after having completed a one whole month of fasting. Muslims get up early and prepare themselves to go to Masjed (Mosque) to perform the Eid’l Fitr prayer.
The Eid’l Fitr prayer is usually performed at 7:30 a.m. Before going to Masjed, each family are busy preparing foods in the kitchen because they have to eat before proceeding to Masjed.
Oh the feeling is unexplainable! You’ve been used on eating so early that the sky is still dark and yet here you are going to eat with the clear blue sky. It’s just not the same.
Some have mixed emotions. Some are sad because Eid’l Fitr is an official reminder that the Holy Month has just ended; while some are happy simply because they feel the high spirits of others.
On this day, fellow Muslims are also too busy for their “Sadaqatul Fitr.” Sadaqatul Fitr is an obligation of every Muslim who can afford to give. It could be in form of rice (2 kilos will do) or cash to be given to the relatives who deserve it. But most Muslim scholars advise to give rice instead of cash.
Every member of the family has to give “Sadaqatul Fitr.” For the children, it will be the parents who will provide for them and give to the needy ones.
After performing such, you’ll see fellows rushing to the Masjed to join the “Takbir.” Takbir are statements you utter to praise The Almighty. You keep on repeating it until the Imam, the one who leads the prayer, initiates the Eid’l Fitr prayer.
The Eid’l Fitr Prayer is just short. It won’t take you fifteen minutes. After the prayer, people will then scatter and you start to hear collective voices and laughs.
Fathers, mothers, aunts, cousins, sisters, brothers and friends will go to one another, hugging, greeting, and asking each other’s forgiveness. You get to see contagious smiles painted in each other’s faces and you cannot help but beam at them too.
Each family will then proceed to their homes. Some gathered at one place and they celebrate, eat, share some talks and of course, in our modern time, taking pictures is always included in the day’s activity.
Indeed, Muslims start the Ramadhan right by asking forgiveness from one another and it has to end like that too. No negative feelings, no hatred, just happiness and pure gratitude. (Johaniah N. Yusoph/APB/PIA-10 Lanao del Sur)
No comments