By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

 

 “O people! Indeed this day of yours is the day when the righteous are awarded and the wretched are losers. It is a day which is similar to the one on which you shall be standing (before your Lord). Therefore, when you come out of your homes to go to places of your prayer, remind yourselves about the day when you (your souls) shall come out of your bodies to go to your Lord. When you stand on places of your prayer, remind yourselves of your standing in presence of your Lord (on the Day of Judgment). And when you return to your homes (after prayer), remind yourselves about your returning to your homes in Paradise.”

 The above passage is part of a famous sermon on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which the faithful celebrate at the end of the blessed fasting month of Ramadhan as thanksgiving to the Lord Most High for having given yet another opportunity to partake of the spiritual delights of the Divine Banquet.

 It was delivered during the Special Eid al-Fitr Prayer by no less a personality than the Barometer of Belief, the Leader of the Pious, the Epitome of Eloquence, the Gateway of Wisdom, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), the Divinely-Designated Heir of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).

 Eid at-Fitr is indeed the icing to the cake of Ramadhan, and no one understands this better than those who in obedience to God’s commandment in the holy Qur’an and as practically shown by the Prophet and his Infallible Household, had not just fasted in this month, by giving up food, drinks and other lawful pleasures during the daylight hours, but engaged themselves in acts of welfare and charity amongst families and friends, as part of efforts to build morally upright societies. 

 Perhaps, those who had indulged in the cardinal sin of not fasting during Ramadhan in spite of being able to do so, and never cared to repent and seek forgiveness in the court of the All-Merciful Lord, may turn a deaf ear to these bezels of wisdom and consequently bear the dire consequences of their folly when their tarnished souls leave their wretched bodies. 

 The faithful, however, whatever the circumstances, including the adversities of harsh weather and economic difficulties, never give up fasts during the brief life of the transient world, and as a result, are rewarded with the bliss of paradise.

 Imam Ali (AS), whose immortal aphorism that “whenever a person hasn’t committed a sin it is a day of Eid (rejoicing) for him/her,” has further said in his Eid al-Fitr sermon:      

 “O Servants of Allah! Indeed the minimum reward for those men and women who fasted (during Ramadhan), is an angel, who calls out to them on the last day of the month of Ramadhan (saying): O Servants of Allah! Rejoice at the glad tiding that all your previous sins have been forgiven.”

 As indicated by the word “Fitr”, the Eid starts with the giving of special alms to the poor known as “Fitrah” or “Fitriyeh”– made up of 3-and-a-half kg of staple diet, such as wheat, rice, barley or date; or its equivalent in money. This is another wonderful example of the spirit of universal brotherhood in Islam, which strives to uplift the status of the poor sections of the society, so that the message of Eid could equally be enjoyed by all classes of people.

 In Tehran and other cities, boxes for collecting this special alms are placed at major intersections so as to enable the faithful to fulfill this obligation, before or at the time of the Special Eid al-Fitr Prayer.

 In Iran, which unlike the highly flawed systems of monarchy, military rule or liberal democracy, is governed by the dynamic laws of Islam, the Eid al-Fitr Prayer is led in the capital Tehran, by the country’s highest religious and political personality, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. As a humble servant of the Prophet and the Infallible Imams, he is blessed with a deep insight and is fully aware of the domestic, regional and international issues. He delivers his sermons to awaken public conscience at home and abroad, and the audiences listen with rapt attention. 

 The Eid al-Fitr Prayer Sermons of the Leader and other qualified ulema, are thus a golden opportunity for the masses to strengthen their faith or rectify their behaviour by returning to the path of God, and at the same time become better aware of the dangers threatening the homeland and the Muslim Ummah, in view of the plots of the Great Satan, the US, and its devilish hordes, including the illegal Zionist entity.      

 Unfortunately, this year’s Ramadhan witnessed bitter and tragic incidents in the Zionist usurped Muslim land of Palestine, where sanctity of the sacred al-Aqsa Mosque was desecrated by forces of the Israeli regime and murderous gangs of Jews from other parts of the world who have illegally migrated the occupied Islamic holy city of Bayt al-Moqaddas. 

 These faithless forces attacked the fasting Muslims praying and supplicating to God Almighty in the blessed month of Ramadhan inside the premises of Islam’s third holiest site. As a result scores of Palestinian men and women, including the elderly were injured and hundreds of other were detained and imprisoned. These barbaric acts of racism and terrorism are openly supported by the US. 

 In Nigeria during the peaceful rally on the occasion of World Qods Day on April 14 in the capital Abuja, the military forces instead of supporting the protests for liberation of Palestine, fired upon their own citizens, martyring some innocent persons and injuring several others, much to the delight of the US and Israel.

 Let us pray to God Almighty to deliver Muslims from such calamities and the satanic plots of the Americans, the Zionists, and their devilish agents, who are destabilizing the whole world. Amen.

 To end the column here is what Imam Ali (AS) has said in the concluding passage of his famous Eid at-Fitr sermon:

 “Remember Allah so that He may re-member you, for indeed He remembers those who re-member Him, and beseech Allah for His mercy and grace, for indeed He does not disappoint those who supplicate to Him.”