Deserving or comprehending the Eid

That the end of Ramazan, whose climate of being we joined with great love and feasting, whose arrival we welcomed and whose departure saddens us, is an Eid is surely not something easily understood by those who cannot truly grasp this climate. For this reason there are those who suppose that the Eid is an expression of joy at having gotten Ramazan, with its difficulties, out of the way. Perhaps there is also a humor in this situation that is not all ill-intentioned. This is of course a consequence of perceiving the Eid merely as a festival, a joy and an entertainment. Yet the Eid, just like Ramazan, is an act of worship. It is a symbol that completes Ramazan and requires us to feel its meaning more deeply. The exuberance that greets Ramazan in Siirt by lighting the mélédé fire does not greet its end, but it does greet the Eid as another act of worship. Making peace with those who are estranged, visiting relatives, maintaining ties of kinship, delighting the elderly and children, all integrated with the rites of the Eid, are also part of the Eid worship that completes Ramazan.

And then there is the question "How can there be an Eid when Muslims suffer so much and there is sorrow everywhere?", which is a good occasion to think about the meaning both of the sufferings and hardships endured and of the Eid itself. Our valued friend Vahdettin İnce, in his message of Eid greetings to his friends, asked this question and in fact answered it very beautifully: "Can there be an Eid where there is tyranny, massacre, exile, destruction, tears? There can. Because the Muslim is the winning side in every situation."

Today, because of the genocide that has been going on in Gaza for 500 days and that shames all Muslims for the helplessness they have been compelled to display, and because of the persecutions Muslims face in Yemen, in Myanmar, and in many parts of the world, does the Eid lose its meaning?

As İnce says, of course not.

First, from the standpoint of the people who suffer, the sufferings endured, the attacks suffered, martyrdom, are the outcomes that a rightly lived life places before Muslims. Those who know their direction and live the life that must be lived in the way of God also wage jihad against oppressors. At the end of this jihad there is both victory and martyrdom. In both cases the Muslim is the gainer.

Today those in Gaza lose nothing; on the contrary, thanks to the unmatched nobility and rectitude they display, they are the most profitable people in the world. With their honor, their freedom, their dignified stance of not bowing to the oppressor, they win, even if by dying. That is why the fact that, amid so much destruction and after so many martyrs, it is the people of Gaza who experience and display the greatest Eid exuberance shows that they are the people who grasp the meaning of this matter most deeply.

Death is true; sooner or later every soul tastes death anyway. Because they meet it in the most meaningful way, and because they have completed their whole lives with a stance that gives meaning to all of it, they perhaps grasp the Eid better than anyone. For the Eid is, before everything and in every case, a level of consciousness concerned with being able to realize the blessing of thanking God. Given that we all belong to God and that we will all in the end, one way or another, return to God, who can be more profitable than those who knowingly, willingly and voluntarily sell their lives and wealth to God? For the people of Gaza and those who live their lives rightly, no calamity that befalls them prevents them from worshipping God, from drawing nearer to Him, from feeling Him more. That is why the people of Gaza, in this 500-day trial of theirs, have shown the whole world this consciousness in all its depth, beauty and authenticity. The Eid is their right, but they celebrate it by at the same time showing that God can be thanked in every situation.

Second, their meeting the sufferings they endure in this way is their greatness, but then comes the question "Is it right for us to celebrate the Eid despite the sufferings they endure?" From here we return to the same point. One must emerge from the perception of those who see the Eid in a purely worldly sense as an entertainment, a holiday, an occasion for selfish hedonism. Of course, because of an official Eid holiday extended to 9 days, for many people this time may truly mean exactly that. How might those who spend this time that way have lived Ramazan, one wonders?

The Eid is a verse. Like all verses, it requires the eye of the heart and the ear of the heart to be open. When one surrenders to the mindset that turns the Eid into a holiday, this verse is neither seen nor heard. When a verse is recited one must lend an ear and listen with reverence; when a verse appears one must look with both eyes wide open.

Joining the Eid is joining the Being who invites us. It frees us from our pathological stories that separate us, tear us apart, imprison us within ourselves, and turns our faces to the sameness, the unity that exists in the essence of being.

Every year people produce a thousand and one kinds of chains that restrict their freedom, and each year's Eid offers those who displayed the will to fast for a month, who felt the fast as a liberation, the absolute way to be freed from these chains.

We also need to be rid of a perception of the Eid that contradicts the state of "mourning" we are supposed to be in because of Gaza and the other sufferings Muslims endure in many parts of the world. The Eid is lived and congratulated together with mournings, sufferings and hardships, intertwined with them. Because in itself too it is an act of worship, with the joys we should display, our gratitude to our Lord, our thanks to people, and its reunion and mingling.

The Eid is a mercy and blessing that points the way to human beings, ever prone to losing their way, and that pours forth into existence. May God not deprive us of this mercy and blessing; a blessed Eid to you.