Special prayers & Eid-ul-Fitr
The Hindu
Muslims around the world celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, obs
Muslims around the world celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, observed as a month of fasting, self-reflection, repentance, purification of the self, and pursuits of piety. The Eid is the celebration of the successful completion of the holy month and is an expression of gratitude to the God for the believers are rewarded. Celebrating this day, Muslims congregate at mosques and Eidgahs for a special prayer to express their gratitude to the Almighty. Every Muslim is obligated to offer zakat al-fitr to the needy before the celebratory congregational prayer to ensure that nobody goes hungry on the day of the Eid.
The holy month of Ramadan commemorates the first revelation of the Holy Quran and Muslims spent their day and night in prayers and recitation of the Quran. Muslims, through their prayers and fasting, seek to connect with the divine, cleanse their inner-self and build a society with character. Muslims stop their routine way of living as part of their efforts to realise the ethical self and the moral society Islam wants to create. This helps crush ego and arrogance, and annihilates greed and vanity. The fasting is self-regulated and it reflects the freedom bestowed on humans.
Fasting is not about mere abstinence from drinking, eating, and sexual pleasures. It is to augment piety, self-reflection, and self-restraint. It promotes the ethics of compassion, simplicity and kindness. For Muslims, faith (imaan), and piety can’t be attained through formal ritualism alone, it requires believers to fulfil their responsibility to the fellow beings too. Muslims are encouraged to realise their social commitment through charity and zakat (obligatory alms giving). Muslims believe that practising compassion and kindness is much rewarded in this holy month and they engage in various acts of charity. Those who cannot fast are mandated to feed a poor for each day as a compensation. The spirit of Ramadan is to make the world a better place to live, which will be rewarded by the almighty God.
P.K Abdul Rahiman
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.