May I and my family wish you and your family everywhere in the worls a very happy Eid! May the choicest blessings of God be with you, irrespective of your religion, caste and nationality, and may you be blessed with health and prosperity, love and affection, and success in every sphere of life! I do so no only because you are my friend but because I am about to give you a back-breaking burden of responsibility.
This is one world that God has created for us all and it is His desire that we share its bounty and live in peace and harmony. But are we doing so? We are living in difficult times. These are the times that the Prophet described as the times of fitan; crises coming one after another; crises that shake our faith and test our patience. In these difficult times we need to keep alive the spirit and lessons of Ramadan: lessons of self-restraint, patience, forbearance and compassion.
The ignorant will often tell you that the Muslim world is passing through a deep crisis, little realizing that it is no different world than the one in which they too are living. So problems that are raising their ugly head today anywhere in the world are our problems not anyone else’s.
There are two types of challenges facing us today. First and foremost, we are faced with ignorance and extremism. I put them together because they go hand in hand. This has given the opportunity to the affluent west to target us. We know that Islam is peace and yet the actions of many among us show otherwise; we say Islam is mercy and yet there are our brothers who don't hesitate to kill each other as if they were flies. We say Islam is discipline and self-restraint and yet we easily become impatient. Extremism is a disease we must deal with. And this can only be done through education. Our children and youth need to be educated in the morals, character and virtues of our religion – Hinduism, Christianity or Islam; we need to make them exemplars of mercy and compassion. We need to teach them values and principles; we need to nurture them as leaders who shall stand forth as witnesses of justice and compassion for all humanity.
Second and equally disturbing is the silence of the ‘good’. How can we become good Hindus and good Muslims and good Christians if we do not raise our voice against injustice and oppression irrespective of the religion of the perpetrator? How can we allow a handful of mad men and women taint our religion, our culture and our centuries of civilization? When the teaming majority is for humanity, peace and peaceful coexistence then can we remain silent any longer and let these lunatics turn Islam into a faith that is against the world. In face of increasing Islamophobia we need to reach out to all other communities in a true spirit of good will and cooperation on projects of virtue and compassion. We need to demonstrate through our actions that we are for living in peace, in mutual respect with all the people. This is our Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, we are products of this society, how can we let offenders, irrespective of their religion, get away with murder, butchery and destruction of our way of life!
Let us all become instruments of peace and good will in a world torn apart by wars, antagonism, racism, and xenophobia. The stage is set for people of this subcontinent to show leadership and broker peace in the world. The usual peace makers have failed miserably, let us do it now!
Dear friend, on this Eid I invite you to be the new ambassador of peace.
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