Jesus, son of Mary, prayed, “O Allah! our Lord! send down to us a table spread with a sure and lasting food from heaven that it may be to us a (source of) festival ever recurring, to the first of us and to the last of us and (serve as) sign from You and provide sustenance for us, for You are the Best of providers of sustenance.” (5:114)
Commentary
The sighting of the new moon to herald in the new month takes on extra special importance two times during the year – to begin the month of Ramaḍān and to end the Blessed Month.
After having spent a month in a spiritual retreat, seeking proximity to Allah through not only fasting, but extra prayers, supplications, feeding community members, supporting great causes locally and internationally, the special blessing of Allah must come to an end – however the ‘last taste’ of such mercies are found at the end of the month of Ramaḍān with the coming of the 1st of Shawwāl - ʿEid al-Fiṭr – a night and a day which is no less important than Laylatul Qadr!
The actual day of ʿeid is such a joyous and special day that fasting is impermissible - ḥarām! Allah wants us to fully enjoy this day and this is seen in the beautiful supplication we read in the qunūt of the ʿeid prayers in which we say:
I ask you, O Allah, by the right of this day which You have made as a day of ʿeid – celebration – for the Muslims!
Just as the new crescent moon which was seen 30 days ago to start the month of Ramaḍān went through so many phases however it returns back to its original form and shape to herald in the new month of Shawwāl, so too as believers, we have and we continue to go through phases and stages in our lives and the beauty of ʿEid al-Fiṭr is that we have hopefully returned to our “true nature” that we were born with:
So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fiṭrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know. (30:30)
What does this word “al-fiṭr” mean – we refer to this 1st day of Shawwāl as ʿEid al-Fiṭr, but why?
There are multiple meanings of this word, including:
· To split, cleave, break;
· To create (as in the act which Allah X performs);
· It is also refers to our innate disposition (human nature) which we were created upon.
Just as a seed which is planted into the ground and is watered, given air, light and all that it needs to grow into a plant or tree, so too, in the past month, we were nurtured by the greatest of caretakers – Allah:
“And Allah has caused you to grow from the earth a [progressive] growth.” (71:17)
We were given all that we need to bloom and blossom and thus, the day of ʿEid al-Fiṭr is the day when we break out of our seed and sprout new roots as spiritually rejuvenated believers.
Not only are we – spiritually – new believers however we see that on the day of ʿeid we are recommended to engage in many actions to present ourselves outwardly as being ‘new’:
1. Take a ghusl to physically clean ourselves;
2. We are encouraged to wear new, clean, white clothing;
3. We are encouraged to put on perfume or cologne to smell good;
4. Pay Zakāt al-Fiṭr BEFORE ʿeid prayers.
All of these things perfect our ‘outer shell’ while the month long fasting, prayers, supplications have hopefully perfected our ‘inner core’...
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