Adil Najam
From all of us at All Things Pakistan we wish our regular readers, our contributors, and all passers-by a wonderful and very happy Eid Mubarak (Eid Greetings). We wish you happiness, prosperity and all things good; now and forever.
[Pictures: Empire State Building, New York City, lit green to mark Eid-ul-Fitr, 2007].
We had started our Eid post a year ago with exactly the words above. Our sentiments remain the same, so do the words. Our best Eid wishes to all Muslims everywhere, including Pakistani Muslims everywhere.
The post had also highlighted that Eid is about community. And so is Pakistaniat.Com. We believed that then, and we believe that now. This year since the last Eid has been tumultuous. There have been too many ups and down. Maybe more downs than ups. The guiding spirit of community that had been behind this blog has not wavered. We have never wanted to make this a haven for like-minded robots who all think alike and say the same things. We have strong beliefs and so do you. We have wanted this to be a forum to share those beliefs, to discuss, to debate. But never to misbehave. Never to disrespect. Never to degrade. We do not want people to be disagreeable, but we never shy from disagreeing ourselves or letting others do that same.
Why am I saying all this today, in our Eid post? Because I believe that the spirit of Eid has much to teach us all about coexistence and respect for each other. This morning as I got up after Eid prayers and began embracing those around me, I realized that I disagreed (sometimes profoundly) with many of those who I was embracing on many issues, political, ideological, and others. I am sure that some of them disagreed with me on many issues even more than I disagreed with them. But that did not reduce the intensity or sincerity of the hug. Hopefully, that post-namaz embrace was not just a ritual for me or for them.
The galley milna at the end of the namaz, I realized, is not an indication of my total agreement with those I am hugging. It is an appreciation that at a higher level we are the same and we adhere to the same hopes, same aspirations, same principles. Even if you think it is just a ritual, it is a ritual of coming together, not of tearing apart!
Pakistaniat - both the term and the blog - is similar. It is a commonality of identity that does not demand common views and the same opinions, but merely the same aspirations for our nation. So, as I finished embracing those around me I thought about Eid, and I also thought about Pakistaniat. But, most of all, I thought about identity. Because that is central to both.
So, let us embrace each other today - in Eid and in Pakistaniat. Tomorrow we will have plenty to crib about and disagree about again. Today, let us just embrace each other. Not because we are all the same, but despite our differences.
Here is a sampling of our past Eid posts:
Eid Mubarak!
Eid Poetry
Hajj and Eid Greetings
Bakra On-Line
Multiple Eids
Auspicious Days: Juma-tul-Vida, Diwali, and Eid
Gallay hum ko laga kar milliye
Eid Is…
Eid Dishes.
A (belated) Eid Mubarak to all.
@ Reality Bites
Hi,
Reality Bites , i dont like drawing room gossip, and i want to do something for the guy standing outside the mosque, now can you help me on that ,,lets make a joint effort so that no no child under the age of 15 is working in Pakistan..no one is cleaning car windows at traffic signals, no child is begging at traffic signals, no child is working in Auto Workshops…no child is working as a servant in our houses, no child is abandoned by his or her parents in SOS villages.. no male child is born just for the hope that he will be the bread winner of the family and in the process two or three unwanted females are born..come on lets do something to gether…send me an e-mail my address is mudassar_95@yahoo.com..lets see if the soln lies in everybody being a doctor banker or an engineer or the solution lies in a just society
Reality Bites,
your last para was the same old sargam where u show
your incapacity to find the” surs” by imitating “His master’s voice “, i.e Zia’s Islam, bravo atleast u found your surs
like all the failures in political arena put on Zia. Bad habit,
its always “others” responsible !! very easy, as if your creed
is presenting the real Islam which is nothing but a vulgar,
corrupt and “foreign”based secularism, communisme,
secterianism and imposter’s call for religious urge of the
nature !! Everybody BELONGS to a sect, not you ????
Good old Raj’s paidawar from “sadha sohna Punjab”.
I hope my 3 posts will not be deleted as I am practicing
my right of expression exactly like you, cheers
Reality Bites,
Hang on ! you’ve been watching westerns a lot, I tell you
why that boy received 50 ruppees, because the raskels
Agents hidden behind sects and vulgar ideologies want
to see the boy, the whole generation like this.
Idolworshippers evil’s combinations, secret organisations undercover agents working for an agenda based on the sect that has foreign favours and strings. Wake up, man, your demagogy is sinic and debile.
Eid Mubarik everyone!
It still kind of inflames me that there is no universal consensus on what day Eid is. Here in Europe the situation has become rather comical to teachers and onlookers - with Muslim children in the same class taking Eid holidays on different days!
Khair, that aside… Adil, many congratulations! You’ve given us something to be very proud of. More of such deeds from us Pakistanis and we may just be able to salvage our attenuated feeling of self-worth.
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!
Pakistani professor Adil Najam, now teaching at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, US, is amongst the team of scientists and experts in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore.
http://dawn.com/2007/text/nat5.htm
@ Reality Bites
MMA(Munafiq Mullah Alliance) very well said
How can we celebrate eid when millions of people are dying , million others are homeless , millions others dont have food to eat and we are celebrating eid… I am not talking about millions of muslims and human beigns of afghanistan or iraq or kashmir or bosnia or checnia but the people all around us…. did you people ever looed into the eyes of that young boy who was standing out side the mosque/imambargah from where you came out after praying eid namaz….. on this day of eid he had the honour to get twnty or thirty or fifty rupees from you but is this his worth….. if given equal resouces as your children than who knows he can be the next Abdul Salam…. but than again what did the rascal mullahs did with Abdul Salam…. oh so I was talking about that boy standing out side your mosque on this eid day so what were we talking about yes yes I was telling you about the resources so if this boy would get a chance to go to LUMS or GIKI or Aga Khan than who knows that he may be the one of the top Bankers or a brilliant Engineer or a top sugeon which your lazzy useless child can never be…. what your boy can do is to gather that loads and loads of eidy and than go to that Pizza Hut or KFC with her girl friend…. but that boy standing out side the mosque…. what can I say…. what can I write….. and do I really need to say or write some thing….. come on you looser Pakistanis have a life………. I know that this post might be deleted …… but what difference will this make …… unfortunately I am also a Pakistani like you…. who is expert in drawing room gossip but will never stand or do some thing…… such a — we all are … are’nt we….. when the MMA(Munafiq Mullah Aliance) and those generals are busy making more and more dollars that boy is standing out side the mosque … and you will always want him to stand there because if given a chance he may be above your children on the basis of his hard work …… I think that this is what we call Islam which that Zia ul Haq had preached and the MMA(Muhafiq Mullah Alliance) are still doing to date.