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.
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