Adil Najam
From all of us at ATP we congratulate the over 2 million Muslims – including the nearly 200,000 Pakistanis – who performed Hajj yesterday.
To me, the Hajj is an amazing and powerful symbol of equality and unity in a world distraught with frictions and factions.
It is not just a symbol of ‘Muslim brotherhood’ but of human oneness. It is not simply a connection – in its rituals and its meanings – amongst the Abrahamic faiths; it is also a spiritually moving and visually powerful symbol of the unity of all humankind. There are those who wish to reduce the meaning of the message to merely one religion, or even one sect. I, at least, have always found it a more universal message and moved by the symbolism of unity and harmony of all.
On this day, even as one reads comments on blogs such as this, reads the newspaper, or simply tunes into television news, one finds conversations that highlight differences: between rich and poor, East and West, ‘gooras’ and ‘kaalas’, between shias and sunnis, between ethnicities, between sects, between races, between political parties, between ‘liberals’ and ‘mullahs’, between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
It seems that everywhere and always we are not just divided but we take pride in our divisions. Our language, our vocabulary, our thought processes are geared to highlight our differences with others. We take a perverse pride in these differences, whether we consider ourselves to be ‘superior’ to others or we believe ourselves to be victims of differentiation.
Today, as I see pictures of Hajj I am moved – as I always am – by the sea of humanity and the oneness of that humanity. Today, on what is Eid day for me here in Boston, I pray that the message we take is one of humility; that the feeling we have are of universal humanity and fraternity, and the vows we make are of peace and goodwill for all and everywhere.
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