The very happiest of Eid Greetings to all of you from myself and my family – may Allah accept our righteous deeds, and bring us joy and glad tidings all year, every year. Ameen!

My khutbah to the community this year can be summarised in a few paragraphs (he said!):

The disregard that the Muslim community in the West gives to Eid al-Adha is further undermined by at least two negative factors which effect the Muslim psyche. 

Firstly, because this Eid is traditionally seen as the one that 2nd generation Muslims don’t take a holiday for, or don’t make much of a fuss about, the importance of the event as a religious celebration and an exclamation of Allah’s greatness is decreased in our hearts and the hearts and minds of our families, particularly our children.

Naturally, it’s not easy when this particular Eid isn’t preceded by a tiring, difficult month of fasting, when the celebration itself is spread over 3-4 days, when the people (quite incredibly) celebrate the Eid day itself over three different days, when the day itself is freezing cold, dark and dreary etc etc.

Add to this the second negative factor, that of Eid’s proximity to Christmas and you soon realise we’ve got a real problem. When you see the most consumer-focused materialistic society on Earth totally close down over Christmas, people prepare so much for it, spend so much on it and mentally psyche themselves up to celebrate it so much, it really does leave the Muslim community in the West looking at their own Eid and feeling rather sad, particularly for our children. It is little surprise then that our children love and value their birthday, Easter and Christmas parties at school so much, and why they talk about it so much at home with their parents who have no-one else to blame but themselves.

Yet all these factors should surely encourage the Muslim community to wake up and start to make both Eids something really worthwhile, both with respect to the men so as to not let Eid al-Adha become a token Eid prayer in the morning followed by a day at the office and a night out with the lads in the evening, and most importantly their children so that our kids really have something to talk about, be proud of, and wait and dream about in anticipation for weeks in advance.

Also, when you do find yourself spending some rare quality time with your family this Eid, take another look at how the non-Muslims ear-mark Christmas as the big family reunion and remind yourself that even such a single huge effort is unacceptable for a practising Muslim. If Eid is becoming our only time that we remember the family and so on, then be warned that Allah jalla wa ala demands the very highest standard of maintaining family ties, all the time, every time.

Know that our relations with our extended families are at an all time low. As the elders become older, and we become more wealthy, independent, professional and isolated from our traditional ghettos of first generation Islam, the apparent need to keep in touch doesn’t seem important any more. Perhaps this is because we’ve forgotten that Allah has promised the tie of kinship (al-rahim) that He will cut off he who breaks family ties, and will maintain those who maintain family ties. Perhaps we’ve forgotten that the one who doesn’t maintain family ties will not enter Paradise. Perhaps we’ve forgotten that mercy will not descend upon a nation that has within it those who don’t maintain family ties. This is all authentic from the one who we claim to follow unreservedly sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Perhaps the most shocking development is our disintegrating relationship, adab and manners with our parents. Not only is our frequency of contact decreasing, but our manner of interaction is at an all time low despite this being from the most deadly of the destructive sins and that the the one who continues in ill-manners with ones parents being condemned to the hell-fire. We seem to have forgotten as in the last ten years, with the increasing percentage of Muslim parents entering old people’s and residential homes, the absolute right they hold over us, the fact that we are humiliated by not getting to Paradise by not looking after them ourselves, and indeed the startling fact that Allah jalla wa ala emphasises care of the parents only second to worshipping him (al-Isra, 23). Again, this is all authentic from the one who we claim to follow unreservedly sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Finally, it’s back to our children. If we don’t give them the same concern we show them on Eid everyday, we’re only going to allow something else to replace that, something which will invariably be more damaging in the long run. Undoubtedly, this will take great effort on our behalf but this is what communal gatherings and celebrations help us to do: remind us of what we need to prioritise and sort it out before it’s too late.

Let’s ensure that our family become our absolute priority in these times, in the very best of manners, and that we then carry on these sentiments that we find in a correctly celebrated Eid or a Christmas or simply in the example of individuals fulfilling their family obligations in a worthy and responsible way.

And that’s that. Summarised in just a few paragraphs. Plus some. Rather like the Khutbah itself. Sorry.

:-)

May I also thank those who have been asking about my family, particularly my parents. They are safe alhamdulillah but this is not the case for many good practising Muslims in the Swat area of NWFP, Pakistan. Due to the fitnah and true terrorism of the militants who of course have now fled, the army and secret services have entered all the village and tribal areas and are rounding up any practising Muslims they feel could have been involved, carting them off to secret prisons for to be tortured. This means hundreds of peaceful tablighi jamat and ahle-hadees brothers who haven’t been involved whatsoever, those who might wear a turban, those who have beards and especially those who are attending the prayers regularly have already been carted off wa la hawla wa quwwata illa billah. As you can imagine, the congregations have dropped shockingly and the barbers are in booming business as many shave off their beards to protect their families.

Even worse are those tribal enemies who are now rubbing their secular little hands in glee and are reporting names of innocent people to the secret services as those who were involved in terrorism, so that they are also tortured, all because of some ancient perceived grudge or enmity, or because one looked at the other in the ”wrong way” or even passed wind in his presence. May Allah protect us from this ignorance and transgression against the Believers of Allah.

Please remember those other Muslims around the world in your du’as as we sit and enjoy our Eid with our families in safety, security and luxury. May Allah give this Ummah strength to cope with its burdens and allow them to be a purification for us and enter us into His Garden, ameen. 

PS: on an infinitely lighter note, can I just say that I will literally have a psychotic fit if anyone else asks me how Kif is doing in the Emirates. Can I ask: how on Earth do you think he’s doing?!? Let me tell you: he’s doing absolutely fantastically swimmingly fine, that’s what! Has everyone forgotten that it’s me who has to work all week and earn jack squat, wake up in the dark, come back in the dark and be cold at the same time, have to put up with all those lot all week (you know who you are!) etc etc. And then I’ve got to put up with all the rest of life’s bakwas at the same time. I think everyone has forgotten that he’s the one in the sun, working 2 hrs a day 3 days a week or something similarly ridiculous, with the sand, sea and halal Hijrah Hardies at hand. Yeah.

Bitter and Jealous? Me?

:-)