THE nation will celebrate Eid-ul-Azha — the festival of sacrifice — tomorrow with sacrificing animals and prayers for well-being of the Muslims and all the people of the country to move towards prosperity and peace. In the backdrop of an apparent stability but with active elements of showing disrespect to the established religious norms and practices, this year’s Qurbani calls for renewed pledge from the ‘believers in faith’ to be more committed to its true spirit and meaning. This is a trying time for the nation and the Eid-ul-Azha reiterates the call once again to the conscience of the countrymen to really become imbibed with the spirit of sacrifice, not only limiting to slaughtering animals but also by slaughtering their own lust for power and greed. The Eid-ul-Azha made its debut as the remembrance of the move to slaughter and sacrifice young Ismail, son of Prophet Ibrahim (Sm) to attain the blessings of God as he dreamt such a commandment in the previous night. God then asked him to slaughter a sheep to spare the life of the boy. Muslims are following the ritual of that sacrifice but as we see people all over including Bangladesh have now taken the celebration alone however ignoring to take to sacrifice their self-interest. Mere slaughtering of animals will be a cruelty if we are not slaughtering our animal part of the soul and the crisis is only deepening in our society where killings and corruptions are overtaking in absence of the room for accommodation and sacrifice. The Eid celebration may only turn meaningful this year if the country can continue in peace and stability beyond the Eid festival, but the prospect appears quite bleak. We want to congratulate the nation on this occasion, but the fear of violence and insecurity are more dominating our hearts and mind than really turning towards celebration. We urge the countrymen to protect the nation instead of pushing the life and property of the people at risks or disestablishing one. We want that the Eid celebration must bring happiness to all families, even those who have little means to buy an animal and sacrifice. The other lesson that we must also learn on this occasion is the need for equitable distribution of wealth and income so that the poor should not perpetuate in poverty and abject hunger all the time. We believe the Eid festival will continue to miss its significance so long the vast majority of the people will remain out of meaningfully celebrating the event. It needs change of social practice and recognizing our state delivery system. Despite all these shortcomings, we hope the happy Eid-ul-Azha will bestow blessings at every home and rekindle their life with new hope for prosperity in the days to come.
