Eid Fitr Felicitations

Salaam everybody and heartiest felicitations to you on the auspicious occasion of Eid Fitr. May God accept your fasting, prayers and all other acts of worship of the blessed month of Ramadhan, and make this year’s Eid a very happy and prosperous one for you.

"O people! Indeed this day of yours is the day when the righteous are awarded and the wretched are losers. It is a day which is similar to the one on which you shall be standing (before your Lord). Therefore, when you come out of your homes to go to places of your prayer, remind yourselves about the day when you (your souls) shall come out of your bodies to go to your Lord. When you stand on places of your prayer, remind yourselves of your standing in presence of your Lord (on the Day of Judgment). And when you return to your homes (after prayer), remind yourselves about your returning to your homes in Paradise.”

What you heard was a passage, which is part of a famous sermon on the occasion of Eid Fitr, which the faithful celebrate at the end of the blessed fasting month of Ramadhan as thanksgiving to the Lord Most High for having given yet another opportunity to partake of the spiritual delights of the Divine Banquet. It was delivered during the Special Eid Fitr Prayer by no less a personality than the Barometer of Belief, the Leader of the Pious, the Epitome of Eloquence, the Gateway of Wisdom, the Commander of the Faithful, the Leader of the Pious, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), the Divinely-Designated Heir of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

The Imam teaches us to be constantly cognizant of our Loving Creator, to Whom is our eventual return, by abstaining from frivolities and striving for the betterment of the self and the society through acts that are beneficial in this world, and guarantee our salvation in Afterlife.

Eid Fitr is thus the day of renewing of the covenant with God Almighty for His endless favours, especially after the month long fasting of Ramadhan that purifies the believers, strengthens their faith, instills in them the hope in divine mercy, inculcates the feeling for self-reform and encourages them to do good to others in society. The Divine Banquet that was spread out for one full month may be over but Divine Blessings will never cease for the seekers of Truth.

For a Muslim, the Eid is not just any other ordinary day. It is a day on which a special prayer is performed before anything else in the early morning hours. The Eid Prayer is thus one of the finest displays of Islamic solidarity. As is evident, rows upon rows of the faithful stand solemnly in the presence of God Almighty, as a form of thanksgiving, bowing in unison and prostrating in unison to present a marvelous sight. It is the day of reaffirming of our own innate 'fitra' or God-given nature, that is, Islam, upon which every human being is born – it is the parents and the polluted environment around that later mislead him/her into becoming an adherent of one of the deviated creeds or an atheist.

Eid Fitr is indeed the icing to the cake of Ramadhan, and no one understands this better than those who in obedience to God’s commandment in the holy Qur’an and as practically shown by the Prophet and his Infallible Household, had not just fasted in this month by giving up food, drinks and other lawful pleasures during the daylight hours, but had engaged themselves in acts of welfare and charity amongst families and friends, as part of efforts to build morally upright societies.

Perhaps, those who had indulged in the cardinal sin of not fasting during Ramadhan in spite of being able to do so, and never cared to repent or seek forgiveness in the court of the All-Merciful Lord, may turn a deaf ear to these bezels of wisdom and consequently bear the dire consequences of their folly when their tarnished souls leave their wretched bodies.

The faithful, however, whatever the circumstances, including the adversities of harsh weather, never give up fasts during the brief life of the transient world, and as a result, are rewarded with the bliss of paradise.

Imam Ali (AS) whose immortal aphorism that “whenever a person hasn’t committed a sin it is a day of Eid (rejoicing) for him/her,” has further said in his Eid al-Fitr sermon:      

“O Servants of Allah! Indeed the minimum reward for those men and women who fasted (during Ramadhan), is an angel, who calls out to them on the last day of the month of Ramadhan (saying): O Servants of Allah! Rejoice at the glad tiding that all your previous sins have been forgiven.”

There are many famous narrations from Imam Ali (AS), which provide guidelines for us. Here we would like to share with our listeners, one of these wonderful pieces of advice from an affectionate father to an obedient son. Imam Ali (AS) once said to his son Imam Hasan (AS):

“My son, learn four things from me and through them you will learn four more. If you keep them in mind your actions will not bring any harm to you. The greatest wealth is wisdom; the greatest poverty is stupidity; the worst unsocial trait is vanity and self-glorification; and nobility of descent exhibits itself in politeness and in refinement of manner.”

“The next four things, my son, are: Do not make friendship with a fool because when he tries to do you good he will harm you; Do not make a miser your friend because he will run away from you at the time of need; Do not be friendly with a vicious and wicked person because he will sell you and your friendship at the cheapest price; Do not make friend of a liar because like a mirage he will make you visualize very near the things which are at a great distance and will make you see at the great distance the things which are near to you.”

Well, don’t you think that these gems of advice are so necessary for developing the proper perspective among the youth, especially after they have gone through the wonderful spiritual exercise of fasting during Ramadhan? Of course, it is. By pondering on these other sayings of Imam Ali (AS) on the occasion of Eid Fitr, we can clearly see that the infallible Imams were sent by Allah to guide humanity towards salvation and save it from darkness.

In Iran, which unlike the highly flawed systems of monarchy, socialism, military rule or liberal democracy, is governed by the dynamic laws of Islam, the Eid Fitr Prayer is led in the capital Tehran, by the country’s highest religious-political personality, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. As a humble servant of the Prophet and the Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, he is blessed with a deep insight and is fully aware of the domestic, regional and international situations. He delivers his sermons, which are listened with rapt attention by the audiences, to awaken public conscience at home and abroad.     The Eid Fitr Prayer Sermons by the Leader and other qualified ulema, are thus a golden opportunity for the masses to strengthen their faith or rectify their behaviour by returning to the path of God, and at the time become aware of the dangers threatening the homeland and the Muslim Ummah, in view of the plots of the Great Satan (the US).     

Let us pray to God Almighty to deliver the Muslims from all these vices, as well as the satanic plots of the US and its devilish agents, who are destabilizing the whole world. Amen.

Here is what Imam Ali (AS) has said in the concluding passage of his famous Eid Fitr sermon:

“Remember Allah so that He may re-member you, for indeed He remembers those who re-member Him, and beseech Allah for His mercy and grace, for indeed He does not disappoint those who supplicate Him.”

AS/SS