Every culture has its own specific ways to greet and celebrate a
particular event. Pakistanis have their own ways to do this. And this
greeting has also become a certain type of culture. All over the world
Muslims observe holy month of Ramzan with religious devotion. This
religious devotion again varies with culture but sometimes it becomes
rather a deconstructive contamination of spirituality and a complete
u-turn from the essence of the worship.
Ramzan in its
essence brings an opportunity for Muslims to practice a devoted behavior
of tolerance, compassion and submission. But, sadly, what is practiced
and is observed has nothing to do with any of the objectives i.e.
tolerance, compassion and submission. My friends call me a pessimist who
extracts negativity out of everything. But, the way I feel and which is
necessary to mention here is the need of corrective and preventive
behavior. This can only be brought by identifying our mistakes. The
social impact of ignored behaviors becomes tremendously devastating with
the passage of time. Before the readers wonder, what I am talking about
is, I should start with examples. Speaking entirely on the social
dimension of our behaviors related to Ramzan, I will avoid any possible
conflict with religion per se.
It has always been a
surprise to me to realize that a month that is supposed to spend on a
tolerant behavior regarding appetite is a month when there is everything
in the town promoting otherwise. From the hunger provoking cooking
shows to public display of food items in streets, the sources of
“Gullotny” are all there. Irony in itself is that the major business in a
fasting month is food. This behavior of faithful is rather a show of
greed contrary to the show of tolerance.
At the end of a 12 to 18
hours long day of fasting, there is another public display of
intolerance in the streets: loud honking of horns in jammed traffic,
people fighting with each other and shopkeepers selling the goods at 3x
times cost. The inevitable sense of self-righteousness seems dominating
the souls. The first objective of the Ramzan seems at high risk of
disregard.
The extensive and unnecessary shopping of
different food items lead to inflation which in turn leads to the
trouble for the underprivileged who are supposed to be sympathize with
and shown compassion to, in the holy month. Several Hadiths emphasize
the importance of this particular point which is termed as one of the
important objectives of the holy month: to produce a compassionate
thought in believers towards underprivileged by remaining hungry for
hours. This objective is also compromised.
The third and
vital aim of the holy month is neither seen to be fulfilling. Submission
is an ultimate display of humbleness and devotion to the magnificence
of Almighty. Whereas, what I have observed in suburban and rural areas
of Pakistan, specifically KP is not indeed a submissive welcome to the
holy month. In fact, the reason for writing this piece is an experience
of this welcome on the first evening of this Ramzan. The mountains of my
hometown kept on echoing with air-firing for whole two hours when the
sighting of the moon was announced on TV. Taking pride in firing more
and more rounds of bullets and using respective loudspeakers of the
mosques at maximum, during night, are the behaviors which tend to crush
the concept of humbleness and submission.
I acknowledge
that I do not have any right to judge the behaviors of people and base
my conclusions on assuming that these behaviors are not a part of
culture and are not well-intentioned. But I hope that we can realize,
prevent and correct the extent of the spiritual contamination by
acknowledging the fact that some behaviors are so adamant that they are
deconstructive towards the essence of a particular virtue. This way many
social implications of this transgression can be saved.
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