Lessons for Eid

Eid-ul-Azha is a day when Muslims all over the world honour the Abrahamic tradition of sacrifice for the love of the Almighty. There are many lessons to be learnt from this day. Instead, in Pakistan (and many other Muslim countries), most of these lessons are thrown out of the window and only rituals are being followed in the name of religion. Sacrificing an animal is not the only thing that should be associated with Eid-ul-Azha. Cleanliness is also part of Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) stressed upon this aspect of religion in a hadith: “Cleanliness is half of faith.” But on Eid-ul-Azha, what we see all over the country is blood and offal. Even in relatively affluent areas where people have space to slaughter animals within their houses, most residents do not care about keeping their surroundings clean and instead throw out animal remains. In crowded mohallas, due to shortage of space, slaughtering is mostly done on the roads. The sight of bloodied roads filled with filth and gore is not just disgusting but such disregard for cleanliness can lead to all kinds of diseases. We have not been able to deal with dengue completely yet and now we might have to deal with an outbreak of different epidemics in the aftermath of our practices on Eid. Public health is an issue that the government should keep in mind at this particular event even more vigilantly. The government and the people themselves should devise a system where the remains of the slaughtered animals can be dumped and all the roads and surroundings cleansed of blood.

Then there is the issue of banned terrorist organisations collecting animal hides during Eid in order to fund themselves. Even though the Interior Ministry has given orders banning 31 banned organisations from collecting hides, groups associated with these banned outfits are operating freely. Also, some of the banned outfits have changed their names, like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) has changed to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and yet those new names have not been included in the new list. Instead of taking half-hearted measures, the government should come down hard on these banned terror outfits.

On this Eid, we should also spare a thought for the flood victims who have no shelter, clothing and food. In the spirit of sacrifice, we should be more charitable towards our brethren who are the victims of natural disasters. The government and the NGOs can only do so much. We, the people of Pakistan, must come out and help the flood victims. Winter is just around the corner and it could lead to a fresh disaster in the flood-hit areas. It is time to serve our suffering people.

(my editorial in Daily Times)

Comments

Mary said…
Thank you very much for the information.moreover The Flood victims still await the help and aid. As Pakistan battles an unprecedented catastrophe, funds are desperately needed to help deliver food aid and medical services to save life.
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