Eid ul Fitr Mubarak – Blog Post #333 by Asrar Qureshi
Eid ul Fitr Mubarak – Blog Post #333 by Asrar Qureshi
Dear Colleagues! This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #333. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here.
The Eid is here, finally.
There was the usual wait for the announcement of moon sighting. The Minister of Science and Technology had already given his scientific version about Eid on Sunday 24th. In fact, he had put up a sort of challenge to Ruet e Hilal Committee to give a different verdict if they could. Finally, the RHC announced quite late about moon sighting.
The challenge from the Minister was misplaced and unnecessarily arrogant. He could have said the same things more decently and politely but then he would not be Fawad Chaudhry.
Ruet e Hilal Committee was formed by Ayub government and since then, no government has considered changing its constitution or scope or method of working. They have too many political and personal agendas to take care of, which does not leave much time for doing constructive work.
An old colleague has sent message that the moon today was clearly of 2nd which means the announcement was correct. He points out that we started Ramadan late. While the rest of the world observed 30 days fasting, we did 29 days. He says the government should announce to public to have one more day of fasting. He says Saudi government once did it. I also remember they made such an announcement several years back. It takes moral courage to do so. In Pakistan it will also take physical courage to confront the RHC and ask them to make this announcement, in case it is so.
Eid was already under long shadow of COVID19. It was further clouded by the air crash on Friday. The overall mood became more somber. If we add the economic issues and the security situation on the borders, it is an awful lot to handle at the same time. Our governments in their wisdom (or illusion) keep the vitally important information away from public. And they are not alone in this. All governments want to decide what they will tell and what they will conceal. The excuse is to save public from unrest. Over time the public has also become apathic and aloof to such issues and do not care two hoots about it. The apathy also results from the feeling that what can we do in this matter? Nothing. This is also the reason that public has gradually shown less and less inclination to support fundraising campaigns from government. The distrust between public and government has grown to the extent that any and all actions are viewed with suspicion and acted upon with reluctance.
Anyway, these issues are likely to stay here for the foreseeable future. Eid can still be celebrated.
Celebration is happy that we found another Ramadan in this life time; that we had enough good health to collect Allah’s Blessings in this bountiful month; that we are surrounded by those whom we love and who love us; that we have good food to eat and nice clothes to wear and decent money to spend the way we like; that we have a cozy place to live in cold and hot and rainy and dry weather; that we have access to healthcare and our children have access to education; and that actually we may not be able to count the uncountable Blessings of Allah.
Celebration is quiet because the suffering around us has increased manifold suddenly; that it is much more than we can handle with our resources; that even children are suffering who are supposed to be kept delicately; that the calamities are descending one after another upon us; that we are not learning from our mistakes and not trying to take corrective measures; and that we are insisting on falling further into the abyss of moral, social, physical, mental, spiritual and financial corruption.
EID MUBARAK BROTHERS AND SISTERS
I PRAY TO ALLAH THAT WE DO NOT HAVE ANOTHER EID LIKE THIS IN OUR LIFETIME AND BEYOND. AAMEEN
Boy Image Courtesy Matheus Bertelli @ pexels.com
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