The Eid-ul-Fitr is a very joyous day; it is a true Thanksgiving Day for the believing men and women. On this day Muslims show their real joy for the health, strength and the opportunities of life, which Allah has given to them to fulfill their obligation of fasting and other good deeds during the blessed month of Ramazan. Allah created humans and trusted them with the responsibility of carrying on His commands. This is a great honor, yet a difficult task that cannot be fulfilled completely without full cooperation among human beings. Successfully completing this task from Allah depends on how well humans cooperate with one another. And because of this, Allah orders His servants in what may be interpreted as, “Help one another in righteousness and piety, but do not help one another in sin and transgression.”
So Allah has clearly defined the areas that we should or should not help one another. Allah, however, does not specify who we must or must not cooperate with because He meant for us to cooperate with all people regardless of their race, faith, or gender. We should not make race, faith, or gender an obstacle in cooperating with one another in righteousness and piety. And just because people from the same race, faith, or gender are committing sin, does not justify our participation or support of this transgression.
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Encouraging others to do good is one of the many ways that Muslims can cooperate with each other in righteousness. The Prophet (PBUH) promises those who encourage goodness to receive the same reward of those who do the good deed. On the other hand, when people encourage others to do sinful things, then they will receive the same penalty of those who committed the sin. While Islam aims to build upright individuals, it also takes interest in building a strong Muslim community. This is not surprising, since Islam is the ‘deen’ of the individual and the community. Understandably, there are many verses in holy Quran and ‘Ahaadeeth’ (Prophet’s sayings) that lay down the foundation and guidelines for the Muslim community. Allah desires the Muslim Ummah to be the model for all of humanity in fulfilling this great task He has entrusted us with. Cooperation is certainly one of the important foundations the community must build upon. Before we can begin working on a community level, individual Muslims must find cooperation among their own families. Furthermore, Muslims must cooperate with all their neighbors: Muslim or non-Muslim. A good person will tend to his neighbor’s needs, and help them in all good and protect them against harm and evil. The Prophet (PBUH) considered harming one’s neighbors to be contradictory to fulfilling one’s faith, and said, “By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe!” The companions asked, “Who, messenger of Allah?” He replied, “He whose neighbor is not safe from his evil.” In this ‘hadeeth’, “neighbor” is a general term that includes Muslims and Non-Muslims living close-by.
It’s time that we in Kashmir stop for a while and then try and search our souls to see if there is any scope for all different kinds of tensions and conflicts which are there in our society on the basis of various divides – regional, communal, racial, sectarian, at al?
