Etiquettes of Rejoicing (1/2)

1- You must celebrate occasions of joy in a befitting manner. Rejoicing is a demand of human instincts and a natural urge. Religion gives due importance to the satisfaction of natural instincts and permits their fulfillment subject to some useful restraints and conditions. Religion disapproves of marring the attractiveness of your personality by assuming such poses as artificial dignity, unnecessary somberness, permanent sorrow and gloom. Religion allows you full rights to celebrate joy on all lawful festive occasions and enjoins upon you to keep your spirits high with a bold attitude, zestful living and fresh aspirations to avoid celebrations of joy on lawful occasions and to consider the sentiment of rejoicing as unbecoming to the genuine spirit of religion.

If God grants you the favour of performing some religious duty; you or one of your relations attains high honour in learning and excellence; God confers on you prosperity, wealth or some other bounty; you return safe from a long journey or any of your relations comes back from his travels to distant parts; you receive a visit from an honourable guest; a marriage comes off or the birth of a child takes place in your home; you receive report of the health and well-being of a near relative or the happy news of the victory or glorious achievement of the people of Islam; or on festivals it is your natural right to celebrate these occasions with rejoicing. Islam not only allows the holding of festivities, but regards this act as in perfect harmony with the spirit of religion,

Hadrat Ka'b ibn Malik (Allah be pleased with him) relates: “When God had accepted my prayer for forgiveness and I received the glad tidings of it, I at once went to the presence of the Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). I offered my salam (peace be on you), At that moment, the holy face of the Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was radiant with joy, Whenever the Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) attained some happiness, his face would glow with the radiance of moon and we used to take the brightness and radiance of his face as index of exceedingly joyous feelings in him (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).” (Reported by Riyad-us Salihin)

2- Make arrangements to celebrate the festival with free rejoicing and open merriment, Feel quite informal and let yourself join the festivities without inhibitions. On arrival at Medina, the Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) observed:

"You used to celebrate festivities on two days during a year. God has now blessed you with two better days, i.e. ‘Id al-Fitr and ‘Id al-Adha. Celebrate these two festivals of the year with great happiness and complete rejoicing and arrange reunions and indulge in fun and recreation in joyous mood and give vent to your feelings of happiness in a natural manner. It is because of this injunction of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that fasting is forbidden on the occasions of these two festivals,"

The Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) observed;

"These two days are meant for feasting, celebration of joy in union with other people and to remember God." (Reported by Sharah M’adni ul-AIthar)

On the day of 'Id, be neat and clean and take a bath, put on the best dress according to your means, use perfume, eat good food and let the children enjoy themselves with proper means of recreation and games and permit to observe fun freely and without let or hindrance.

Hadrat ‘Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) relates: "It was the ‘Id day and some slave-girls were singing the verses which the Ansar had composed about the battle of Bu’ath[1] While-the girls were thus engaged in singing, Hadrat Abu Bakr (Allah be pleased with him) came and exclaimed in astonishment: “How strange! Singing in the household of the Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)” The Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) answered; "Abu Bakr, never mind. Each nation has a festival day and today we celebrate our 'Id."

Once on ‘Id day some Negro acrobats were giving a demonstration of some military maneuver. The Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) himself watched these exercises and let 'A’isha (Allah be pleased with her) also to see the in from behind his back. The Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave the acrobats constant cheers. When ‘A’isha (Allah be pleased with her) grew weary, the Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) permitted her to depart. (Reported by Bukhari)

3- Observe the manners, injunctions, taste and spirit of Islam in your rejoicings. On receiving happiness, offer thanks to your Benefactor and prostrate before Him in gratitude. In the excitement of your joy, do not perform any act nor adopt any attitude which does not conform to the spirit of Islam or is contrary to Islamic manners and injunctions. You must express your joyous sentiments, but observe the rule of moderation and do not let your expression of happiness submerge the sentiments of obedience, devotion and humility and turn into a display of haughtiness and pride.

The Holy Qur’an affirms:

"And exalt not because of that which hath been given. Allah loveth not all prideful boasters." [Surah Al-Hadid: 23]

Do not be so intoxicated by happiness as to forget the remembrance of God, The supreme happiness of the pious is to remember the Bestower of happiness all the more and offer prostration before Him in gratitude and acknowledge by action and speech the Benefactions, Favour, Greatness and the Glory of God.

After observing fasts during the month of Ramadan, and obtaining the favour of reciting the Holy Qur'an and saying (Tarawih prayers at night, when you sight the ‘Id moon, your happiness knows no bounds. On realising that you have been successful in carrying out the injunctions of God by His Grace, you at once give away the share of your poor and needy brethren out of your wealth so as to make amends for any negligence in worship or error in discharging the duty of Devotion to God and also to enable the poor people to participate with others in the joys of the 'Id. In acknowledgement of this favour of God, you express your befitting sentiments of joy by offering two prayers of thanksgiving to God and on the day of ‘Id al-Adha you commemorate the great and unique sacrifice of Hadrat Ibrahim and Hadrat Isma’iI (peace be on them) and thus finding your own heart filled with the eagerness to make sacrifice you offer prostration to God m gratitude. And then the hymns of 'Praise be to God’ 'Takbir’ and 'Thanksgiving' resound through every community and are days you eat well and put or, your best clothes and celebrate your joys in lawful fashion according to the injunctions of the Shari'ah all these activities of yours are recorded as submission to and acknowledgement of the authority of Allah.

(Continued)