Why The Eid Of The Sahaba Looks Nothing Like Ours

The True Meaning of Eid

Around us in the world, people celebrate so many things. They celebrate birthdays, they celebrate anniversaries, mother's days, father's days, golden jubilees, achievements, job promotions, graduation. So many things are celebrated. So many things are adored. So many things make people happy.

What are we celebrating today? Is it the fact that fasting has ended and good riddance to the fast? What are we celebrating today? Allah reminds us in the Qur'an when He says:

You are saying Allahu Akbar today and you are celebrating because of the guidance Allah gave you.

For a moment, I want you to imagine yourself. If Allah took away the blessing of Islam from you, where would you be right now? If Allah took away your religion, what would you be doing right now? Where could you have been? All of us in our lives, there have been moments in our life with a pull of misguidance, ad-dalal, the pull of the Shaitan. It has at once in our lives pulled us towards something we don't want to do.

And all of us at some point in time in our lives, we have tasted the pleasure of sin, which is very short-lived. Imagine we never came back. We continued in that sin. We stayed there. It ruined us. And we never made it back to experience the sweetness and the beauty and the blessing of guidance.

When you imagine this moment — yourself in haram, yourself not praying salah, yourself far from Allah — you realize: why are you here? Who brought you here? Allah guided you. This is what we are celebrating today, Eid. It is the celebration of Allah's guidance, not the celebration of the day you were born or a particular person or a particular race. It is the achievement and the blessing of Allah's guidance.

Guidance Can Be Taken Away

This blessing of Allah's guidance — any moment He can take it away. And when does Allah take it away? When we start to think it is me who did all of this. I did the fasting. I did the prayers. I recited so much Qur'an.

Allah says in the Qur'an: a group of Arab Bedouins came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, "O Muhammad, O Prophet of Allah, we did you a favor by accepting Islam. We've done you a favor — tell Allah, appreciate what we have done for you." Allah responded to them in the Qur'an:

"O Muhammad ﷺ, these Bedouins think they did Me a favor by accepting Islam. Actually, no — it is the opposite. Allah did you a favor by guiding you towards Iman, if really you are honest with yourselves."

This day today is a celebration of the fact that Allah allowed us to fast. Allah guided us to pray and Allah guided us to the Qur'an. Because how many people pass through Ramadan and did not taste the sweetness of that guidance?

As the ulema used to say: if you want to keep a blessing close to you, thank Allah for that blessing. The moment you think, "I did it, I don't need Him," Allah will take it away. When we show gratitude and thankfulness to Allah, it allows us to keep the blessings He gave us and it brings more blessings to us.

The Lesson of Musa and Banu Israel

Don't you see — when Musa (peace be upon him) crossed the ocean with Banu Israel, and Allah guided them out of the oppression of the Pharaoh of Egypt:

He was murdering their children and shaming their mothers. They came out of centuries of oppression. When they reached the other side, what did they say to Musa (peace be upon him)? They began to complain. They said, "O Musa, all this time before you came, we were being oppressed and harmed and tortured. Now you came, we're still being oppressed and harmed and tortured. What have you done for us? Nothing." They became ungrateful.

Musa (peace be upon him) — the first thing he says to them — said: your Lord has said, if you are thankful to Me, I will give you more.

"But if you are ungrateful for My favors, My punishment is no joke — it is severe."

If we do not say alhamdulillah for His guidance, it may be you and I tomorrow who are not fasting in Ramadan. It may be you and I tomorrow who stop praying salah because we took it for granted.

Al-Hamdulillah — The First and Last Word

The first thing that Allah started the Qur'an with — the very first sentence — the words we say 17 times a day:

All gratitude belongs to Allah — whether we give it to Him or we don't. He deserves it, whether we say it or we don't.

And the last thing that you and I will say — insha'Allah — as we enter Paradise:

Now you tell me — if you are entering Jannah, you are entering Paradise — may Allah make you and me from them — why are you saying الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ? Allah mentions in the Qur'an that the believers will be brought to Paradise and they will say:

They thank Allah from the bottom of their heart. That's the first thing as they reach Paradise. Because they know — if it was not for Allah's guidance, if it was not for Allah's tawfiq, not for Allah's kindness and His mercy, we would never have reached there in the first place.

The Greatest Blessing

We have to have that appreciation. We have to have that celebration. We have to realize the greatest blessing in the world — more than food, more than electricity, more than wealth. We live in a world today where all of these material blessings — money, electricity, gas — all of it is in shortage. But the greatest blessing of Allah that we hope is never in shortage is the guidance of Allah.

We can be hungry, we can be thirsty, we can be cold — but we still wish and hope and pray to Allah that we are not misguided, we are not lost, we are not far from Him. Because you could have everything in this world — if you don't have Allah, you have nothing. And you could have nothing in this world — but if you have Allah, you have everything.

The Prophet ﷺ — the happiest he would be was when he would see somebody being guided. As it is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ was not always doom and gloom, sadness and anger and misery, but that when he would smile you could see the back of his molar teeth. That when he would meet someone you would see the beautiful radiant smile on his face. And that there was nothing he was more happy about, more grateful for, than the guidance of Allah.

Imagine the Prophet ﷺ as he is digging the trench in the Battle of the Trench — as he is digging, what is he saying?

"If it was not for Allah, we would never be guided. We would never have given charity, we would never have prayed. Allah, continue to bless us with this guidance."

Allahu Akbar — Allah is Greater

That is why today we say Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.

This word Allahu Akbar — it humbles you. As you say Allah is great, you are small. And as you say Allah is great, all your problems — they are small. The greatest thing that the greatest Allah can give us is His guidance. And in the face of that guidance, all of our problems feel very small.

Today is a day to celebrate the guidance of Allah, as Allah says in the Qur'an:

Tell them, O Muhammad ﷺ — the mercy of Allah is Islam. The guidance of Allah, the Qur'an — that is what you should celebrate. It is better than everything else that they try to gather and they try to amass and they try to save.

How to Celebrate Guidance: Take Something From Ramadan

The best way to celebrate the guidance of Allah is to take one thing from Ramadan and to continue it. This is how to thank Allah. You want the guidance of Allah? You want the blessing of Allah? Use it for His sake.

You read the entire Qur'an in Ramadan? Okay — can you read one page a day outside of Ramadan? We prayed for one hour, two hours in Ramadan? Can we pray once a month outside of Ramadan?

As the Salaf used to say:

(A well-known saying attributed to the Salaf)

How horrible it is that there are people who only know Allah in Ramadan. Outside Ramadan? We don't know who He is.

Take something — take anything, even something small — and continue it, so that the blessing of guidance continues to come upon you and your family.