Welcoming Aidil Fitri 1433H

After a full month of staving off hunger, thirst; for smokers, the need to placate the brain's reward systems with the input of nicotine and various other desires of the fleshly kind, all Muslims in the world are geared to celebrate their victory on dominating these aspects of their lives while at the same time acquiring an improved level of self-control. The day in which Adil-Fitri or Eidul Fitri, depending on which nationality you ask is celebrated differs simply due to the different time zones in which the world is segregated into. Which also pretty much means that it would be celebrated for each respective zone of when the sun sets on the last day of Ramadhan, creating a continuous series of celebrations across the globe till when the sun begins to set on the first day of Syawal.

Far from my usual overtures of how such events have been cannibalized by consumerism via capitalists' desire in turning such spiritual, self-reflecting periods within all if not most religions into a profit machine, Aidil Fitri this year has brought about a more inward, retrospective as well as prospective take on my life as a whole. It represents, at least to me, a chance for a new start, devoid of the superfluous baggage in previous moments in my existence that has done nothing but impede my progress in attempting to be the best possible human that I can be.

That is in essence what religion, be it practised spiritually, doctrinally or haphazardly is about anyway. And this is regardless of whatever religion you might have been born into or adopted. Meandering and conflicting between the various belief systems though one of the main side effects of using such means to uphold the religion itself without the improvement of oneself.

This seemingly sudden need to dispose or reduce undesired traits within myself and improve is not due to any epiphany of a self-serving nature but more for the benefit of the next generation.

You see, I'm going to be a father soon, somewhere within the next 4 weeks to be exact without having the capacity to be all that accurate. And in order for my child to be able to receive the best possible options at being successful in life, I have to be one of those options. This coupled with the scare of my life in the last 24 hours that would have involved such a thing not having the possibility of occurring at all, I am now both grateful and gearing myself up for this role that has been entrusted upon me.

And so it is with a deep sense of humility, gratefulness, purpose, responsibility and a general sense of being blessed that I recite the takbir for this Aidil Fitri: