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I- Holy Days and Festivals
II- Islamic Calendar
III- Language of Islam
IV- Conversion to Islam
Eid-ul-Fitr:
It is celebrated throughout the Muslim world on the first of
Shawal after the end of Ramadhan which is the month of fasting. It
is a festival of thanksgiving to Almighty God Who made the Muslims
successfully complete fasting. A special prayer known as Prayer of
Eid-ul-Fitr is offered two hours or so after the sunrise in a
large mosque or in a public place meant for this purpose known as Eidgah. The prayer is a large congregation of the Muslims which
is attended not only by almost all male Muslims living in the
locality but also by some female Muslims. Before offering this
prayer, every well-to-do Muslim pays a compulsory charity to the
poor (known as Sadaqat-ul-Fitr) in order to enable the poor to
participate in the celebrations. All the Muslims, particularly the
children, wear new clothes. People visit each other, exchange
gifts, prepare good dishes to eat and enjoy. The occasion is a
public holiday for the Muslims.
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Eid-ul-Azha:
It is celebrated on 10th of Zil-Hijjah which is the last month of
Muslim Lunar calendar. It is connected with annual pilgrimage but
it is celebrated by the Muslims the world over wherever they live
although the pilgrimage is performed only at Makkah. All the
Muslims put on their best clothes and offer special prayer known
as prayer of Eid-ul-Azha in large congregations in big mosques or
at places called Eidgah soon after sunrise. After the prayer, they return home and
offer animal sacrifice (of a sheep, goat, cow, camel) which is
obligatory on every Muslim who can financially afford. Then meat
is cooked and eaten while a portion of it is distributed among the
poor and those friends and relatives who have not offered
sacrifice. The occasion is a public holiday for the Muslims.
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Eid-i-Milad-un-Nabi:
12th of Rabi-ul-Awwal, the third month of Muslim calendar, is
celebrated as birthday of the Prophet of Islam. Although the
Prophet himself or his successors never celebrated this day and
there is no religious sanction behind this celebration, somehow
the custom has taken roots. Special meetings are held in which
life of the Prophet and his achievements are remembered and
highlighted. Children especially celebrate the birthday. Places of
worship and public buildings are illuminated.
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Shab-i-Miraj:
27th night of Rajab, seventh month of Islamic calendar, is the
night of Prophet Muhammad’s ascension to heaven. On this night,
the Muslims celebrate with good food and offer prayers.
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Shab-i-Barat:
15th night of Sha’ban, the month preceding Ramadhan, is known as
the night when destiny of the mankind is written. The Muslims
offer prayer and seek forgiveness of God especially in this night
hoping for good fortune. Children play fireworks.
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Yaum-i-Ashurah:
10th Day of Muharram, first month of Islamic Calendar, is the day
of martyrdom of Hussain, son of Ali and grandson of the Prophet of
Islam in 680 A.D. at Karbela, Iraq, by the forces of Ummayyid
caliph Yazid. Muslims offer prayers as well as hold meetings
wherein the martyrdom of Hussain and his deeds are remembered. The
Shiite Muslims especially hold processions and express their grief by
weeping and beating their breasts.
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II- Islamic
Calendar
Islam follows
lunar calendar especially for religious purposes like Fasting,
Hajj and Zakah with the result that the months relating to these
rotate from season to season because Solar year comprises 365 or
366 days whereas Lunar year is generally of 354 days. The wisdom
of the adoption of the Lunar calendar lies in the fact that it
provides the believers opportunity to have experience of all
seasons to fast or to perform pilgrimage — moderate season as
well as extreme winter and summer. Had the fasting and pilgrimage
been fixed in the given months of the Solar calendar — say month
of May for fasting and month of July for pilgrimage the people
living in the Northern hemisphere had suffered long days of heat
and those living in the Southern hemisphere would have short days
of winter. This discrimination among the faithful has been
avoided by Islam, which is universal religion, by following lunar
calendar because it ensures that everyone will taste all seasons
turn by turn.
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III- Language
of Islam
The Qur’an is the
word of God and it was revealed in Arabic as language of Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) was Arabic. Thus Arabic is the language of the
Qur’an, of the Prophet of Islam and the of wives of the Prophet, whom the
Qur’an calls mothers of the believers. So Arabic is in a way
mother tongue of the believers. The followers of Islam love Arabic
as it is the language of their beloved Prophet and also of their
spiritual mothers. They, therefore, recite the Holy Qur’an in
Arabic and hold their prayer — services in Arabic. Those whose
mother tongue is not Arabic, they learn it at least at elementary
level to be able to read the Holy Qur’an and to offer their daily
prayers.
Thus religious language
or you can say official language of Islam is Arabic. According to
a tradition of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Arabic would be the
language of the inmates of the Paradise in the Hereafter.
Maintaining of the
Holy Qur’an in the Arabic language in which it was revealed has
helped in persevering the text of the Holy Book in its original
form unlike Holy Scriptures of other religions which lost their
original text due to their transformation in languages other than
that in which they were revealed or written for the first time.
Moreover, keeping of the Qur’an and the prayer-services in Arabic
language lends uniformity and universality to beliefs and rituals
of the Muslims.
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IV- Conversion
to Islam
Conversion to
Islam is very easy as Islam is a universal religion and is not
reserved for a particular race or country. Islam, however, does
not recognize forced conversion. The conversion should be
voluntary, of absolutely free will, in full consciousness of the
act. A non-Muslim who intends to embrace Islam is asked first to
take a bath in order to purify the body symbolically of the dirt
of ignorance and disbelief. Then he is directed to declare,
ordinarily in the presence of two witnesses, the following
attestation of faith, “I testify that there is no God but Allah
and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”. If the
name of the new convert has any un-Islamic trait, then it is
changed to some Islamic name in Arabic. In the case of conversion
of a married man to Islam, his marriage with a Jew or Christian
woman continues undisturbed even if she does not accept Islam; but
if it is with a woman belonging to some other faith, then the
marriage would dissolve if the wife does not embrace Islam after
having been given reasonable time to do so. In the case of conversion of
a married woman, her marriage with non-Muslim belonging to any
faith including Judaism and Christianity would dissolve if the husband does not embrace Islam despite
reasonable time given to him for doing so.
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