Eid Mubarak in Tawi-Tawi has never been the same

As a Muslim in my childhood, I learned Hariraya Eidil Fitri as a festive day for Muslims to rejoice, and I was always happy whenever the yearly raya celebration comes. I was use to having new clothes, new pair of shoes, which my parents traditionally did for me, and extra coins to game on that special day, after kissing the hands of my elders and relatives. It was a custom and tradition that cloaked me in my childhood and so with other kids, but changed in my adolescence when I began to understand the essence of true Hariraya Eidil Fitri.

From my adolescence until today, I understand that the real quintessence of Eid Mubarak is not only a day to rejoice as a festivity but a blissful day of triumph from the war against jihadun nafs (self sacrifice against desire), by fasting the whole month of Ramadhan wherein God, the Almighty, has commanded the Muslims to perform as an act of worship unto HIM. It is one of the pillars of Islamic faith and those who have successfully performed it by the rules and procedure ordained by the Almighty God with piety, devotion, sincerity, and dignity shall reap the rewards that ALLAH has promised.

Yet raya celebration has never been the same since my adolescence in this Muslim province where Islam has first seeded through Sheik Karimul Makhdum, an Arabian missionary, who built the first and oldest mosque in the country, found in Simunul Island.

Notably, I felt that raya celebrations here lack meanings and seemingly has less spirit. It appears that people are not united in the stand of simultaneously celebrating the triumph of Ramadhan sacrifice on the same day, which eventually demonstrated its spiritless festivities.

An instance of proof is the just-concluded Eidil Fitri where the Eid prayers were done in three separate and subsequent days by Islamic believers of this Muslim province. Some groups did the prayer on Wednesday, others on Thursday and Friday. I certainly do not understand what brought the difference of the supposed same day Eid prayer among the Muslims here. It is just hardly conceivable to comprehend this difference or this non-unity in the conduct of the Eid prayer at the same time, which reflects a formidable disharmony against the Islamic principle of unity.

I was in Malaysia for several years and I noticed how Malaysian Muslims received the raya day with joy, happiness and unity.

Now do we make distinction with other Muslims of the world?

Allow me to answer my own question. YES, we do because we are in disparity in some Islamic aspects. Let us just hope and pray that by the Will of the Almighty ALLAH and by the Hadith of the Holy Prophet we shall not belong to the 72 groups of the 73 sects of Islam that will go astray.

Happy Eid Mubarak!