Some Muslims in Sokoto, and countries like Niger, Afghanistan, Mali observe Eid El-Fitr on Sunday
Some Muslims who initially were at home happy with the thought that month Ramadhan would end 29 days this year, as opposed to astronomical projection, have developed cold feathers with the seeming disappointing breaking news that it would not be a break-fast – free-mouth – with breakfast on Sunday, because the crescent to have suggested the termination of fasting was not sighted in Saudi Arabia particularly, hence mouth must continue being closed, not to be morning-food-mounted-pressureed till Monday with the terminal month Ramadhan to terminate with iftar after thirty, not thirsty or testy but tasty test days for a toast as with last year and beyond.
Although, some Muslims in Nigeria and countries like Niger, the twin controversial countries when it comes to moodn sighting, along with Afghanistan and Mali claimed to have sighted the crescent and that which remains unacceptable to constituted authority, have unmasked their mouth Sunday, celebrated the termination of the month of Ramadhan with eating and Eid prayer.
Why should month Ramadhan be having 30 days for 3 years consecutively. Why should Saudi Arabia, we’re world apart, be the only country to have an acceptable sighting of the moon for the month of Shauna? They would
One on transit, like time or the Ramadhan, would ask whether they were fed up with the visitor hitherto welcomed and the Ummah was lamenting a painful parting, the analogy that could be coined to Khahlil Gibran’s poem “THE PROPHET,” which centered on the character of Almustafa, a holy man set to return home after 12 years in exile. The collection over 26 poetic essays easily expounds on matters of love, sorrow and religion.
Though not religious but spiritual, THE PROPHET suggests that humankind “should be glad of the experience of coming into the world, even if it seems full of pain, because after death humankinds will see that life had a pattern and a purpose and that what seems to us now as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ will be appreciated without judgment as good for our souls”.
Considered by many as the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lazio, Khalil Gibran, usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, also considered a philosopher although he himself rejected the title, Wikipedia would reveal.
Excerpt from the poetic essay, THE PROPHET
Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.
Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward,
And then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers. And you, vast sea, sleepless mother,
Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream,
Only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade,
And then shall I come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.
And as he walked he saw from afar men and women leaving their fields and their vineyards and hastening towards the city gates.
And he heard their voices calling his name, and shouting from field to field telling one another of the coming of his ship.
And he said to himself:
Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering?
And shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn?
And what shall I give unto him who has left his plough in midfurrow, or to him who has stopped the wheel of his winepress? Shall my heart become a tree heavy-laden with fruit that I may gather and give unto them?
And shall my desires flow like a fountain that I may fill their cups?
Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me?
A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence?
If this is my day of harvest, in what fields have I sowed the seed, and in what unremembered seasons?
If this indeed be the hour in which I lift up my lantern, it is not my flame that shall burn therein.
Empty and dark shall I raise my lantern,
And the guardian of the night shall fill it with oil and he shall light it also.
These things he said in words. But much in his heart remained unsaid. For he himself could not speak his deeper secret.
Illustration:
And when he entered into the city all the people came to meet him, and they were crying out to him as with one voice.
And the elders of the city stood forth and said:
Go not yet away from us.
A noontide have you been in our twilight, and your youth has given us dreams to dream.
No stranger are you among us, nor a guest, but our son and our dearly beloved.
Suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face.
And the priests and the priestesses said unto him:
Let not the waves of the sea separate us now, and the years you have spent in our midst become a memory.
You have walked among us a spirit, and your shadow has been a light upon our faces.
Much have we loved you. But speechless was our love, and with veils has it been veiled.
Yet now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you.
And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
And others came also and entreated him. But he answered them not. He only bent his head; and those who stood near saw his tears falling upon his breast.
And he and the people proceeded towards the great square before the temple.
And there came out of the sanctuary a woman whose name was Almitra. And she was a seeress.
And he looked upon her with exceeding tenderness, for it was she who had first sought and believed in him when he had been but a day in their city. And she hailed him, saying:
Prophet of God, in quest of the uttermost, long have you searched the distances for your ship.
And now your ship has come, and you must needs go.
Deep is your longing for the land of your memories and the dwelling place of your greater desires; and our love would not bind you nor our needs hold you.
Yet this we ask ere you leave us, that you speak to us and give us of your truth.
And we will give it unto our children, and they unto their children, and it shall not perish.
In your aloneness you have watched with our days, and in your wakefulness you have listened to the weeping and the laughter of our sleep.
Now therefore disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death…