Many are human beings who do not celebrate anything in their life including the normal festivals in the religion they professed or the customs, that are thrown into their paths by accident of births!
There are still the category of men and women whose only time they act carnival -like are Eids periods! Any other days in their life are normal without the merriment that accompanied days of celebration.
We can yet locate another category ,for the death man will die or the vicissitudes of life that will come his way, that have abandoned any celebration except when they born a new baby.
There are in addition to the above, many a soul who becomes unnecessarily controversial at the celebration of other people’s annual festivals though he does not appreciate the one permitted to him in his own religious or cultural groups.
In essence, every man is with his own policy but the truth of the matter is that this our life despite the many lows that man will experience and the alternate joy he will feel no matter how lowly or highly placed he may be, there are uncountable celebrations that man needs to have been joyous for, when he thinks deeper about them.
And especially as a believer in the Lord and Creator of these seven Firmaments dubbed the Earths and the Heavens , there are many occasions of life that called for man’s happiness and celebration!. These are some of them:
…the fact that you slept last time and you were able to wake up this morning calls for a celebration for many have slept like you and died in their sleeps without being afflicted with any ailment hitherto! This allowance to live again after the “small death” needs to be celebrated with the praise of God and His worship.
It is this same sleep that a Medical personnel will sleep on a bed and he will find himself on the floor despite his knowledge and acumen in what is beneficial to his body! And when you without the medical expertise sleeps on a bed, you wakes up on the same bed, without let or hindrance! If you don’t know, what the Medical personnel, for all his expertise ,suffers is sleep disorder while you that knows no drug, sleep well and wake well.
…every day you find yourself in the worship of your Lord, if you will think, is a day of celebration! For the real celebration lies with who worships and devotes to his Creator.
Friends, in the worship of the Lord lies the satisfaction! We read in the glorious Qur’an 13:28 this profound assertive statement as such:
“Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah:for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction”
Worshipping and remembering the Lord of all things, is a sign or miracle of all times! And to tell you, sign or miracle is not something external every time:it is something internal too, something in your mind ,heart and soul. It depends on your inner spiritual experience which only the remembrance of Allah can earn for you. I tell you, no wealth, family pedigree or royalty can give human being that.
This is the reason why the righteous Ibrahim Bn Adi’am used to tell his coterie of friends this profound statement despite their material poverty:
“If Kings and the children of Kings have known what is with us in inner satisfaction, they would have beaten us with sword(so as to deprive us of our enjoyment).
…every day you find yourself discharging the responsibilities given to you as the creation of the Lord, as human being, as an husband and wife, then that day is your day of festivity!
When you find yourself in observing the daily canonical prayers as a Muslim, be joyful! For in it is the real success! It is even one of the ways prescribed in Islam to clear the mountains of difficulty that would face man when living. The Qur’an says:
” Seek help with patience and Salaat(canonical prayer): It is indeed hard , except to those who are humble.” _ Qu’ran 2:45
And the Prophet may he be blessed the more, is reported to have resort to Prayer when matters come up.
The Arabic word sabr ( patience) implies many shades of meaning , which it is impossible to comprehend in one English word. It implies patience in the sense of being thorough, not hasty in prayer and acts of devotion. It also denotes being patient in perseverance, constancy, steadfastness, firmness of purpose in faith and other creedal issues in Islam.
In another instance, sabr involves systematic in action as opposed to being spasmodic or chance action. This is applicable to things or activities which we do every day like the Askar after every canonical prayers. On this is the Hadith of the prophet (Salla-llahu alehi wasalam) which reads:
” The best of deeds is the one which one does with constancy,even if it is little!”
As an husband and the head of a family, whenever you find yourself giving everyone under your guardianship their rights, you are to praise the Lord while you anticipate more of the Lord’s blessing! It has been observed by the Prophet (salla-llahu alehi wasalam) that:
” It is enough a sin for man to leave those under his care without caring for them”
As a wife too, it is a thing of joy to lead those under you well . Husband is liken, to Shepherd in a tradition of the Prophet, who will be asked how he has shepherded those under him.Like wise, a wife is also a Shepherd who will be questioned as to how she has shepherded her children and those under her care.
…it will be a thing of celebration too, when you lift a human being out of the tribulation he has found himself not to talk of a believer! Saving animals out of bondage and salvaging them from the hunger or thirst they suffered is also part of what can earn a man a life time celebration.
For example, a prostitute of a note had been saved from Hell fire just because she salvaged a dog from the thirst it suffered! For this singular act, she was made a believer and died some days afterwards.
… man should be happier and celebrated the mercy of his Lord whenever he is given to repentance of his sins! Sins have been identified as killers of man’s soul and joy. For this ,it is well for a man that becomes carnival-like for seeking forgiveness from his sins.
The one that seeks repentance from his sins has been adjudged by prophet Muhammad (salla-llahu alehi wasalam) as like a new born who is sinless. In another instance, the Prophet (saw) has said that Satan,the leader of the transgressors used to say that ” O you children of Adam, I do kill you everyday by beguiling you to commit sin while you kill me by seeking repentance from sinning.
Friends, the biggest day of a man’s celebration should be the day he met his Lord when he is a believer in his Lord and an ardent follower of His prophet (Salla-llahu alehi wasalam), for a man will always be with whom he loves, and who soever loves to met the Creator, the Creator will like to met him in return.
It is at this juncture we mourn the passing of our sisters in faith and their children who died alongside them in the accident along Benin -Sagamu road yesterday! These believing women as their names in Arabic connotes ( Al-Muhminat) were on religious excursion to Vanguard Academy at Odogbolu in Ijebu-Ode when this unfortunate accident happened.
May the good Lord pardon their foibles, admit them in the midst of the Siddiqina, Shu’adai and prophets as He Has promised He will do for those that died as martyrs as they had done yesterday.
In addition, may the good Lord oversee what they left behind while He grant their families the fortitude to bear their loss, Amin.