On Wednesday the majority of the Cape Malay community celebrated Labarang Gadjie or Eid-ul-Adha, the second Eid on the Islamic calendar.
We are joyful on this day and make merry by performing the ritual of qurbaan (slaughtering of sheep and cattle).
As Muslims, we perform this act of sacrifice to remind us of Allah’s mercy upon us.
We are taught Nabi (prophet) Ebrahim was instructed by the Almighty to slaughter his eldest son Nabi Ismaeel as a testament of faith.
He told his son about Allah’s instruction and Nabi Ismaeel accepted his fate.
As he was about to perform the act, the Almighty stopped him and sent a ram from heaven for him to slaughter instead.
We believe if Nabi Ebrahim had slaughtered his son that day, then up until today, all of our first-born sons would have had to be sacrificed by us, so we celebrate the mercy Allah had upon not only Nabi Ebrahim and his son Ismaeel, but on all of us, as no parent today, I am sure, can even picture slitting the jugular vein of their own child.
While this is what we were supposed to be focused on, we kind of got distracted because the big discussion this year has been the celebrating of Eid-ul-Adha in Cape Town on two separate days.
Some people celebrated it on Tuesday while the majority of the Cape Malay community celebrated it yesterday.
Those who kept Labarang on Tuesday chose to do so in accordance with the Saudi lunar calendar or, like they say, “ons hou labarang saam met Makkah”, while the rest went with the actual sighting of the crescent moon here in South Africa by our maankykers.
People have been doing this for decades here in Cape Town. There are those who even start fasting with Makkah, whether the moon has been sighted in the Cape or not, and some also celebrate the first Eid with the people of Makkah.
Then there are people who only choose to keep Eid-ul-Adha with Makkah and not Eid-ul-Fitr.
It is important to stress that this is not something new, it’s an old thing that is only now getting attention because of social media, and only now are we starting to discuss it with depth in order to, one would hope, find a solution to something that perhaps is not even a problem and might just be a matter of each to his own.
Many people out there are a bit confused, thinking how can you all be Muslim but have Labarang on separate days?
Even the bosses of big companies who compromise with us Muslims by giving us off on the day of Eid are now confused because Abdul is asking for his day off on Tuesday and Gakkie is asking off for Wednesday.
This matter is impacting on the Muslims in a quite confusing manner.
People out there must be thinking: how does this even work and how divided are we as an ummah (community) that we are to a point even showing division openly on this topic.
It is time for us to be realistic and, this is just my opinion, if you live in South Africa and you can’t see the moon, then you can’t celebrate it with another country.
We can only start fasting when the moon has been sighted, hence the same rule should apply to this matter.
If the moon has not been sighted in South Africa, then surely you can’t celebrate it in accordance with Makkah, just because they show it on TV or you read about it in a social media feed.
If one is in a predominantly Christian country and there are no mosques, you won’t hear the call to prayer when it is maghrib (sunset prayer).
You can then perform the prayer on time by watching the sunset and this will be your indication that it is now maghrib’s wakt (time).
Now, say you see the sunset and there is no athaan (call to prayer) and you perform maghrib by the time on your watch, which is set with Makkah, and it’s two hours later, then this will be wrong, will it not? Because surely you saw the sunset.
The same rule should apply with regards to the sighting of the moon to when one should celebrate Eid.
In the end, this might just be the way I feel because it’s the way I have been doing it since I can remember, while others might have been doing it the other way since they can.
However, although we celebrate Eid on different days, in the end we are judged by our intention.
So if the person who celebrates with Makkah upholds the day in the same way and with the same amount of respect, then surely they will be rewarded for this action, be it on the wrong day or not.
We are all just trying to do our best to please the Almighty by doing good in the best way which makes the most sense to us.
May all of us be granted a deeper understanding and may you all remain blessed.
I trust you all had a joyous Eid, be it Tuesday or yesterday, and a big belated slamat from my family to yours.