Celebrating ‘The Feast’ in the Age of COVID 19

 The 31st of July 2020, for most Muslims will be celebration of the Feast (or Eid ul Adha) symbolizing the culmination of the pilgrimage by Muslims to Mecca (the Hajj one of the five fundamental pillars of Islam). These few days of light and love are supposed to characterise meditation, reflection, symbolize meditation, a return to the Creator and prayers. Prayers for peace, for happiness, for justice. The Hajj serves as a symbol of unity in diversity as Malcolm X wrote “…we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood…. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colours together, irrespective of their colour”.

Thus, the Hajj represents a spiritual journey answering the invitation from God to visit Makkah and completing one of the essential pillars of Islam. It is a journey that asks for God’s forgiveness, as the human being is stripped to its core representing the destruction of the inner demons and an equalization with one’s peers. It is a journey that represents the chance to be ‘reborn’, cleansed of the challenges of life, re-energized. It is a journey of a humbling spiritual experience that takes one back to the essence of what creation and consequently life is about. It is about understanding the purpose of life’s journey.

It is about understanding the purpose of life’s journey.

The ultimate and most difficult lesson to learn on this journey is to understand our destination. For those of you who have read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the understanding of this destination is very simple:

‘Go; travel the world, look for the truth and the secret of life — every road will lead you to this sense of initiation: the secret is hidden in the place from which you set out’.

This is the apparent paradox of spiritual experience whereby the constant effort that we make to purify, to control and liberate our hearts is in the end, reconciliation with the deepest level of our being and the spark that the Creator breathed into our heart which is the spark (the fitra) of humility, the awareness of fragility, the consciousness of limitation, the shoulder of responsibility. The responsibility to live justly and fairly. It is a responsibility that connects to the ‘other’ as God reminds us that he ‘has made us into tribes and nations so that we may know each other’ (qur’an 49:13)

The Hajj affords us that opportunity both in terms of faith but in terms of the shared history of the region and of the Abrahamic Faiths. Pilgrims performing the hajj are in fact answering the prayers of Prophet Abraham / Ibrahim and his son Prophet Ishmael / Ismail (Peace Be Upon them Both), who built the Ka’abah (the House of God) and subsequently prayed to God that His most beloved of followers (and believers) would come. In the Qur’an, God orders Abraham (Peace Be Upon Him — PBUH) “…proclaim the pilgrimage to humankind, they will respond, coming to the sacred house on foot, riding every possible conveyance coming from every distant path.” (Qur’an 22:27). Those who come for the pilgrimage proclaim ‘Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik — here I am at your service O Lord, here I am’.

You come purely for the purpose that you are invited by God and respond to the prayer of Prophet Abraham (PBUH). In this journey you enact an inter religious experience that was initiated by Prophet Abraham (PBUH) and his family. The hajj allows us to follow in the footsteps of his family, from the running of Hajar (between the mounts of Safa and Marwa) to the recommended act of worship of performing a sacrifice of a sheep in remembrance of the proposed sacrifice of Abraham’s son.

As the main inspiration and father of the lines of Prophets that brought the three world religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Eid ul Adha is not only significant for Muslims but should be symbolic for Christians and Jews as well. The common grounds and the commonalities of the stories of ‘the leader of all mankind’ as God describes him in the Qur’an (2:124). Abraham (PBUH) was not only a ‘nation’ (16:120) by his own right, with his descendants including Isaac, Moses and Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Them All), he was also the ‘friend’ of God (4:125) due to his qualities of sacrifice, extraordinary faith, an uncompromising commitment to upholding the oneness of God and righteousness. This is in essence the core of the three Abrahamic religions that derive their ethics and qualities from these attributes that not only lays the foundation for inter-faith dialogue but for multi-faith action as the Qur’an says “Who could be of better faith than the one who surrenders utterly to God and is a doer of good and follows that faith of Abraham, the upright one?…” (4:125)

Abraham (PBUH) teaches us belief in the one God and urges the leading of an upright life. He fought against the idols that sought to destroy society and its natural inclination to God and when the time came was willing to sacrifice his son (who in the Islamic teachings consented after being consulted by his father) in a joint act of submission to God.

Whilst there is a dispute in the different Abrahamic teachings about the identity of the son who was supposed to be sacrificed (and how things actually transpired), there is a more fundamental lesson for us to learn and that is in the willingness to give up that which is dearest and closest to us; it is whether we have the resolve and willpower necessary to achieve the higher spiritual goals deemed of us, to understand our journey back to the beginning, to understand the common and ancient origin of our human roots which is about the worship of the One Creator and the same reality of what this life means, what we have to do and where we will end up.

We have forgotten what the sacrifice is supposed to symbolize. The story and lesson of Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail (Peace Be Upon Them) deserves to be shared, remembered, and celebrated. The conversation between father and son on this most hardest of scenarios bears serious contemplation. In the height of challenging circumstance, the consultation of a parent with his child and the firm but soft acceptance of a parent’s wish by a child highlights a dying relationship in the world today.

In today’s context these lessons are even more poignant. Faced with the need to physically distance with COVID-19, we have learnt to ‘sacrifice’ those things that are close to us to survive. In many sad cases, we have had to sacrifice people for others, many of them being the elderly. COVID-19 really has brought to reality the importance of inter-generational dialogues and the need for delicate balance that is necessary in human relationships to ensure respect, understanding and acceptance. The Abrahamic story of Sacrifice reminds us of this delicate balance and responsibility. It also reminds us of the need for mutual respect and consultation, something that the pandemic has forced us to understand. The lockdowns in many cases has created sites and times of tension between people as a result of our close proximity. We have been forced to re-evaluate what is important and who is important in our lives. Many times, we have either drifted apart of become closer.

The story of the Sacrifice tells us that through showing the ultimate sacrifice of a parent’s closest and beloved possession for the sake of the One to whom you will eventually return, we are taught that whatever we own and are close to, pales in comparison to the ultimate possession that we have: Our relationship with The One Most High. This sacrifice coming at the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca is the very essence of the celebration. In our journey back to the beginning, to rediscover ourselves, how much will we be able to sacrifice?

how much will we be able to sacrifice?

At the heart of our consumer society, where materialism and individualism drive our daily lives, the question of the sacrifice reinforces our personal effort and commitment and invites us towards the deep horizons of introspection and meaning. This in effect is the current analogy of what Abraham (PBUH) faced in terms of his fight. We have a fight against modern and post modern consumerism and narcissism that does not take into account the beauty of human nature or the crushing debt and poverty faced by millions around the world and we must be prepared to sacrifice all that is dear to us in order to fight it. The lessons of the covid-19 lockdown reinforced that sense of going back to understanding what is really important for us.

Such is the meaning of profound spirituality requiring man to acquire a force of being and doing, rather than to undergo despotic relentlessness of a life reduced to mere instinct. Within this space, we marry the purpose of our existence with the purpose of our subsistence.

That purpose in following Abraham’s footsteps is to serve humanity, those in need; those without! That purpose is to awaken our conscience in the proximity of the wounds and the injustices people face! That purpose is to move away from selfishness / greed and waste; to distance ourselves from the darkest dimensions of our being, our violence, our jealousies, our superficialities. That purpose is to face our responsibilities with confidence and assurance

In an age of commercialism, these lessons of the Hajj have been lost amongst Muslims who settle more for the rituals and practices. Custom has transformed into duty and practice descend into commercialization and waste: waste of money; waste of meat; waste of food. A symbolic and recommended act of worship in remembrance of the Prophet Ibrahim’s (Peace be upon him) sacrifice becomes a literal obligation of animal sacrifice, so that the blood flows deep and the distribution of meat becomes the anchor for the duty. Yes, the poor, vulnerable and needy do not have meat, but no one stops to ask whether giving them meat for a day would help improve their lives or doing something else is needed.

So, in the essence of rushing to seek that instant satisfaction of redemption, we trivialize the essence of the need on the ground. Therein lies the problem. The closure of the space for reasoning, debate and rational thinking about faith, spirituality, and practice.

This sacrifice should not only remind us to be thankful for all the blessings that we have, but to be content with them. We are asked to keep in check our greed as whatever excess; we share with those who deserve special attention — the poor and needy people, as well as the orphans. This is the true meaning of the sacrifice that we make so that those in need will benefit. For the benefit of the voiceless, it is imperative not to lose our way by being driven blindly by traditional practices or by commercialization, and to come back to the very essence of the message that is part of all Abrahamic Faiths: respect and love of human beings (especially those who are vulnerable and have been unjustly treated) is a manifestation of the love for the Almighty.

getting out of the ideological box and isolationist cultural ghetto

The blessed feast of Eid ul Adha thus should not become a feast of food as it is now commonly practised but a feast of the faith of fraternal atmosphere that is shared with all brothers and sisters in faith and humanity. It should as we follow in the footsteps of Abraham (PBUH) become a rallying point to bring all members of his progeny together. Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, the concept of a fraternal atmosphere has been denigrated to a single notion within the mindset of the Muslim community, who have gradually entrenched themselves into an ideological box. This ideological comfort zone is an intellectual arrogance leading to an isolationist mentality and cultural ghetto, which world over, Muslim communities; especially those that live under minority situations, place themselves in. This isolationist mentality imbibes an ‘us’ vs ‘them’ attitude and has meant that the Muslim community has always been worried about ‘us’ rather than taking an all encompassing ‘we’. This assumption of singularity is the weapon of sectarian activists who want people to ignore all affiliation and loyalties in support of one specific identity. This is deeply delusive, divisive and is one that leads to social tension and violence for there is a sense of injustice and intolerance that is created from potential misunderstandings and misperceptions.

The hajj, and the symbolic teachings of the life of Abraham (PBUH), should help us to identify with others in different ways which is important in our role of living in society. It should help us remember that we are much more than a label, that our plurality and diversity are not divisive elements but are a cause for celebration but within that celebration is an understanding of common humanity and universal principles. This is the call for unity of the Muslim community and society that is made during this blessed journey. By not allowing space for discussion to examine these ideas and principles, we negate the very concept of our heritage and teachings.

The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said “You shall not enter Paradise until you have faith, and you cannot have faith until you love one another. Have compassion on those you can see, and He Whom you cannot see will have compassion on you”. This is the Prophetic vision, fed down from Abraham (PBUH) which demonstrates how we must work, together, with others, with our neighbours. So, a world which makes sense, is a world in which we connect with other people, beyond our immediate communities and experience, and show them compassion and love.

Through Abraham’s progeny we are united by familial ties and the deep connection of our kinship. This shared human experience gives us the opportunity to remember our original spiritual substance and to realign our moral compass. We can either fight about our differences or remember that we are united in the singular conviction that Abraham (PBUH) held.

This is the shared message we share with our brothers and sisters of Abraham’s progeny: ‘to serve humanity, those in need; those without… To awaken your conscience in the proximity of the wounds and the injustices people face…To move away from your heart, your bad thoughts…To distance yourself from the darkest dimensions of your being, your violence, your jealousies, your superficialities’

The fortunate 1000 out of the 2.5 million who have been chosen to perform the Hajj this year, specially invited by God carry the hopes and prayers of billions on their shoulders as they answer Abraham’s (PBUH) prayer. They remind us of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic which has really disrupted normalcy and created many more questions for us to ponder as we physically distance from each other. Seeing the 1000 perform their rites, it reminds us that to truly bask in the legacy of Abraham (PBUH), it is imperative not to lose our way by being driven blindly by traditional practices or by commercialization, and to come back to the very essence of the message of the respective faiths: respect and love of human beings as a manifestation of the love for the Almighty and to remember our responsibilities to humanity.

So, with the Hajj being performed under the Pandemic conditions let us come back to the essential. Let us remember that this more than anything is a feast of fraternal atmosphere that is shared by all and thus in reaching out to address the true objective of spirituality through prayers and good deeds, let us remember the right that the poor have on us. Let us avoid the waste and more importantly the wasted sacrifices. Let us remember how to reach out to the ‘other’ from our shared heritage.

May the Almighty, who loves you, guide and protect you. May there be peace and respite for all those who are suffering. May you spend time with your loved ones in an atmosphere of happiness; Happy Feast!!

This originally appeared on Medium

Reimagining Volunteering after COVID

 COVID-19 has hit almost every country in the world, heavily affecting communities at all levels. What has been unprecedented has been the inability of national governments to be able to respond adequately and consistently. The gap in the response of the government has been filled by civil society manned by millions of volunteers, who despite facing the effects of the pandemic in their own lives, have stepped up to work around the clock to prevent the transmission of the virus, communicate effectively with the public, help communities already affected by the outbreak to maintain access to basic social and protective services, and reduce the economic, social and psychological impact on people. These volunteers have provided a range of services, according to needs and existing capacities, risking their lives working in this crisis with many not having access to basic health insurance, nor insurance to support their families should they be injured and unable to work or killed.

Volunteering is part of the DNA and fabric of local communities, highlighting the best that can be achieved when people come together to serve. Throughout the last 100 years or so, we have seen the tremendous good that has come about when people of their own volition have come together at times of tragedy to serve those in need. The current pandemic times are once again a reminder of that human fraternity.

Yet as we appreciate the contribution of volunteering in the age of COVID-19, we must also recognize that the concept of volunteering has evolved and needs to evolve to meet the needs of people on the ground amidst changing expectations and needs. COVID-19 has highlighted the need to really rethink volunteering.

Volunteering was always thought of as a prerogative of the privileged and elite in the 19th century: an act of charity by the better-off towards the disadvantaged. You volunteered your time because you had time to spare. In days of old, you had time to spare because you were not that focused on working or earning a living and it was the past time of the idle rich. Hence volunteering at one stage was also seen through a gendered lens because it was mainly middle- or upper-class women who were able to devote the time to ‘volunteer’.

But this concept does not match the lived experiences of many volunteers who are also members of the communities being supported as well as the experiences of many young people taking up the cause to serve the downtrodden whilst also getting viable life-skills.

The concept of 'How can I make a change in the world today?' inspires millions to work every day to make this a better place for all, many of them even putting their lives at risk.

Volunteering is at the heart of community development and perhaps one of the most powerful ways to engage in the life of a community, to create social connection and to develop a sense of belonging. Thus, volunteers can act as a catalyst for the people around them, prompting and helping others to take action, and helping people rise from apathy to being active citizens, engaged in the development processes that affect their lives, and the lives of their families and communities. Many people who have had to flee their home country have taken on volunteering roles in their new host countries. However, there is a dark side to the celebration of volunteering. In the context of decreased state spending, volunteers offer a form of cheap labour for service delivery. Narratives refer to local knowledge and relevant skills, but too often, it is not the skills and knowledge that are needed as much as a willingness to work for free.

The 21st century has brought new opportunities for volunteering as more and more people prefer to self-organize, as this sustains community and individual autonomy by avoiding dependence on outsiders and allows people to set their own development priorities. There are also new challenges that have arisen in a context where existing crises have not stopped, and there are new hazards including climate change and weather-related shocks. These new challenges are likely to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and lead to new vulnerable communities sooner than we are ready for because of food insecurity, displacement, health risks, lack of access to adequate clean water and more. We have already seen this with the effects of COVID-19. In addition, we are now seeing radical global changes with radical impacts on all communities around the world. Changing technology, scarcity of resources, the way we use land, the nature of infrastructure, the way we produce and consume, and how we organise work and information flows – all this is already in a state of transition. We are at a time when our world is interconnected as never before, not regrettably by peace, prosperity, human rights and rule of law, but increasingly by conflict, and the denial of human rights, by climate change and inequality. Unprecedented challenges over the next decade will result from a growing global population and a natural environment under threat, and the unprecedented opportunities that a data rich and educated society has for engaging.

Thus there is a need for volunteering to address these challenges and to evolve to meet these challenges. This starts with a change in the dominant idea of volunteering for donor service delivery influenced from European and North American experiences. Volunteering needs to promote the development of healthy, resilient individuals who are truly able to become agents of change within their communities, beyond their services within an organization. This will be achieved when we are finally brave enough to allow volunteers to decide for themselves and tell us what they need, what we can and should do. The future of volunteering must be one driving local innovation, decision-making and accountability, delivering agendas for others identifying activities that allow volunteers to propose and engage on personally relevant, local issues.

In this sense, Volunteering also can contribute to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) when established infrastructures are missing. Volunteering stands at a crossroads: one in which it is understood and promoted in terms that fit the histories and ideas of Europe and North America, or one that reflects diverse ideas and experiences, an agent for change, based on their local knowledge and capacities for innovation.

It is a time when voluntary service is needed more than ever invigorated by diversity and plurality better suited to the challenges facing the world. As the outgoing Secretary General of the United Nations has said, “Volunteerism is a source of community strength, resilience, solidarity and social cohesion. It brings about social change by fostering respect for diversity, equality and the participation of all. It is among society’s most vital asset.”

In this sense the Global Technical Meeting on Reimagining Volunteering for the 2030 Agenda co-hosted by The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) from the 13-16 July is a welcome opportunity to have a discussion on what the next generation of volunteering looks like and how it can be leveraged as a transformative force for the SDGs.

This originally appeared here on New World Order

What’s in a Name?

 So what is in a name? why do we care so much about names?

It starts with this question:

So what is your name?

Am?

Jad?

Amstrad?

Do you have a shortened form?

It’s a difficult name, can I call you something else?

Or you get called the same name as the other brown person in the office because you are the only two brown people in the office and (of course all brown people look alike!!)

These are some of the trials and tribulations you go through as a person of colour and you seemingly have a difficult name.

You laugh in embarrassment. You learn to laugh it off. You joke that its your sri lankan heritage that means that you have a long name that is difficult (after all have you heard the sports commentators try to pronounce the name of our cricketers?)

you learn to compromise. Call me Aj you say… after all what’s in a name?

And that’s how you hide that insecurity that you have grown up with, that feeling that you are different, that you need to fit in, so you give up your name. But the fact is that your name defines who you are. For many within the Muslim tradition, there is a painstaking process of trying to identify a name with a good meaning that defines you and your future character and well being.

So take the name Amjad

Amjad is an indirect Quranic name for boys that means “most magnificent”, “most glorious”, “most honored”. It is derived from the M-J-D root

The name Amjad is of Persian and Arabic origin.

The meaning of Amjad is “most excellent, glorious”.

Amjad is generally used as a boy’s name.

It consists of 5 letters and 2 syllables and is pronounced Am-jad. (In South Asia, the pronouncement is Ahm-jhad but that is because we have a way to pronounce our A’s

Whilst all of that is important, what is important for me is that Amjad is a derivative of the name Magid / Maged which is one of the names of God, and was the name of my grandfather. So this is the name that defines me.

To deny this opportunity to learn that name, to pronounce it properly is in a way denying me the right to exist; to give me agency and voice; simply it does not respect me.

I would excuse it if I knew that the consistency of the failure to pronounce my name was there all around, but the Nordic / Russian / Eastern European colleagues seem to get away with this when their names seem to be easily pronounced. So then you ask yourself why is it my name is difficult to pronounce? You start thinking to yourself that perhaps it has something to do with your colour. Because after all it can’t be the difficulty of pronounciation.

So you look around and you notice a pattern:

· Jayantha is shortened to Jay

· Alauddin becomes Al

· Mohamed becomes Mo

· Wee tang becomes Fred

You notice that there is a colonial aspect of embarrassment of your name and the difficulty of pronunciation. You notice that you give in to trying to change your identity because you are different.

In this day and age as #BLM pauses us to rethink our past and how we deal with our present we need to reconsider a decolonization of our mind to understand our true and real history, of where we came from. Getting an idea of that helps us to understand who we are. That starts with respecting the name of that person.

The name of that person means giving that person identity and respecting who they are and what they stand for. It means understanding how to pronounce and remembering to pronounce that name properly.

Because What’s in a name? it is simply you!!

This originally appeared on Medium