Skip to main content

Early Eid al-Adha Pardons


Eid al-Adha will be celebrated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 11 August 2019 as per Gregorian date (Islamic Year 1440),

Our Muslim brothers and sisters will celebrate Eid al-Adha or 'Feast/Festival of the Sacrifice' to honor the intervention of God when Ibrahim (Abraham) was to willingly sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, to show his obedience to Him. God provided him with a lamb to sacrifice instead of his child.

To commemorate this, an animal is sacrificed and divided into three (3) parts for the
  1. poor and needy
  2. family/home
  3. relatives
Many families of different nationalities will celebrate freedom this Eid al-Adha. Freedom is priceless and we only realize this when we cannot do what we want to do with the loved ones because of some bondages.

Truly God hears our prayers and sees our silent pains down here on earth.

The leading newspaper, Gulf News, reported the humanitarian gestures of the UAE leaders on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, relative to the consideration of good conduct of prisoners in their territories  --
Each time I read news like this, I get emotional. Nobody is born bad. People make mistakes but they deserve a second chance in life. If you are in a foreign country, sometimes you are not aware of all laws, but ignorance of the law is not an excuse when you commit an offense punishable by it. Maybe others are forced by circumstances to do something which they regret later. (Look at the cases of those incarcerated because of debts for which they got trapped as something went wrong -- loss of gainful employment, divorce, illness, hospitalization and/or death of a loved one, business collapse, etc.) The rest are innocent and by reason of attachment to wrong people, they are dragged to such a miserable situation.

Each has a story to tell, and hopefully, there will be lessons learned from each of them. (How I wish I could interview them, write some moving inspirational stories with some avatars to protect their identities.)

It is not only the prisoners who suffered for the offenses they committed but also their families and friends close to them. The country and citizens as well carry the burden of keeping them in the punitive and reformative institutions. Just do the mathematics on estimated related fixed and variable expenses/costs.

The UAE leaders' humanitarian gestures will give the inmates a life reboot. Definitely, they will enjoy freedom with their beloved families. I hope they will apply what they have learned inside and face the world with new confidence, vigor, and hope. May the society welcome them back with open arms, and let them return to the community as active and productive members with their brand new lives. This way they can alleviate their families' hardships and responsibly play their roles for all of them to survive and thrive.

Silently I pray for them and their families for the fresh life restart, as well as the UAE leaders who freed them, and also all the people in the punitive and reformative facilities who took care of them and were instrumental in their positive transformation and freedom.

From womb to tomb, there are many, many sacrifices we do for our loved ones, and those who love us and care for us do the same. Most often than not, most of us see our own sacrifices, but blind to what other people have given up for us.

Let us celebrate with our Muslim brothers and sisters on the occasion of the coming Eid al-Adha. As early as now, let us passionately mark some boxes or envelopes, and commit to do something for or give or donate some items to --

          Box/Envelope 1   🐑     The Poor and Needy
          Box/Envelope 2   🐑    My Family
          Box/Envelope 3   🐑    My Relatives

On a different perspective, we have a universal something that we can sacrifice -- what we are -- whether individually as a free man or a prisoner of whatever.

Charles Dickens said,
The important thing is this:  to be ready at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you could become.
This is true, for always, in many ways (no matter how difficult those ways are, how long and whatever it takes), each of us can be a better version of himself/herself tomorrow than ever. There is always hope. Just believe. And remember the word 'sacrifice'. 

---

Photo credits: Pixabay
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Wasting of Women's Talents Must Cease"

Here I am in a four-cornered room, thinking of many things that I can do considering my talents, but I cannot utilize to the fullest due to some obstacles which are not just in the mind but real. I am woman -- I know I have a power inside me yet I feel vulnerable. There is an interesting article published in Gulf News, "In the Middle East, Momentum for Women Must Pick Up Speed" written by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, dated 31 May 2018. Very timely, indeed, that I saw this article few minutes back. I am inspired to read similar write-ups promoting advocacy on importance of empowering women by giving them solid support. Can we quantify wasted women's talents? Maybe we can in terms of lost opportunities. Or can we enumerate wasted women's talents if we cannot quantify them? There are women who are full-time mothers and housewives, either by choice or by tradition or both. We know that being so is indeed a tiring unpaid job for many women. For some they ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Of Ginger-Lemon Water, and A/C Off

  And so I am now again drinking a lot of hot lemon tea with ginger. It will help improve my health immunity .  WebMD.com says, " Lemon is a rich source of vitamin C and antioxidants, which both have immunity-boosting properties. Ginger also has immunity-boosting properties and can guard against some bacteria." Am coughing when my back is sweating. The air conditioner is switched off again. If you are in the Gulf area, even if it is December it is still hot. There are times when it is even hotter inside my partitioned room with a window facing the sun, no building near ours to block the scorching heat -- than the actual temperature outside. I have a temperature app in my mobile phone and I regularly check it. When I switch on the air conditioner, somebody else switches it off. (I remember when we transferred to the our previous flat and I was told that the A/C was centralized, 24/7 on. I was grateful because the heat of human bodies, the lights, their gadgets -- laptops and m...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Hotelcation' and More

My youngest daughter surprised me with the good news that she was allowed to go on Eid vacation for some days. She badly needed rest and relaxation for a work-life balance. It was very hot here in the UAE when we got blissfully reunited at 2 PM.  It was Eid so most hotels nearby were either fully booked, or if not, their room rate boards showed AED800/day +/-. My frugal daughter stepped back when she saw 'towering' figures. A I watched my Buninay eating halohalo in our meeting place, a restaurant serving Filipino foods, I held my tears back. She ordered 'mixed-with-everything' fried rice, grilled squid and  kinilaw  (raw fish with vinegar, chili and chopped onions).  Memories of her childhood flooded in my mind. How time flies! My then-baby-who-is-now-a-lady wanted to spoil me. Felt truly blessed beyond words. We hopped to Seattle's Best in the mall near the mosque. While indulging myself with my favorite Cinnabon bites and strawberry smoothies, and my ol...
Post a Comment
Read more