This Hari Raya..

Gone are the days when we used to celebrate Ramadhan with double the dose of our 'ibadah'... The current trend of Ramadhan celebration is berbuka puasa at 5 star hotels, with the longest buffet EVER, which went into this book and that book, shop at places that offers discounts from 20% to 100%,seriously... if you are a working adult, working from 8.45 to 5.45, in Ramadhan, the time is shorten by half an hour, so you go back at 5.15 and 4.15 on Fridays. Where the hell will you find time to perform your 'ibadah' if you are always on the run to scavenge for the best buffets in the state, or busy rampaging in departmental stores looking for the best drapes, cutlery sets, the bests of every single thing to fit in your household in preparation for the Hari Raya. Saturdays and Sundays are the best time to shop, but after a full day of walking and running, working those arms in flipping clothes in the 70% off baskets, where will you find the energy to 'mengaji' or do your 'terawih'? Where has the real meaning of Ramadhan gone to? Where had all the sincerity in welcoming the month of Ramadhan dissappeared to? The month is after all is the best month for all 'umat Islam' to 'beribadah' since Allah has said it Himself that Ramadhan is the month where He would forgive your sins if asked to and grant your prayers if you prayed to Him. Did we forget that Allah is not a big fan of 'pembaziran'? Eat but stop before you are full. Why immerse yourself in floods of food when the Creator has personally said that He hates the practice.

And gone are the days when Aidilfitri are celebrated with sheer humility. Have the Raya shower, then put on decent clothes, mind our 'aurats', next is to the masjid to perform the Raya prayers, ask forgiveness from our parents, family and friends with full sincerity. We are growing in a world where the outlook mattered most. where very few people realises what Aidilfitri is all about. i have friends who spends a whole lot of money during Hari Raya. They make sure their house is the brightest, preetiest, and the fanciest so that PEOPLE would not talk shit about them upon exiting their house. They did what they did, with full enthusiasm so the neighbour next door would stare in awe and surrender to their defeat. 3 dozens of kuih raya would don their table and anything lesser than that would be an offence. They MUST wear the 'baju raya' made from the best of the best of material there is on Earth and would import from the Moon if Earth proved to fail their search. They gotta have that 2K 'cekak musang' buttons from Habib Jewels, they gotta have the shiniest brooch on their tudung, and it must be in the current style..'stylo' they said... which altogether reaps the real meaning of wearing 'tudung' since you can see their necks and their earloops ( to showoff that diamond earrings ) and with that jambul sprouting from on top of their forehead, well, you can imagine it anyway... And what about the kids...they scream on seeing a green note in their Raya paket, much less a blue note.. They set their parents and their makciks and pakciks on this obligations to fill their Raya requirements.
And this, i have to admit... is taught by the parents themselves. What would you have told your son if he said that his makcik has given him 5RM for his duit raya? Would you say that his makcik is just stingy or that please be contend with whatever that you've got? So where exactly has the real meaning of Muslims...celebrating the true Aidilfitri, after a month of fasting in Ramadhan, well nourished with 'ibadah'....

Let's ask ourselves now, would you like to raise your children to be the kind of successor who will be leading the world once you're gone, the kind that would step on one another just so that people won't look down on them? Welcome to the material world but let's not let our kids be influenced by the damned way of life...