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Idul Fitri is about virtue of mercy, compassion
Idul Fitri is the biggest annual celebration that drives the largest movement of people in Indonesia
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dul Fitri is the biggest annual celebration that drives the largest movement of people in Indonesia. Preceded by mudik, an exodus in the last week of Ramadhan, Idul Fitri prayers and sermons will have the largest number of attendees, much bigger than the weekly Friday prayers.
There will be many halal bihalal (Idul Fitri gatherings), a phrase derived from Arabic that, despite being grammatically incorrect, refers to an event where people exchange apologies and forgiveness.
These sermons with big audiences, therefore, have relatively significant power to shape Muslim discourse.
We hope there will be no preachers who, like in the previous year, talk about inappropriate topics such as electoral politics. This opportunity should be filled with messages of peace.
From the way Islam has been talked about in public spaces, it is hard to refuse the impression that Islam is mainly about aqidah (creed) and sharia, although only 5 percent out of 6,000 Quranic verses deal with rulings.
Many, if not most, questions posed to ustadz (preachers), both offline and on TV, have been about what is the Islamic ruling on this and that; what is the Islamic stance on this and that particular group; whether this and that is halal or haram; whether or not this and that is a bid’ah (heretical) practice and a deviant sect, and so on.
This state of popular Islamic discourse results in the impression that Islam is a hard, harsh and judgmental religion; it tends to punish rather than to be merciful and forgiving.
Idul Fitri reminds us about this virtue of forgiving. This tradition of exchanging apologies and forgiveness is uniquely practiced in Indonesia, which we should be proud of.
If we look at the big picture, being merciful is at the very core of Islamic teachings. The most recited verse, which every committed Muslim reads in each of their daily prayers, is “in the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful”.
To help end this worrying trend, preachers should no longer glorify past wars.
As mentioned in the Islamic tradition, God has 99 al-asma’ al-husna (names or attributes). Among those 99, there are such attributes as the compeller, the subduer, the judge and so on.
But the two chosen for the most recited verse that is read before every faithful Muslim starts doing positive things is God’s attributes of being rahman (beneficent) and rahim (merciful), which symbolize the attitudes that God wants for his worshippers to internalize in themselves.
There are many scriptural premises to back up that notion. God says in Surah Al Araf (The Heights) in the Quran: “My mercy encompasses all things.” A hadith or Prophet’s saying also quotes God, “My compassion subjugates my anger”.
Another hadith says, “Be merciful to the people of the earth and the One above the heavens will have mercy upon you.” There are many other similar hadiths.
Knowing all this and given the negative spotlight on Islam, preachers should minimize their glorifying of Islamic stories of war.
Yes, there were wars during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. But in seventh-century Arabia, early Muslims lived in a tribal milieu with no single authority, while Arab tribes held the notorious Vendetta Law.
Second, if we count those wars, there were only around two years in total out of his 23-year prophetic ministry in which the Prophet was engaged in war. And those wars were conducted either for self-defense or because a group had betrayed a peace treaty previously signed by them and the Muslims.
Further, in Prophet Muhammad’s last years, during the conquest of Mecca by the Muslim army, Muslims wanted to enforce justice on Meccans who had bullied and persecuted them because of their belief, driving them to Medina.
When Mecca had been conquered and some the Prophet’s companions wanted to take revenge against those who committed crime against the early Muslims, the Prophet said, “No, today is a day of mercy”. The vast majority of Meccans gained the Prophet’s amnesty.
The Prophet himself, as the Quran says, was sent as a “mercy for all creatures”— a statement that might sound cliché, but still many tend to forget what it actually means.
If mercy and compassion had subjugated the Muslims’ tendency to punish and wreak anger, as God says about Himself, we should not have suffered from political polarization along religious identities in previous years in Indonesia.
To help end this worrying trend, preachers should no longer glorify past wars.
They should give more emphasis on ethics of how Muslims should deal with diversity in the 21st century, in which we face rapid globalization and consequently inevitable encounters between people of different faiths.
Eid Mubarak! May mercy and compassion always be within us.
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The writer is an alumni and staff member of the Center for Religious and Crosscultural Studies, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.
