A strong relationship is based on love. And there are many who say ‘I love you’, but few who live up to it. Without loyalty love is mere infatuation -- at best ‘humour’, which fails to stand the test of time, howsoever strong the expression of love may have been:

Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew,
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs;
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the farthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora’s2 bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy3 son,
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his window, locks fair daylight out,
And makes himself an artificial night.
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

(Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene 1)

The ultimate proof of loyalty is sacrifice. Blood not tears proves love. Tears, deep sighs and a heavy bosom are signs, which do manifest themselves when the relationship is real. When it is not, they become ‘humour’ that proves black and portentous.

The Quran says:

It is neither their [of the sacrificial animals’] meat nor their blood that reaches Allah, but piety from you that reaches Him. [22:37]

The sacrificial animal is the epitome of our pledge to sacrifice our all for the sake of Allah, if need be. With the ummah’s (the whole Muslim community’s) general indifference to its religious identity and religion, the big question that every Eid (eedudhhaa) raises for a Muslim is thus: Do you have the courage left to ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind’? In a world where the Muslim leadership addicted to luxuries of life virtually condones the persecution of the Muslim peoples daily with its apathy and lack of conviction and the average Muslim watches helplessly, perhaps the ummah has a greater cause for mourning than for celebration on Eid.

khizaan main mujh ko rulaatee hai yaade fasle bahaar
khushee ho eed kee kyoonkar kah sogwaar hoon mayn

payaame ‘aysho mussraat hamain sunaata hai
halaale eed hamaaree hansee uraata hai

                                          (Iqbal, Baange Daraa -- Urdu)

In autumn, the fond memory of spring4 makes me cry;
How can I rejoice in Eid, for I am but sad?

Bringing the glad tidings of luxury and comfort,5
The crescent moon of Eid rises to ridicule us.

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1. Quid rides? Mutato nomine, de te febula narratur: [Latin] Why do you laugh? With the name changed, the story is about you.

2. Aurora: in Roman mythology, the goddess of the dawn.

3. heavy: heavy-hearted.

4. Spring: that is the times in which the ummah was at its zenith.

5. Luxury and comfort: to which we have become accustomed. (The line is sarcastic).