Eid Al Fitr is here. The faithful throughout the world celebrate the festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The joy and festive spirit, is felt more after nearly two years of living under the shadow of a pandemic that upended lives and disrupted normality.
Like every Ramadan is another step towards improving one’s life in spirit, thought and deed, each Eid is an occasion to reflect and enter a moment of awareness on our inner power to transform all that we connect to — people, ideas, society and even nature.
Most importantly, Eid is a time when petty friction and bitterness, if any, are sunk once and for all. People embrace each other with hearts free from malice and rancour. It is a festival that teaches us to touch lives with deep, profound emotions.
Basically Eid is a thanksgiving day. The believers visit their elders, friends, neighbours and relations irrespective of their social status. Also, they visit the ailing and infirm people — yet another noble way of sharing Eid festivities.
Reaching out
Even as the pandemic-related restrictions are eased, people have sought to reach out to friends and relatives. The UAE, with its effective public health and prevention strategies and diligent enforcement of Covid guidelines and vaccinations, has done a stellar job to tame the virus and reopen the economy.
The country has also led with an example — with its aid and support to millions of people around the world year after year in a host of fields — from health care, medicine, education, environment to relief aid, provision of basic needs such as drinking water and food, and entrepreneurial support to boost employment opportunities to the most needy, to name just a few.
Thanks to the UAE’s humanitarian values, its generosity and compassion to channel the celebrations towards a greater good, countless lives have been transformed around the world.
The blessings of this Eid will enable such good intentions to become a norm. It is a spirit that people have imbibed and reflected in the UAE.
Indeed the Covid-19 era has been both difficult and challenging. The pandemic, which is again showing an upswing in some countries, is not completely gone. It is incumbent upon us all to continue to stay cautious while partaking of the blessings during this Eid.
