Being sure of a meal after a few hours of fasting is a different experience from the rigorous ordeal a starving person undergoes with no hope of laying his hands on a piece of loaf
Come with me, my friends. Let us enter this palatial villa within the confines of the Metropolitan. It is immaterial to tell you who owns the huge luxurious house. There is no likelihood that you will gain a grain out of this information. We won’t intrude their privacy in the bedrooms. We won’t look at their lifestyle in the living room. We understand that each person in his individual capacity or the entire family as an integral entity evolves personal attitudes and behavioural patterns for leading a life of their own. As no two persons among the billions of people on earth own similar fingerprints, similarly no two persons display identical behavioural pattern in life. It is the consensus on thought process that brings likeminded people together, whether within or without a family.
Our subject of interest is transmutation of religious obligations into rituals. We will not come out with verdicts on what we see. It is neither our concern nor prerogative. Like an anthropologist we will observe how religious objectives and obligation have undergone a change with some people. Now, my friends, let us enter the palatial villa, and walk straight into the elaborate dinning room.
Here we are, right in the dinning room. In front of us is laid out a huge dinning table that accommodates 22 diners. Don’t let your attention drift to the mahogany-teak table and the cushioned chairs with decorated backs, and the chandeliers shimmering with scented candles. Let us fix our attention on the variety of food spread over the table. Chicken grilled, barbecued, roasted, fried, steak, and Manchuria dominate the table. Mutton legs baked in earthen oven, fish prepared in different ways, shrimps, brain massala, kabbabs, quails, biryani, korma, koftay and taftan are systematically arranged on the table. A large variety of salads adorn the food. Sumptuous dinner will be followed by six desserts. Soon the fasting members of the pious family along with their fasting friends would enter the dinning room to relish the lavish food. Here they come. Let us leave them alone.
In major religions of the world, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, fasting in some form is a compulsory condition for the adherents to follow. Apart from abstinence and purification of soul, the spirit of fasting is to remind the adherents of the pangs of hunger the deprived endure. When you are absolutely sure to eat after a few hours of fasting, you would never experience the torturous ordeal a starving person undergoes with no hope of laying his hands on a dried piece of loaf!
The dinning room of the house we visited a little while ago was a representative house of the elitist minority that guides and misguides the destiny of Pakistan. Now let us visit the house of an average Pakistani who was continually exploited all his life with catchy slogans. He now exploits. Everything of his was grabbed. Now he grabs. He was swindled systematically. Now he swindles to settle his account. Numerous states within the State hound him. In retaliation, he now hounds. Lawlessness has taught him how to frustrate the law. Justice delayed or justice denied holds no meaning to him. He has lost his faith in justice. Let us land in his dinning-cum-living room.
His family attaches significant meaning to remain seated on the floor while breaking the fast. A snow-white sheet of coarse cloth with wide dimensions is spread on the floor. Assorted eatables for iftari — pakoray, dahi-baray, samosay, kabab, vegetable rolls, mutton and chicken rolls, sandwiches, dates with almond fillings are lavishly spread on the spotless cloth called dastar-khwan.
Soon the faithful would arrive. While waiting for the exact time for breaking the fast, they would sit patiently around the eatables, talking and chatting. The youngsters in the family are picking up finer points of fasting. They are learning about the noble purpose of abstinence from food and water from dawn to dusk. Among the youngsters some are more inquisitive than the others. One day a youngster by the name of Azam had inquired from his grandfather, “What is the purpose of fasting?”
The grandfather thought for a while, and replied, “Apart from purification of soul, fasting reminds us of the pangs of hunger endured by the poor.”
“Why do we break the fast while seated on the floor?” Azam asked.
“It is symbolic.” The grandfather looked at his grandson, and said, “It gives us feeling of nearness with the deprived who sit on the floor and eat.”
Azam looked at the wide variety of eatables for iftari, and asked, “Do they get all this stuff to eat?”
Rather surprised at the query, the grandfather said, “Well, my son, Allah makes provision even for the ants.” At that juncture the siren wailed. It was time for breaking the fast.
Now, my friends let us watch this wonderful TV advertisement, and assimilate what it tells.
TV advertisement: “Take a glass full of this drink at the time of keeping your fast. You won’t feel hungry or thirsty for the entire day. A glass full of this drink at the time of breaking your fast would restore your lost energy during the fasting.”
