Nigeria: Greetings to My Muslim Brethren

11 August 2013
analysis

Here, in my holiday in Paris, my heart longs for you in Nigeria as you celebrate the holy feast of the "Eid ul-Fitr".

This year 2013, reminds me of my early days when the desire to sight the moon was like a competition. For true believers, the value of this feast goes beyond food and drink. To many in the context of our corporate existence, feasting after the Ramadan is an outward sign of that generosity that goes with a heavenly reward. Sharing food within a community of believers and with people of other faiths symbolizes the actual life of the peaceful co-existence that defines a true African. The Ramadan after so much prayer and fasting is believed to manifest in an exceptional way the African value for life that should be an act of faith in the community that has the capacity to give the joy that can heal a broken and wounded heart. In spite of the hunger that may attend fasting, the Ramadan must never be a period for the tears that is deliberately caused by human agents. This is a practical demonstration of our proverb "that those who eat together from the same dish and drink from the same cup sign a covenant of love and vow never to do harm to each other and to one another." This I believe is the contextual and spiritual meaning of the agape that marks the end of Ramadan.

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