Eid Mubarak 1433 Hijri / 2012

Bismillah.

We heard the much adored Ustaz Don Daniyal spoke about 'Syawal as a Victory' on TV Al Hijrah last night. MashaAllah tabarakallah, it's such a great show. In a nutshell, here are the list of sunnah acts that we could do on Eid.

1. As soon as Ramadhan ends, it is sunnah to glorify Allah:
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar wa lillah hil Hamd
Allahu Akbar kabira walhamdulillahi kasira 
wa subhanallahi bukratan wa asila
la ilahaillahu wala naqbudu illa iyyahu mukhlisin nalahuddin
walau karihal kafirun
la ilahaillahu wahdah, sadaqa waqdah,
wa nasora abdah
wa a'az zajundahu wa hazamal ahza bawahdah
la ilahaillahu wallahu akbar
Allahu akbar wa lillahil hamd

We may only recite this right until the moment the imam perform takbiratul ihram for the Eid prayer, unlike Eid Al-Adha where we can do it for a couple of days.

2. On the morning of Eid, we are encouraged to take a bath with niyyat for Eid. 

3. We are recommended to put on our best clothes, not necessarily new, but clean.

4. It is sunnah to eat something sweet before leaving for masjid e.g. 3/5/7 dates or if you run out of dates, said the humorous Ustaz Don, just have cookies.

5. One is also recommended to walk to the masjid.

6. On meeting one's friends, wish one another with the greetings as practiced by the sahabah: Taqabballahu minna wa minkum.

Ustaz Don said it is acceptable to give out small token of cash (known as duit raya in Malay) as a sign of one's rejoice. We rejoice on our victory for having completed Ramadhan because it is an act of worship that will be rewarded by the Lord Himself. It's wonderful how we could discipline ourselves in fasting from Subuh when no one is watching or checking on us yet we simply start fasting at the appointed time. And when we are happy, we naturally have the tendency to give away to make others happy too.

However, we are also urged to continue performing the ibadah that we have become accustomed to in Ramadhan and one of the easiest and most recommended practice is zikir. Ustaz Don said we should do salawat and recite lailaha illallah. We learned from hadith that Allah promises a heavenly reward for those who recite la ilaha illallah so for that reason we should not worry too much about anything else but to have faith in His promise.

6. As we all know, it's sunnah to fast 6 days in Shawal. We need not start on the second day of Shawal. It doesn't have to be done consecutively. We could do it on any days when we are not visiting people during the day. And as for women, it's permissible to perform concurrently to replace those days that we have missed. But if you so wish to separate the wajib and sunnah, that is also fine said Ustaz Don.

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Taqabballahu minna wa minkum. Taqabbal ya Kareem. May Allah accept it from us and from you. 
Eid Mubarak to all our respected Muslim visitors.

Kepada semua pembaca, rakan taulan dan saudara-mara, di kesempatan ini, saya memohon maaf atas apa jua salah dan khilaf. 
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. 
Maaf zahir dan batin.

Dengan ingatan tulus ikhlas,
Ezza
1 Shawal 1433 Hijrah