Fethullah Gulen’s Eid Al-Fitr Message
June 15, 2018 – We are celebrating the Holiday of Eid Al-Fitr at the end of the holy month of Ramadan with a bittersweet joy at a time many regions of the world, especially regions with a Muslim majority, are experiencing enormous hardship. As we celebrate this holiday, which reminds believers of God’s grace, the suffering of those oppressed and persecuted take a hold of a part of our hearts.
Muhammad Lutfi, a spiritual master of my hometown Erzurum says, “When God forgives us, then is the true celebration. When our sins are washed away, then is the true celebration.”
On our challenging life journey, which we hope will take us to that true celebration, we add to that statement as a member of the human family: When people persecuted and displaced in various parts of the world due to wars, atrocities and genocides, the women and the children find peace and tranquility, that will be the true celebration for us in the life. When tens of thousands of innocent Hizmet sympathizers, whose innocence is well-known by the Erdogan regime, are freed from their captivity in Turkish prisons, that will be the true celebration. When mothers, fathers and children who were separated by incarcerating the parents or leaving no choice to them but to leave their families are united again, that will be the true celebration. When professionals who have been fired from their jobs for no reason, prevented from finding new jobs and lost their licenses and business owners whose private properties were confiscated and forced to start a new life with zero resources in a new country as refugees rebuild their lives with the grace of God, that will be the true celebration.
May God the Most Merciful, who enabled us to live the Holy Month of Ramadan, if we were able to live it fully, and enabled us to experience the joy of Eid Al-Fitr, grant us the true Holiday of celebrating the freedom, tranquility and union of sufferers around the world.
May the Eid al Fitr be blessed for all Muslims around the world and be a precursor for celebration for all humanity.