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About two weeks ago was the beginning of the new Muslim year. The reason it does not match with the everyday Gregorian calendar is that it’s based on the moon. The lunar year, as it is known, is 354 days. As a result of that we tend to have the new year every year about 11 days earlier than the year before.
The constant reminder that comes with the new year is the resolutions that we make and new beginnings that we start. This year’s new year day was a few days after my birthday and a few days before the anniversary of my older sister. Two events that are hard to forget but do summarize our lives.
The same way we have the first day of the year and then we start the countdown for the last day of the year. Our lives go from the day we are born and count down until the day we die.
While we can adjust course and be more on goal and resolute to achieve more in the next year, we cannot do that at the end of our lives. In the hereafter, we get only the reward, or the punishment, of everything that we did during our lifetime.
I am hoping and counting on the mercy and forgiveness from God so I can be more on the rewarded side and not the other side. I am saying this because I know for a fact that all humans will make mistakes, and in my faith it is clearly stated that the best of the sinners are the ones who repent and go back to God asking for mercy and forgiveness.
It is also clear that believing in God without following that with obedience and compliance, is a form of hypocrisy that nullifies any claims of belief that we might have. We need to do our best to follow the path of truth set for us by God and keep on correcting course at every chance we get.
Some of the people before us who had a stronger will then we did, used to sit every night before they sleep and evaluate the day that just ended and make resolutions on how to correct course and do better the next day. This group of people are the true faith people. While I am not like that, I still strive to be as close to that as I can, and I think we all ought to try our best to follow that path.
We all know that God sent many prophets and messengers to humans. The purpose of that was to aid and remind people to go back to the path of God. God also created this universe to go in cycles so we have always a point to pause and correct our course. And I hope we can all make use of every new year for a resolution to be better than the year before. My resolution for this year was to be able to be the best for my faith, family, and community. Because if this was my last year in my life, I want it to end with me being my best.
For everyone who does not have a lunar new year to pause and correct course, let us mark today as an occasion worth celebrating and looking back at our days, actions, deeds and make a resolution to enhance the good in them and stop and get rid of the bad. And please look at everything because if you want to correct the wrongs in our community, country, or the world, you must change so you so you can be the change. Do not say that you do not matter because you are only one out of over seven billion people because you might be the one who matters.
I was told by a wiser person than I that while it is true that “you can bring the mule to the water but cannot make him drink,” if the mule was really thirsty, he will drink. So live the good that pleases God with you, invite people to it, and at the end, when they feel the need for it, they will follow.
Shaher Sayed is congregation leader at Burlington Masjid, 1908 S. Mebane St., Burlington. Contact him at Burlington.Masjid@gmail.com.
