{"id":533,"date":"2009-11-26T07:08:54","date_gmt":"2009-11-26T07:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html"},"modified":"2017-12-14T08:05:31","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T16:05:31","slug":"a-convergence-of-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html","title":{"rendered":"a convergence of thanksgiving, renewal, and sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today again marks the Day of Arafat, a day of spiritual renewal and rebirth<\/a>. In honor of this day I am observing the fast from sunrise to sundown, with members of my family who have traveled thousands of miles to be with us.<\/p>\n

It also is of course Thanksgiving, and tomorrow will be Eid ul Adha, the Day of Sacrifice. I find the convergence of these themes this year, both spiritual and secular, deeply inspiring in their relationships. Thanksgiving has always been more meaningful to me than the Christmas holiday (marred by materialism as it has become), because it is about renewing the bond of family. How wonderfully appropriate that this year it coincide with a day of spiritual renewal as well! And then, fitting that we follow Thanksgiving by a day of giving thanks to Allah for his bounties and mercy.<\/p>\n

Hesham Hassaballah has narrated the tale of the Prophet Abraham<\/a> AS, his wife Hagar AS, and their son Ismail AS (Ishmael), which serves as the underlying narrative for the Hajj pilgrimage. As he notes<\/a>, theirs is fundamentally a story about giving thanks:<\/p>\n

\n

Indeed, the whole story of Abraham and his son is about thanksgiving: giving thanks to the Lord for his bounty. Yes, the tests of faith that Abraham had to endure were very difficult. But, as the Quran says, he passed them with flying colors: And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with certain commands, which he fulfilled<\/em>. And in return for this undying faith, the Lord decreed: I will make thee a Leader to the Nations… (2:124<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, the Lord take Abraham as a khaleel, which in Arabic means “close friend”: God did take Abraham for a friend. (4:125<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

And Abraham showed his thanks by being a devoted servant his entire life. The story of Abraham is a story of test, triumph, and gratitude.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Our prayers on this day are magnified in their potency – all the more reason for us to express our shukr<\/em> (gratitude) to Allah in our dua<\/em> for the countless blessings we are afforded as muslims, the infinite bounty we reap as we submit ourselves to Allah, as we seek to follow Abraham’s AS example.<\/p>\n

Related: my post last year about the spiritual significance of the Day of Arafat<\/a> as a time of rebirth – for muslims indvidually and for the ummah as a whole.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Taha Raja has a more personal take on the intersection<\/a> of Thanksgiving and Eid:<\/p>\n

\n

What will be going through my mind as I plan to share a meal with family this weekend? First and foremost this will be a non-traditional thanksgiving. Instead of a meal at home, I will be at the Masjid celebrating Eid and giving thanks with family, friends and other members. There will be a celebration from all around.<\/p>\n

I will be thinking about what this intersection of two holidays means to me? Such an event comes rarely in a lifetime and I want to make it special by listening to voices that speak about our journey in the past year and what is to come.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today again marks the Day of Arafat, a day of spiritual renewal and rebirth. In honor of this day I am observing the fast from sunrise to sundown, with members of my family who have traveled thousands of miles to be with us. It also is of course Thanksgiving, and tomorrow will be Eid ul…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[99,40,24,25,26,340,182],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamerica","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-eid","tag-hajj","tag-islam","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-thanksgiving","tag-ummah"],"yoast_head":"\na convergence of thanksgiving, renewal, and sacrifice - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"a convergence of thanksgiving, renewal, and sacrifice - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today again marks the Day of Arafat, a day of spiritual renewal and rebirth. In honor of this day I am observing the fast from sunrise to sundown, with members of my family who have traveled thousands of miles to be with us. It also is of course Thanksgiving, and tomorrow will be Eid ul…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-26T07:08:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-14T16:05:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"a convergence of thanksgiving, renewal, and sacrifice - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"a convergence of thanksgiving, renewal, and sacrifice - City of Brass","og_description":"Today again marks the Day of Arafat, a day of spiritual renewal and rebirth. In honor of this day I am observing the fast from sunrise to sundown, with members of my family who have traveled thousands of miles to be with us. It also is of course Thanksgiving, and tomorrow will be Eid ul…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2009-11-26T07:08:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-14T16:05:31+00:00","author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html","name":"a convergence of thanksgiving, renewal, and sacrifice - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-26T07:08:54+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-14T16:05:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/11\/a-convergence-of-thanksgiving.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"a convergence of thanksgiving, renewal, and sacrifice"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3260,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/3260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}