Assalam alaikum everyone!

Eid Mubarak!

I hope you all had a fab Eid inshaAllah. I’m sorry if I offend anyone in this post but I just think it’s an important message to send out.

I know for some of us it was hard to stay away from loved ones but for those of you who abided by the rules, I’d like to say a huge WELL DONE!

It wasn’t easy but inshaAllah it’s for the greater good. It’s so important to not risk a chance of the infection spreading.

Our deen teaches us to always look out for the good of the community. I truly believe that to safeguard the elderly and vulnerable in society it is paramount that even though we are celebrating Eid, we need to stay at home…not only because:

..but also because in Islam, obedience to the law of the land is a religious duty. The Quran commands Muslims to remain faithful to not only Allah and our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ but also the authority they live under.

O ye who believe! obey Allah, and obey His Messenger and those who are in authority over you (Ch.4: V.60).

Also, although the country’s economy is also under threat, I think it’s so important that people are able to find safe solutions for their families within these lockdown measures. I pray that this is possible for all of you!

As always, I am so grateful for the NHS, for without the risk that they put themselves and their families through, we wouldn’t even be safe if we stayed at home…

Just because a certain politician thought it was OK to breach the rules and ‘follow his instinct’ doesn’t mean that to retaliate, we must all follow our own instincts and do whatever we want! Common sense (and ironically also our instincts!) should tell us that the threat of infection and death is still out there and we still need to be as precautious as ever.

We need to look after each other and strive to do the right thing.

I mean, let’s be honest, for most of us the first few weeks of lockdown weren’t hard- it was a welcome break from the relentless rigmarole of what society expects of us. Don’t get me wrong, being estranged from family members would always be hard, especially those who need our help, but on the flip-side who wasn’t happy to have the option of working from home, in your pyjamas?? Everyone’s dream job, right? And which one of us missed cajoling our children out of bed for every weekday and getting them to school?

I don’t mean to belittle the impact that corona virus has had on our lives- especially those who are families with key workers and have heroically continued to work through all this.

Those who live in tower blocks and small flats will find the lockdown tougher. Those in manual jobs will be unable to work from home. This is a health issue with huge ramifications for social welfare, and it’s a welfare issue with huge ramifications for public health.

Emily Maitlis, BBC news presenter

We can’t allow their hard work to go to waste!!

In truth, the only hard part of this is not being able to visit and simply be with elderly and vulnerable members of society and not being able to attend a loved ones funeral like you would normally. To be not able to say goodbye in those last moments, seems to me like the greatest difficulty that people will have to endure.

Missing birthdays and Eid will have a minimal consequence – inshaAllah we pray we have many more opportunities to make memories with our loved ones in the future inshaAllah.

OK rant over. Love you all. Let us all strive, as a community, to do what’s right for all of us.

May Allah remove this pandemic so that we can have loving reunions with all who are beloved to us soon inshaAllah!

I’m aware it’s a very controversial topic as so many of my loved friends and family made this decision it was difficult to write and it’ll be interesting to see what feedback I get!

Now I’m going to do what I came here to do in the first place and write about Eid food 😁…!

Peace and love,

Sidra