Our lives revolve around rites of biological passage at the personal level, and also calendric religio-cultural rituals, manifest in religious, national and international festivals. The religious festivals of Vesak, Phansa/Vassa, Deepawali, Yom Kippur, Christmas, Guru Nanak's birthday and the upcoming Muslim Eid al-Fitr, which falls on Friday and marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, reflect this spirit around the world.
As Thai Muslims come to the end of Ramadan fasting in two days, Thai Buddhist monks will be entering the period of Khao Phansa, Buddhist Lent, on July 31. Phansa or Vassa represents the time for renewing Buddhist spirituality, and for three months, monks remain in one place during the rainy season to study Lord Buddha's teachings.
Let's look at the Ramadan first. For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of concentrated worship and doing charity and engaging in extra spiritual practices besides the five daily prayers. Muslim sage al‑Ghazali held that the object of fasting is for humans to produce within themselves a semblance of the divine attribute of freedom from want. Fasting is a means of releasing the human spirit from the clutches of desire thus allowing moderation to prevail in the carnal self. Ramadan fasting is an opportunity to tame the violent and reinforce the angelic element in humans.
In Thailand, the Chularajmontri, the official head of the Thai Muslim community, announces the beginning and end of Ramadan after confirming reports about the related New Moon sightings.
In Thailand and Malaysia, the Eid al‑Fitr day is when Muslims hold open house for relatives, friends and neighbours of different faiths to join together on this happy occasion. Thai Muslim houses serve guests a variety of dishes and sweets, and they often relate to the cultural background of the families — Muslims in Thailand have ancestral roots in Malaysia, Indonesia, Cham and China, as well as Indo-Pakistani. In Indonesia, the Eid festival is a major holiday when everybody returns to their hometowns. It is also common in Indonesia to witness non-Muslim members of a Muslim family coming together on this festive occasion.
The end of Ramadan fast is combined with the religious requirement of payment of the zakat – the poor tax by the well-to-do to the poor and needy in society. Zakat, prescribed at 2.5% from one's annual savings, literally means "purification", "sweetening" and "growth". The payment of zakat is not a mere act of charity; rather it promotes love and compassion for others and an act of social-economic incentive.
Islam is a religion of moralistic monotheism, and the Koran stresses on the principle of unity, equality and justice. Unfortunately, acts of violence continue taking place even during Ramadan as seen in the Middle East, Pakistan, Nigeria, Iraq and the south of Thailand. Meanwhile the tension from the West against the Muslim immigrants (who are largely the burdens of its wars), the Buddhist-Muslim ethno-religious conflicts in India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, as well as non-Muslims' demand for political and religious equality in Muslim countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, are largely driven by politics, economics, ethnicity and other factors in which religion is used to mobilise support for violence, physical and non-physical. Religion is a delicate matter, and no religion is free from the stain of violence by its followers.
Buddhist Lent begins at the end of the month. It's worth noting that both the occasions of Phansa and Ramadan are annual events for spiritual renewal. The Thai Muslims and Buddhists who coexist peacefully all over the country are largely uninformed about their religiously paralleled objectives. This is largely due to confined ethno-religious understanding of these two world religions
After attaining nibbana – enlightenment — the Buddha walked across northern India teaching the dhamma. Each year during the three months of Phansa/Vassa monsoon rain, he retired at one place to teach and practice the essentials of Buddhism. During the three months of Khao Phansa, the Buddhist monks and laity engage in alms giving, practicing meditation, chant the suttas, listen to dhamma talks and observe the eight precepts for the uposatha days. For the Buddhists, this is the time for self development and building social co-operation on the path of enlightenment. And on the external side, the Buddha's teaching about religious tolerance has few parallels.
The goal of religions, contrary to their abuse at the hands of the religious nationalists today, is to teach the practices of humility and modesty, the removal of pride and selfishness in order to build social and spiritual solidarity across religious lines. They seek to foster human inclusiveness not exclusivity. Today, we have nationalised religions by providing their founders with national identity cards and passports which they never possessed. Such a stance found in all religions today is the result of reducing religious universality to parochialisms and materialism-consumerism. This erodes their values and disrupts the practice of compassion, mercy and love which lie at the core of all religions and is the common ground between them.
In the case of Thailand, the Thai Muslims and Buddhists under pressures of globalisation are becoming self-enclosing communities. So on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr and Khao Pansa, it is time for us to revisit the universality of religions. This requires positive contributions to Thailand, which should be regarded as a part of the world civilisation. Thailand cannot afford to go down the road of promoting religious hatred among its citizens, as being witnessed in the region. Otherwise, we will destroy not only our peace but also that of future of the country.
Asst Professor Imtiyaz Yusuf is a lecturer and director of the Centre for Buddhist-Muslim Understanding, College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University.
