Photo credit: Britannica
These are certainly days when those of us who are no Muslims suddenly wish why not. Even at these austere times, if you stay in a place where Muslims are many, like I do, you should, by now, be working out how to pay Sallah visits to your numerous friends. It is because of times like these that I do cultivate the habit of making friends.
For a person who will not hurt a fly like me, this is the time to reap from my being a jolly good fellow. And, I do bask in the recognition for a while. Even if that ‘while’ will only last for less than twenty four hours.
I have noted compounds in which rams are bleating. I have also noted the children of some of my friends who are taking their fathres’ rams to the fields, ostensibly to feed them, but we all know it is for the purpose of ram fighting and shows off.
By the way, I don’t subscribe to ram fighting. This is not because I’m necessarily an animal rights’ activist. But it is because it involves rams hitting each other with their horns. The rams may have their horns damaged and a ram with a damaged horn is haram for Sallah. It is not appropriate to be slaughtered and it will throw a spanner into my well thought out visitation round.
By the way, the federal government has declared Friday and Monday as public holiday. So, it would be an extended weekend. My friends can not escape. If I don’t visit on the Sallah day itself, I have an extra three days to complete the task. And, whatever a person does in three days…. Gambari je die ninu obi, k’eyin to pon, the Hausa man ate quite a few kolanuts before his teeth became brownish.
I love this period for some other reasons. Tailors or fashion designers, as they prefer to be called these days, are busy putting together garments to be worn on the d-day.
The markets are already a beehive of activities. Even though some of the sellers are complaining of low patronage of their wares, they have not said no patronage. And, I think LOW patronage is very different from NO patronage.
Even as a non Muslim, I’m already thinking of what to wear. More importantly, I’m already planning my itinerary. And the itinerary is very important.
Like, where do I start from? Is it better to visit my Muslim friends in my area before I move out or the other way round?
By the way, a close friend of mine was bedridden by typhoid fever recently. He happens to be a Muslim. I normally remember my friends in my prayers. I pray specially for those who are in peculiar situations.
I nearly called prayer warriors for this particular friend of mine. I was calling him practically every hour. Meanwhile, I was casting away the spirit of typhoid fever in him.
Evidently, I didn’t want to miss his own Sallah meat. The interesting thing is that his own normally comes with some bottles of lager. Not just lager, those lager of his would have been imprisoned in the freezer for some days. I was even tempted to go to the mountains to pray for his quickest recovery. I even offered to take him to a local health center.
If he thought I was nice, na lie o. I’m not Mr Nice, I was only acting to protect the meat he owes me on Sallah.
I was indeed happy when he called me two days ago that the terrible spirit had vanished. He is now OK.
Praise the Lord!
Allahu Akbar!!
082917
