S Kaleem Sibtain Naqvi

In accordance with “ Kitabal-TahfimLi Awail Tanzim ” written by Abu Rayhan Bruini in 10th century AD “ The universe started it’s motion soon after it’s creation by the will of the God on 21st March, the first day of functional universe”. So in Persian calendar 21st March is considered as new year’s day called as Navroz. In this sense it should be the most ancient festival. So it had been celebrated in different ways in different eras and in different areas.

Astrologically Navroz is a day of great importance because it is the day when the length of night is quite equal to the length of the day and the sun rises above the equator of the Earth entering in the constellation of Aeries and such a celestial state is termed as VERNAL EQUINOX of sun when spring season starts. Different communities celebrate it in different forms that do not matter but what matters, is addition of unworthy rituals in the celebration of the festival.

The Navroz festival can be categorized in two forms–
1. Zoroastrian Navroz–
It was started by the emperor of Persia, Zoroaster two centuries before Jesus Christ. It was also popular even in 648 BC to 330 BC in Achaemenid Era when exchange of gifts and blessings took place. During the period of Zoroaster the people celebrated it with worship of fire following the Zoroaster’s book Zendavista while Allah sent His apostles to preach that nothing was worthy to be worshiped except one Almighty, all powerful Lord of heavens and Earth- Allah, but more or less the same methodology was continued to celebrate Navroz in central and South Asia, Northern China, Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia etc.. Legendry kings like Cyrus and Darius who ruled over Persian Empire celebrated the day of Vernal Equinox nearly six thousand years before Christ so we see that before the introduction of Islam all the theories and methodologies of this festival were non Islamic full of pomp and show ,worship of fire and most of the rituals were promoting the atheism.

2. Islamic Navroz-
with the introduction of Islam by the most adored prophet of Allah-Hz.Mohammad[s.w.] most of the absurdities were washed out or sidelined during 650A.D.from the celebrations of Navroz and the day had become the day of performing more prayers and glorification of Allah Who created the all the worlds .So this day of Vernal Equinox had been celebrated as Happy New Year Day in Persian calendar and during the period of four great Caliphs it remained as the day fully submitted to Almighty Allah,His prayers and for exchange of blessings among the peoples.During Abbasi Period , Navroz was declared as a Royal Holiday.
This day is assumed as the day when thousands of peoples died of plague were re-alive by Hz.Eesa[A.S.][Jesus Christ] when he sprinkled water droplets over them[Quran- Sura-e-Baqr-2,243]
The day of Navroz is also assumed as the day when Hisqeel ,the cousinof Pharoah repented his unworthiness and the God gave him miraculous spiritual power when he prepared a wooden box to save newly born Moosa from the tyranny of Pharoah and he was pioneer to accept Moosa as Allah’s Prophet in the court of Pharoah.
This day is also assumed as specially significant day in Muslims because Hz.Imam Ali ibne-Abitalib,cousin and son in law of Hz. Mohammad was declared as Khaliph on 21st.March 656 A.D. as Yom-e-Ghadeer.
But now again the same problem of unworthy practices is overcoming the holiness of the aim of the celebration of Navroz which may tarnish the dignity and decrease the gravity of Islamic Navroz.We have been sometimes somewhere forgetting the depth of our pious festivals. We forget that a rotten apple injures its companion . In the present scenario we cross the boundaries of values to see on the other side of the hedge and fall in the spoiling marsh of evils.
But see, it is the quality of godly men that they try their best to save the peoples from satanic evils which is an uphill task, yet they never loose their positive efforts to make an unspotted value oriented strong nation..They know that—-

Ye ishq nahin aasan bas itna samajh leejea,
Aik aag ka dariya ha aur doob ke jana ha.

So the NAVROZ SHOULD BE CELEBRATED WITH ENTHUSIASTIC SUBMISSION TO THE LORD OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTHS AND ALL IN BETWEEN THEM FROM OUR INNER CORE OF PIOUS HEARTS.So the peoples should perform the prayers and glorify the blessings of Allah to get the ability to serve the nation more and more better and we should pay lots of thanks to Allah who created the universe and the best of all creations ”Anima rationalis” to follow the righteous path of divine reality of Doomsday which is certain and everybody will face it.So if w e are true humane we should not deform our healthy rituals of not only Navroz but all of our festivals by adding nonsense formalities and activities for the sake of following the commandments of the Lord of the worlds.
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Kaleem Sibtain

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