Subtleties and Allusions

The Secret of Designating Festivals

In the school of the prophets, a day becomes an official festival (ʿīd rasmī) when a special divine grace (fayḍ khāṣṣ ilāhī) descends and a new matter emerges for their school, such as:

1. The Festival of Sacrifice (ʿīd al-aḍḥā) at the end of the pilgrimage (ḥajj) when the important part of its rituals has been completed;

2. The Festival of Breaking the Fast (ʿīd al-fiṭr) at the end of the blessed month of Ramadan;

3. Friday, which is the official festival of Muslims,(260) because the Friday prayer (namāz jumʿa) and other customs have been instituted on it;

4. The Festival of Ghadīr (ʿīd ghadīr) on the occasion of the event of guardianship (wilāya) and the completion of religion (ikmāl dīn) and the perfection of spiritual blessing (itmām niʿmat maʿnawī).

The birth of Jesus (a.s.) and Mary’s becoming a mother without a husband have collectively been considered a sign for the nations,(261) but it was not within Jesus’s power to request that it be a festival, just as the day of the birth of the Noble Prophet and similar occasions are not official festivals, because the axis of official religious festivals consists of matters that relate to the legal personality (shakhṣiyya ḥuqūqī) of the divine messengers; their becoming eternal is also for this reason, that they give effect to their religion and school. The explanation is that the prophets and divine saints (awliyāʾ ilāhī) have two aspects: one is that like others they are human and have life and death, and the other is that they possess the station of prophethood (maqām nubuwwa) and guardianship (wilāya), and from this perspective they are the locus of the descent of revelation (waḥy), inspiration (ilhām), and divine discourse (taḥdīth ilāhī). The first aspect is called the real personality (shakhṣiyya ḥaqīqī) and the second aspect is called the legal personality (shakhṣiyya ḥuqūqī). All religious matters such as seeking intercession (tawassul), intercession (shafāʿa), being obeyed (muṭāʿ būdan), sovereignty (ḥākimiyya), and so on, which are established for those sacred beings (dhawāt qudsī), are by virtue of the second aspect, namely their legal personality.

It should be mentioned that unlike the aforementioned official festivals in which, while maintaining their necessary conditions, the pillar of religion, namely the special ʿīd prayer, becomes obligatory in them, on days related to the birth or passing (riḥla) of prophets and divine saints, although religious programs have been instituted, special prayer on those days did not become religiously obligatory.