Article Added On: January 07, 2006 - over 4 years ago
Title: Muslim feast of Eid is journey of faith
Author: Sharon Boase
Publication: The Hamilton Spectator
Publication Date: January 01, 2006 - over 4 years ago
Faith Groups: Muslim
Themes: Religion and society

Abstract: Pilgrims visit Mecca as families here head to mosque

Jan 7, 2006

When Sharif Shahid first celebrated Eid al-Adha in the Steel City 40 years ago, there were fewer than 150 Muslims in Hamilton and he knew them all.

Now there are closer to 15,000 Muslims living in Hamilton and, despite being active for years in the Hamilton Muslim Association, Shahid can only name a fraction of them.

Back in 1966, when Shahid was studying engineering at McMaster University, the city's fledgling Muslim community would book a meeting room at the university so they could celebrate Eid al-Adha, the second of two major Muslim holidays which this year falls on Tuesday.

Later, when Shahid worked as an environmental engineer at International Harvester (later Case Canada), they would meet for prayers in the upstairs of a Muslim brother's house on Rennie Street. They'd rent a church hall or the multicultural centre to mark Eid, the feast concluding the annual hajj, or pilgrimage, to the holy city of Mecca.

Nearly three million people make the journey to Saudi Arabia for the hajj each year. The rest of the world's 1.3-billion Muslims join with them by celebrating Eid al-Adha. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to make the trip is expected to perform hajj -- one of the five pillars of Islam -- at least once in a lifetime.

Shahid has done it four times.

"I remember the first time I went, in 1987, the temperature in the afternoons was 140 to 145 degrees," says Shahid, 65. "It's a dry heat but the moment I came out of the plane, I felt like I had walked into a furnace."

With the hajj comes a sense of purification, repentance and spiritual renewal. As well, there is a profound sense of fellowship among pilgrims who wear identical white garments and struggle side-by-side through the hot, arduous journey.

The second time Shahid did the hajj was in 1990 on behalf of his mother who was infirm. He and his wife, Hamidah, did the hajj together in 1999 and again last year.

"The practice of religion and faith comes from the heart," he says. "For a Muslim, being in Mecca is exactly like a Christian being in St. Peter's Square. I'd like to be in Mecca every year."

As the eldest in the family, Shahid, a father and grandfather, will host the Eid feast following morning prayers at Hamilton Mosque. Later, he and Hamidah will visit friends.

Tuesday is a rare mid-week day off for Shahid, who said goodbye to the pressures and headaches of professional life when Case Canada closed in 1998. He could have taken another engineering job but instead he climbed behind the wheel of his car and started driving cab for Blueline.

"It can be difficult sometimes but every person is different," says Shahid. "I work my hours and I go home. I don't have to ask anyone if I can go or when to come in.

"My kids say, 'Stay home, enjoy your retirement,' but I can't stay home. I'd get sick."