Happy New Year!

We took the New Year holiday weekend as an opportunity to get away to Montreal. Alhumdulillah, we had a very nice time. Montreal, for those who have never been, is a beautiful city. For shoppers, their Rue St. Catherines is spectacular, and for those who like the quaint European style streets, Old Montreal is breathtaking. Overall a nice weekend AH.

New Year's is always an interesting time. It always amazes me how people can be so "crazy" about this day. Perhaps it was fitting that I found myself in Montreal, to actually witness the "insanity". I am not a fan of new years. Never was, and I don't see myself ever being so. However, it's an opportunity to put a finger on the public's pulse. Sadly, the spiritual heartbeat is barely perceptible.

Yearly, thousands of youth, searching for some kind of fulfillment, make the pilgrimage to Montreal for new year festivities. It attracts everyone from new teens making their first independent trip, to thirtsomethings still thinking that they are teens. In the streets, they all meet, and with the new "dress code" the age barriers have all come down. All you see are people walking around trying to attain some kind of "salvation", or "enlightenment". People come in search of a transformation, as if this pilgrimage is THE event that will change their misfortunes in life. People walk around aimlessly, trying to figure out which bar hop to attend, or which group of the opposite gender they will gawk at next. Others yet, arrive in groups and simply hang around trying to look intimidating. In this day where everyone dresses the same, it is hard to delineate between the pretenders and the real hood rats. There is no purpose in their empty stares. There is no pride in their walk, only arrogance. All there is, is a false sense of hope, that after the night is over, after the year has passed, and they have counted in the new year, that perhaps magically their lives will somehow be better by mere virtue of them having been there. What is it that attracts them here? Many will say "come on give them a break they just want to have some fun". I agree, some fun can be had. But mostly it is a night where people simply spend time counting away precious seconds off their lives, and do themselves the great diservice of committing grave improprieties against their own souls. A harsh stance? Yes, but if you saw what I saw, I doubt you'd be too far off in your own analysis.

9 p.m hit, and Hana and I finished our dinner and we decided that it would be best to avoid the streets this night. Too many shayatin out. With the gun violence erupting in Toronto while sober, I wouldn't want to risk the behaviour of the intoxicated. Another solar year had passed, and a new one had started. Alhumdulillah.

Don't get me wrong. New Year's is a holiday, and a good excuse for people to get together. I don't condemn it, nor do I think that staying awake is haram or anything. It's just when people take it too far.

Bottom line: HAPPY NEW YEAR! May it be a prosperous year for you and your families in both physical and spiritual health.