Muhammadiyah Chairman: Eid al-Fitr as a Momentum for Sharing and Building Brotherhood
After a full month of fasting, Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Friday, 20 March 2026. This major Islamic holiday can serve as a momentum for sharing, caring, and building brotherhood across boundaries. In a press release on Thursday (19/3), Haedar Nashir, General Chairman of the Central Leadership (PP) of Muhammadiyah, delivered reflections on Eid al-Fitr 1447 H.
Building concern for securing social networks should not only be at the national level but also globally, such as for brothers in Palestine, Iran, and various other parts of the world that need helping hands.
“Giving is a call from the spirit of Islam for anyone without discriminating based on ethnicity, religion, race, group, or nation. And that is what we must enliven after the month of Ramadan,” Haedar stated.
The traces of Ramadan that need to be preserved by Muslims, according to Haedar, include restraining anger. Although anger is inherent in every human being, becoming excessively angry to the point of overreaction must certainly be eliminated.
Another message emphasised by Haedar is giving forgiveness—if one has been angered by others, a large storehouse of forgiveness must be prepared to give to anyone. Conversely, a good Muslim must have a magnanimous spirit to ask for forgiveness when they have done or acted wrongly. Thus, the fast observed during Ramadan can impact collective as well as personal life.
“In the month of Shawwal when Muslims begin one Shawwal as the first day of Eid al-Fitr and at the same time start a new day, then a very good habit is to engage in silaturahmi,” he said.
Silaturahmi as a shared space to improve the quality of human relationships at the family, community, and even international levels. On the other hand, the destruction of humanity is caused by the breakdown of cross-boundary relationships.
“From here, it is important for us to build brotherhood. Brotherhood that crosses boundaries, both among fellow believers and with all the nation’s children and anyone who exists,” he added.
However, building this cross-boundary brotherhood must be based on Al-Ma’idah verse 2, namely building brotherhood—cooperating for goodness and piety, not cooperating in wrongdoing in human life.