Religious festivals are times of deepened Islamic thoughts and occasions of paradoxical feelings – pangs of separation and hopes of reunion, regrets and expectations, and joys and sorrows.

Muslims enjoy the pleasure of reunion and universal brotherhood and sisterhood on festive days. They smile at each other lovingly, greet each other respectfully, and visit each other. Members of families divided by modern, industrialized life and forced to live in different towns come together and enjoy the delight of eating and living together once again, if only for a few days.

Religious festivals are occasions for spiritual revival through seeking God's forgiveness and through praising and glorifying Him. Muslims are enraptured by special supplications, odes, and eulogies for the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings. Especially in traditional circles where traces of the past are still alive, people experience the festival's meaning in a more vivid, colorful fashion, on cushions or sofas, or around furnaces in their humble houses, or under the trees among their garden's flowers, or in the spacious halls of their homes. They feel its meaning in each morsel they eat, in each sip they drink, and in each word they speak about their traditional and religious values.

Religious festivals have a much greater significance for children. They feel a different joy and pleasure in the warm, embracing climate of the festivals, which they have been preparing to welcome a few days before. Like nightingales singing on branches of trees, they cause us to experience the festivals more deeply through their play, songs, smiles, and cheerfulness.

Religious festivals provide the most practical means for improving human relationships. People experience a deep inward pleasure, and meet and exchange good wishes in a blessed atmosphere of spiritual harmony. When the festival permeates hearts with prayer and supplications performed consciously, souls are elevated to the realm of eternity. They then feel the urge to abandon the clutches of worldly attachments and live in the depths of their spiritual being. In the atmosphere overflowing with love and mercy, a new hope is injected with life.

Believing souls welcome the religious festivals with wonder and expectations of otherworldly pleasures. Indeed, it is difficult to understand fully what believing souls feel in their hearts during these religious festivals. To perceive the feelings thus aroused in pure souls who lead their life in ecstasies of other-worldly pleasures, we must experience such pleasures to the same degree. Having reached the day of the festival after fulfilling their prescribed duty of praying and responsibility, these souls display such a dignity and serenity, and such a grace and spiritual perfection, that those who see them think that they have all received a perfect religious and spiritual education. Some of them are so sincere and devoted to God that each seems to be the embodiment of centuries-old universal values. One may experience through their conduct and manners that taste of the fruits of Paradise, the peaceful atmosphere on its slopes, and the delight of being near to God.
(M. Fethullah Gülen, Towards The Lost Paradise [trans.], Kaynak, 1995.)