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Eid ul Adha is on or around the corner. I wish you all a safe, happy and fulfilling celebration with your family and friends.
All I ask is, please spare the poor goat or lamb or cow’s life. The purpose of sacrifice is to understand the spirit of parting with what you hold dear (your wealth), it is not some muqabla against four-legged animals.
Please pause and think … That, after all, is what religion should make us do rather than blindly following ritual.
According to the many organizations that will perform the sacrifice for you if you live abroad, the cost of one goat/sheep is US$ 160 in the US (that is more than one month’s salary for a college educated Pakistani professional). The price in Pakistan is cheaper, but not by much. Only the well wheeled can afford it. The Poor cannot even budget for a kilo of meat a month.
Is there a better way to ‘sacrifice’ the 150-200 dollars or the Rs. 10,000 or more in the name of Allah that is useful to His bandas? A way that captures the spirit of sacrifice that qurbani entails and helps us meet our religious obligation as well as the social welfare and redistribution that is its deeper purpose?
The Qur’an reminds us that Allah looks at intent not the blood. Maybe we too should pay heed to the intent of qurbani? For those who want to sacrifice this writer instead, please read Chapter 22, Verse 37 from the Holy Qur’an (I have looked at translations by Marmaduke, Yusufali, Asad and Usmani) and they all talk about your own devotion, piety, God-consciousness and taqwa that reaches Him.
The meat from the sacrificial animal is intended to be divided into three parts: 1/3rd each for your self, family and friends, and for the needy and the poor. I would suggest we fore go our share, and give the whole amount to the poor including poor relations. Charity and alms should be given throughout the year, and many people do. But with this added emphasis around Eid ul Adha I would suggest we consider giving more to the poor including poor relations.
Allah looks at intent not the blood. What better way to celebrate this Eid?
On my last visit I saw a lot of people drive up to a certain "hotel" (Pinglish for restaurant) and pay the owner X rupees to feed X number of hungry folks lined up outside. That is a noble idea. But would it not be better better to teach them to fish?
A manual sewing machine for a widow or unemployed poor woman? Tuition Fees or books for a poor student? Some money to ease the days for the unemployed people? A small monthly stipend to the poor that may bring a ray of hope in their lives and may perhaps deter them from abandoning their children to the fogs of terrorist factories?
We can think of many ways to make Him happy and spare the lamb. May Allah bless you and your family.
Note: This is based on an earlier post published on temporal’s blog Baithak.
Excellent post. I am glad you have raised this issue. The way these so called sacrifices happen are really disgusting and are a blot on the name of Islam. We are Muslims, not qisayis. What might have made sense a thousand years ago makes no sense today. these mullah types are for it only because the hides (khals) fund their operations big time. Sacrifice has now become just a thing of show. There are far better ways to show your generosity by helping other people in real ways rather than slauhtering animals. Interestingly, the same people who defend the killing of innocent Muslims in mullah terrorism also defend the killing of animals needlessly.
For those who want to follow Islam, no reference is required. For those who don’t want to follow Islam, no reference is enough
Awesome! very well said and very appropriate verses and hadiths you have quoted. You don’t need to elaborate things further.
It’s not surprising. Such kind of elements existed at the time of the Prophet(saw) as well. They always used to call themselves as “Musalman” but they always had doubts on various matters and always tried to find escape by bringing ifinite Ifs and Buts.
If Watan Azis is right (which in fact he is!),
Referring a person who studies Islam from Wikipedia could give a clear idea what kind of knowledge and friends circle you posses.
Holy Quran:
Therefore turn in prayer to your Lord and sacrifice (to Him only).” (Surah Kauthar)
“And for every nation We have appointed religious ceremonies, that they may mention the Name of Allah over the beast of cattle that He has given them for food. And your God is One God, so you must submit to Him Alone (Surah Hajj)
Hadith:
“Whoever has the ability to slaughter and he doesn’t, then let him not come near our prayer area.” (Reported by Ahmad and Ibn Majah)
For those who want to follow Islam, no reference is required. For those who don’t want to follow Islam, no reference is enough.
Dear Mohammad Yusha,
Please make a pointed reply to my query. Let me re-explain my question thus.
I simply asked if the so called ‘sacrifice’ by killing of animals was made mandatory for the non-hajjis also. And more importantly, if this was called upon to be repeated by every muslim; during hajj or otherwise, every year on a fixed day.
It is relevant to quote Watan Aziz from comment # 228 (23-11-2010) here:
“Outside of Hajj and at Mecca alone, there is no requirement to sacrifice an animal in remembering Ibrahim….”
If Watan Azis is right (which in fact he is!), then I am obviously right in challenging your contention in support of Qurbani Eid. Of course, the auxilliary reasons like meat for poor etc. take the back-seat.
Please correct me if my averment is wrong, but please support it with evidence.
Muslims are blindly following this ritual without caring to know, when and who did ask them to practice it year by year on a fixed day. Or, at the least, when did this tradition first start?
As i strongly refuted, meat distribution to poor can not form a valid reason for this mass killing of animals on one single day. Even you have made two contradictory statements:
1 “…..who get to eat meat once a year (on Eid).” And
2 “Muslims kill animals daily….”
are quite conflicting to each other.
Muslims, as it has been contended, have been asked to ‘sacrifice’ (kill) animals and distribute the meat among awaiting poor. And as you say that muslims do it every day, but the poor get the meat only on one day and never in the remaining 364 days of the year.That means you are not following Allah’s Command to distribute meat when you kill an animal during those 364 days. Please think and tell me if this was Allah’s Command?
Emphasising Watan Aziz’s statement, I call upon you to either accept or deny it!
Lastly, do also tell me who ran away from discussion? Thanks.
@Animal Lover: People, including yourself, are making it look like Muslims are the only people in the world who eat meat, and hence using it as a tool to label Islam a barbaric religion. That is why I brought people of other religions into the discussion.
>How is this ugly tradition helping islam should be explained…
You can ask the hundreds of thousands of poor people and their kids all over the subcontinent, who get to eat meat once a year (on Eid).
Please stop sounding like meat is only eaten in the world during Eid.
>muslims to kill(or ‘sacrifice’ as they call it) animals in masses, year by year on a fixed day.
Muslims kill animals daily, and so do people of all religions. If you are really concerned about the animals, please become a writer on ATP and preach vegetarianism. Your time will be better spent in that manner.
Please don’t reply using one sentence paragraphs, because it will not make it look like you are saying a lot when you actually aren’t.
@Animal Lover: My questions to Afsandyar, Ray and MJ have not been answered. The moment their flawed theories are exposed they run away.
Mohammad Yusha said:
Some of the comments have attacked Islam for the animal sacrifice on Eid al-Adha.
However, no one has said anything about Christianity for the killing of turkeys. Please
let me know why.
Simple, because this discussion is specific to Eid Sacrifice and not Thanks Giving (FYI,
topic reads as “Celebrate the Spirit of Sacrifice,Spare the Animals“), hence
christians or the Americans killing turkeys is not dealt with in detail. As already
mentioned, no American claims that he is “sacrificing” a turkey. So it does not
come under the ambit of this topic.
It is in fact, people like Adnan, who have little meaningful to add to the discussion, act
as troll by posting off-topic inflammatory remarks. For example, I am a pure 100%
vegetarian person, and this fellow imagines that I might be eating a turkey. How off-topic
and baseless comments this man is making in this otherwise meaningful discussion. I had
asked 2-3 times, and he could have provided us with some citation (other than verse 22:34
and 22:36 as these are already discussed here and do not help them) which authorize
muslims to kill(or ‘sacrifice’ as they call it) animals in masses, year by year on a
fixed day.
The readers here are not dumb or blind. They look for reasoning and logic, not funny or
silly comments from (insane) people like Adnan.
Your apprehensions that Islam is under attack, are unfounded. Why do you, and some others
here, feel that islam is so fragile that mere discussion of a tradition will harm it.
On the contrary, it will clean the aura by hitting at unfounded beliefs, myths,
superstitions, and bad traditions. Cursing the West, or the Christianity, or Hinduism for
that matter, is not going to help us. Most of the readers will agree to this.
It looks weird, abominable, ugly and disgusting to shed the blood of an innocent animal
year by year, and still claim that oh, that was our duty according to Islam. How is this
ugly tradition helping islam should be explained anyways,rather than what christians are
doing.