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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.
but that to me is an ABUSE of religion
This kind of “Abuse” in other religions as well for instance Judaism and Christianity.
If the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.(Deut:12:21)
Now I know you or any other liberal don’t have guts to curse it or slaughtering of Turkey thus would come up with some other excuse to show hatred against Islam. It would not be surprise if you people beat even AbuJahal to show hatred against Muhammad’s religion.
No, we are not discussing religion. At least I am not. I am discussing brutality to animals which is a function of general brutality in society. There are some who abuse religion to justify that brutality (some even do so in terrorism by calling it jihad), but that to me is an ABUSE of religion and I will not give it the privilege of being called ‘religious’ discussion.
@Mohammad Alam: I will have to admit, your comments are highly amusing. We were discussing religion and sacrifice and you start talking about upgrades in technology. Besides, you ran away from the conversation after your hollow theories, if they can be called theories, were exposed. Furthermore, my demons and my religiosity are not part of the discussion. Try to keep comments relevant to the post.
Adnan.
yes, you are right. Go ahead, please use a camel in your basement!
I did not intend to comment on it further but the funny and irrelevant analogies by Alam made me to address him. He said:
riding a camel to deliver a message to someone 5 miles away; today it does not – use email or a phone, please!
email/iphone etc are good tools. I use them myself like millions of other users but please tell me, if I am at a place(basement or other) where signals are not being received or mobile jammers are in place, can you please tell how “your mentioned tools” are going to make communication with a person 5 miles or even a mile away? The rest of the comment is so lame,baseless and stupid that one could just laugh rather reply you.
p.s: Next time come up with some sensible analogy so that you don’t embarrass your “madrassah” who helped you to become a ‘critical thinker’
>a thousand years ago it may have made sense to send someone riding a camel to deliver a message to someone 5 miles away; today it does not – use email or a phone, please!
Allah’s orders a thousand years ago are the same today.
>a thousand years ago it made sense to think of animals as something to sacrifice since meat was not common and animals were the symbols of wealth that was being shared…
Meat is still not common today. Hundreds of thousands of poor survive on rice and lentils.
>There are far better ways to show your generosity by helping other people in real ways rather than slauhtering animals.
A lot of poor people, if given money, spend it on cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, or some nasha. This is why it is best to give them food (meat), clothes, medicine, etc.
Please don’t “deal” with my comment. just deal with your own demons if you can.
On your questions, and I do not intend to answer any others, its simple: a thousand years ago it may have made sense to send someone riding a camel to deliver a message to someone 5 miles away; today it does not – use email or a phone, please! a thousand years ago it made sense to think of animals as something to sacrifice since meat was not common and animals were the symbols of wealth that was being shared, today it does not, unless you do your banking with a cow and use a goat as your savings account.
If you want others to become a good Muslim, maybe a good place to start would be to become one yourself rather than spending time on the evil internet (no mention of it in hadees) giving sermons to others.
>What might have made sense a thousand years ago makes no sense today.
Please explain that part to me. I will deal with the rest of your comment later.