spare the poor goat or lamb or cows 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.
I strongly disagree with the post.
Why spirit of sacrifice be revived on the expense of terminating the ritual?
We say and think so much positive but regretfully, we remain less practical.
What i would suggest or say in my professional capacity as a vibrant enthusiastic food technologist, I would say that this ritual should be turned into mega economic event of reforming livestock sector and development of (currently at nil stage) meat industry.
Despite all civilization in place in Pakisani society, its sad to note that we were unable to add a systematic qurbani system,cleanliness, and true spirit of sacrifice.
I find it funny that people are commenting without even reading the post. There is nothing about vegeatrianism there nor about animal rights. This is about doing your duty to God and how best to get Allah’s khushnoodi. Do you get that by giving a khal to some mullah to make a buck off, or do you get Allah’s razamandi by really helping the life of a poor person. To me the answer is clear and is in teh Quran. Allah does not need the flesh or the blood of animals. Allah needs your taqwa. And if you help Allah’s people how could He not be happy with you. Like all of Islam, the concept of sacrifice is plain and simple.
Jazakallah
Dear All,
I am a Hindu Vegetarian, heartened to see that there are many Muslims who are saddened by the animal sacrifice. How one can kill innocent , speechless, harmless animals to please God? How God can be pleased with the blood of animals? I am sure it is a misinterpretation of Quran. There are many peaceful ways to please the God and help poor. The ritual started with Abraham, but Christians have abandoned it. In my view even killing animals for food also bad. Go vegetarian, plants don’t have central nervous systems to feel the pain!. And of course, to survive, we bring minimal violence to other creatures always. But keep it minimum. Hindus too do animal sacrifice which I strongly condemn. In US turkeys are slaughtered in millions. We need to be more spiritual, and Divinity has no place for violence. Violence is Satanic.
Such “controversial” posts by extreme wing of left can’t change the mind set of Pakistanis who do consider the religion larger than life. We have seen generations busy in babbling about religious issues but nothing happened at time. People and youth are getting more aware about Islam despite of infinite attempts of leftist radicals. Let me share an incident.
Few weeks back I was buying french fries from a local stall. I saw a kid wearing shorts and modern t-shirts was also there. I saw a Miswak seller there. The kid bought one for himself and his mom was surprised why did he do so.I got curious because I was not expecting this from him. When I asked him why did he buy the miswak, the kid replied,”Aap ko nai pata kay ye sunnat hey”(don’t you know its a sunnah of prophet muhammad(saw))?
So islam is penetrating despite of such efforts by so called modern souls. Secularism just can be imposed in dreams rather in reality and such incident just strengthens my point.
have fun so called veges; I know you are standing in queue to buy naan so that you could enjoy it with kalejis
I think there is great benefit in the sacrifice because also the people who sell these animals are helped and a whole sector gets resources. So lets also not forget that part of this.