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.
Dear Need food (December 1st, 2009 9:43 am):
Ever heard of something called milk?
Perhaps you have, but sadly generations to come might never know of it, thanks to rampant killings of whole species of cattles, which you’ve vociferously vowed to wipe out and make extinct for the sake of meat.
However, let me relevantly quote the importance of milk as food from wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk
“The animals dairying proved to be a more efficient way of turning uncultivated grasslands into sustenance: the food value of an animal killed for meat can be matched by perhaps one year’s worth of milk from the same animal, which will keep producing milk — in convenient daily portions — for years.”
As I said in one of my previous posts, either take an egg daily from a hen or cut its stomach to take all at one go…
Choice is always yours.
@Mr. Dilawar: it is your statement:
“Faraz, I did read Ali Khan’s post. And he has a whole list of his own pir faqirs in that comment; Maudodi and his tolli.”
Mr the names which i mentioned were not of any pir faqir, those were and are the researched scholars who have explained Islam. ok, if u do not like Maulana Maududi, leave him and even if u don’t like Maulana Tariq Jameel and Maulana Taqi Usmani, leave them. wat abt other names that i mentioned?? do u think that Shah Waliullah, Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi were pir faqir or something like that?? u do because that is ur statement. ok, do u even think that Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Shafai, Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal who clarified and explained the religion were pir faqir or something like that?? u do because that is ur statement. ok, leave all of them, do u even thin that our Holy Prophet(pbuh), the best man among all humans was pir faqir(nauzubillah)?? u do because that is ur statement!! i would simply say “think before u act”!!!
now, a very good point is raised by “No Hajj” that should we even leave our prayers because that’s the wastage of time and we have to give time to poor and needy?? because Allah(swt) does not want our prayers, what he actually wants is piety and credence in his powers!! the answer must be “no”. then what’s nonsense is this to ask people “spare animals and give directly ur money to poors”.
thirdly, i again want to ask, do u people find any example from our ancestors (the names which i mentioned in my last comment) when they spared animals and gave their money directly to the poors?? no, u can’t find any example. we are urdu speaking people while Quran is in Arabic. so, it happens many times that some verses of Quran look embigous and we get confused. if it happens, we should apply this rule “hukum Allah ka, Tareeqa Rasul(pbuh) ka(order of Allah, practice of Prophet(pbuh)”, now, it is clear that Prophet did not suggest it or practice it. if u r still confused, then see the practice of Companions of Prophet(pbuh), even they did not suggest or practice it. if u r still confused, then take guidance from researched schlolars like Imam Abu Hanifa,Imam Malik, Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal, Imam Shafai. neither they suggested or practice it. now, who the hell we are to change this order of Allah with our will!!
Dear Viqar Minai,
I am glad to read your statement: “ As long as …don’t have a problem”. (your post dated November 30th, 2009 9:21 am)
It appears that both of us are in favour of individual freedom. Now your question is: “But do please tell us [know] who will get to decide when it goes [out] of the religion?”
In a Secular State this freedom is guaranteed by the State’s constitution and a court decides who has gone out of his boundary. This guaranty can not be given in any religious state where the religion is the law of the land. Any Islamic State will be void of this individual freedom.
Pakistan is, “Islamic Rebublic of Pakistan” without any “republic” in it. Pakistan has an Islamic constitution and any law has to be in the boundary of Islam. So, in Pakistan the Islamic Muslims have all the rights and Liberals are simply tolerated. The future of liberals (seculars) is not very bright in Pakistan.
Regads.
AHsn
@Ibrahim, Adnan, Faraz & others:
Thanks for clarifying your views in this matter, which are similar to my own.
I like to go back to my original assertion that there are enough other crises facing Pakistan, that need our energies, for us to manufacture additional non-sensical issues where none exist.
Dear Animal lovers,
I think you are mistaken in assuming that in this modern era people do not need food or meat. Please visit the website of United Nations program called World Food program (http://www.wfp.org/). Please look at the stats under http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats.
Even in USA and Canada there are millions of children that go to sleep hungry at night. You can get the statistics by googling it.
This food/meat from the qurbani gives those hungry people some good dishes to eat. The qurbanis performed at hajj are not made in three portions. Everything goes to the poor around the world.
I would rather have a whole species of an animal wiped out then let a child die of hunger… that child could be mine! If this makes me cruel, then so be it.
After posting my comment below, I realized that there are some things to be cleared so that people can have a better understanding from where I am coming.
Ok, from my name it appears that the Islamic “thing” that I skipped is the Hajj. Actually it was Umrah. I had promised Allah that I would perform Umrah, all my paper work was ready but I had not bought the tickets yet. And then the Swat operation started. I thought (using the analogy presented in the article), that those displaced poor people need more help than my performing Umrah (for my benefit), so I gave the money to the refugees. Seems like a noble act indeed.
After reading this article and the discussion, I realized that my decision to not perform Umrah and giving the money to the sawat refugees might not have been pure. I think it was tainted by the fact that in some corner of my mind/heart, I was thinking about the hardship I will face travelling to Pak then to Saudi and back to Pak, and the hardship of performing Umrah in huge crowds with two little kids.
I broke my promise with Allah, may Allah forgive me for that. I guess now you will undersatnd my point of view… it is easy to bend the rules of Allah in the name of helping poor thinking our intentions are pure. but usually there is always something in us that wants us to bend that rule for our own good/liking. The analogy I mentioned about Hajj in the previous comment was a result of my mistake above.
Thank you for being patient with me.
I think this is a great discussion. It has led me to realize that I might have made a mistake personally in my life. I will admit that I followed temporal’s analogy, not qurbani, but in another Islamic “thing”. After reading this discussion, and doing some research, I realized that I might have made a mistake. I don’t regret it, as my heart was at peace, but I think I will not do it again.
Keep it up ATP.
Do not take offense of my comments below. It is just to show that how easy it is to bend the rules of Allah to our liking. It is clearly narrated in Quran that do not test limits set by Allah. I do not know the exact ayat and surah where this is mentioned, but I am sure you can find it.
Here is another “modern islam” idea…. whats the use of hajj… all the rich people do it spending around US$4,000 to US$10,000 per person. About 1.5 - 2 million rich people (who can afford) do it every year. That averages to about US$12.25 billion every year that is spent on Hajj!!!.
Now using the same analogy that temporal and others have been giving…. qurbani is in the heart, poor need money not meat and save the animals blah blah…. then this “ritual” hajj should be stopped, as it is the person who does it, soley does it for the beneift of himself (getting all sins washed etc.). Plus you pay a hefty amount just to run around a bunch of places anyway. Why not give this US$12.25 billion every year to the poor. If we do that then there will be no poor left in the world… plus the animals will be saved (which is the ultimate goal, even higher than helping poor). Allah did say in the Quran that what matters is in your heart and this saying can be used to not follow what else is in Quran … as interpreted by our friend.
Hey while we are at interpreting Quran…. namaz is also a waste of time, as it also does not benefit anyone except the person performing it… we could spend that time helping the poor and saving animals… Allah will be more happy then.
Lets see what else can we find in the Quran that we can skip and use it to help poor people and animals…. I bet we can find a whole lot more if we use the analogy presented in this article, and as mentioned above… performed by myself.
@Adnan Siddiqi (December 1st, 2009 12:46 am)
An excerpt from your quoted wikipedia link :
“Today much of the urban Hindu community disapproves of animal sacrifice, which has been phased out in many urban areas.”
FYI, in fact animal sacrifice in temples is legally banned in India though still not in Nepal.
But pls do not make it Pak vs India or Islam vs Hinduism issue, and let us not deviate from the original topic : “sparing the lamb on Eid : whether to sacrifice animal or not”.