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.
@MEENGLA: stop saying it brutality. if it were brutality, the Prophet(pbuh) did not sacrifice the animal. u know, after hajj that he performed in his last year of life, he sacrificed 100 camels out of which 67 he himself slaughtered. was he brutal?? (nauzubillah). when we sacrifice our beloved animal and feel sad that he is no more with us and then bear it patiently, we in a way pledge that we are ready to sacrifise everything for our Lord and His will. if slaughtering of animals were brutality, Allah(swt) would not order us to do that. this article is just bullshit, those who can afford to sacrifise an animal, they must do so because it’s wajib on those who can afford to do that. but we should not show off!! thus, we remember the practice of H. Ibrahim (A.S).
Excellent post! and great points. People forget the true meaning of sacrifice and charity and instead feel good with themselves by taking the easy way out and killing an innocent animal.
Well i find this entire article by Temporal and supporting comments by ppl like meegla extremely shallow. All that the writer of this post is proposing is to replace eid’s qurbani (which is an act of charity itself) with another charity (such as giving money / cash to the poor).
Eid’s qurbani (if he is unaware so far) itself is one of the most valuable institutionalized charity in the world. One third of all animals slaughtered is reserved for the poor, some ppl give much more. These are the few days when poorest of the poor in our country, who would otherwise not be able to afford it, get to eat hearty lunches and dinners just like the rich do… why are ppl like temporal hell bent at denying them this too?
with regards to other forms of charity such as cash etc. well no one is stopping us to indulge as much as we want. A better argument, as someone else also pointed out, would have been to cut out some useless cash spend such as buying a new suit, and give the money to the poor.
And for overly sentimental people like meengla, (stop killing the animals, be sensitive to their pain, children witness this etc.) all that i want to say is that it’s not just on eid, animals get killed / slaughtered everyday, 365 days a year, all over the world. It’s immaterial whether you get to witness the animal killing or not. As long as you eat the meat or beef, you should know what would have happened for this meat stake to reach your plate. So either mr. / ms meengla should completely become a vegetarian, or accept the fact that animals get killed in exactly the way he/she so malodramatically described in some of the posts.
There are around 5 billion meat eating people in the world, including not just muslims but also christians, jews, athiests and others. Man is a carnivorous being, and eats meat… whether you like it or not.
Unless that you are saying that meat eating is fine, as long as i dont get to witness the animal killing, or as long as animal is not killed on eid??? which makes your argument even mroe shallow…
it can be applicable anywhere .. but definitely not applicable on Eid ul Azha, as per our religion.
I think you need to take care of others faith before posting these self made rubbish ideas.
@ Temporal: Good idea but can you please explain why these kind of innovations are only proposed for religion.
How about saving $ 160 dollars by now having couple of family dinners in restaurants ? or how about postponing some road trip ? or skipping a concert ?.
Problem with us is that we are stuck between mullah and enlightenend moderates (who every now and then would propose innovations in religion based only on their instincts regardless of their knowledge).