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.
Are you demanding that people should be forced to do qurbani
@Waqar: Atleast not me. What all is being condemned that Jahil mullahs of both right and left side always try to contradict Islam one way or other by giving their own meaning of the verses. the current attempt is one of the classic examples. One is free to reject Islam as a religion or call it false and follow what he/she wants but “polluting” a religion just to sake shelter of it is not appreciable and its quite a coward act.
@Ibrahim.
What is the point even in arguing with someone who actually thinks that the bird of the new moon cannot be calculated (tell that to your Saudis too, please)…. I guess you also think that the earth is not round and it rotates around a tamatto!
It is Muslims like this that give Islam a bad name when they defend their own ignorance in the name of religion.
Khuda humain jahilouN say bachai.
Yaar Ibrahim, khuda ka khouf karo!!!!
Here is what YOU said:
“But, as for moon sighting it’s required that the actual moon is seen by at least two witnesses. This is what Islam says and thus this is why calendars for moon birth, etc. aren’t used because it can’t be verified by people.”
In YOUR very next comment YOU say:
“The number of witnesses varies. The point was that, yes, the moon is to be witnessed.”
Bhai. kitna jhoot boolo gay?
What are the other things you are lying about?
@Dilawar : (November 30th, 2009 7:19 pm)
Thanks for very good reply.
Animal sacrifice may have been necessary when in those times in Arabia,much of food-dependence was on animal meat because of less cultivation etc.Then,this ritual may have ensured that poor might get meat to eat like the rich ones.
Nowadays, there is no such complusion that only animals meat is your food 24×7/365 . Hence, killing poor animals in unnecessarily large numbers just to say that the meat would be shared among “poor” friends & relatives is totally uncalled for.Someone rightly pointed out that fridges of “poor” appear small to house large meat stocks. Is this these sacrifices are meant for, or is this the spirit behind qurbani?
Howsoever one may interpret- “JM” way or “LM” way,simply put, 1400 years ago killing animals was a necessity hence it was linked with this ritual, today it is not. Remember with every slaughter, you are taking life off a precious living being created by Allah.Consider the mass scale throughout the world and if animals are unnecessarily killed in this way, what’ll happen in the years to come? Pls for Allah’s sake, do not disturb and overpower the cycle of nature.
I specially liked this tagline by some poster in some other forum :”… Look through the eyes of an innocent animal being sacrificed in the name of religion and you’ll know how terrorism really looks like” .
One more thing – of the economics someone had pointed out. My claim is that one-day show of so-called pity/help towards poor is real contributor to inflation in rest 364 days. This is like taking all eggs from the stomach of a hen in one instance.After killing so many animals in one go, there becomes perpetual scarcity of animals because of which meat prices have to be high-always out of reach of really poor (and not the fridge wale poor!) :)
In my view, alternative ways to financially/socially help really poor as suggested by temporal is the need of the hour. This would be our true sacrifice to Allah.
Thanks.
@Viqar….just saw your comment
It’s asking as if people should be told to pray or give zakat. If qurbani is obligatory then it should not be omitted by those who can afford it. But, it wasn’t me or somebody else who published an article on ATP asking people to do qurbani. Rather, temporal with all his limited knowledge decided to tell us what Allah really wanted since the Prophet, the sahabah, the first three generations, the rest of the scholars couldn’t come upon this simple understanding of qurbani.
It’s this spirit that is being condemned as you can read from Adnan’s or Ali Khan’s or Faraz’s comments.