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.
@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”.