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.
“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.” Mark Twain
http://moroccoboard.com/viewpoint/64-author/753-ei d-al-adha-ritual-and-modern-community-health-stand ard
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!!
if we folow the writer`s suggestion than there would be no religious festival left to celbrate to its full spirit. I am sick of peole including the author of avioding to participate in religious festivals and encouraging others to interpret islam in a way to opt out of almost every religious festival. I understand you have saved money on slaughtering the animal what did you do with that money . How did you secrifice? what were your intetions? Atleast people who are sluthering the animals would distribute the meat to someone who have never tasted meat all year long. we spend a lot of money on other material things its okay once a year to spend that money on slaughtering an animal and give poor people a taste of meat.
Here are some interesting facts to ponder on
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Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/2606654/mcdonalds-burger s
By 2005 McDonalds have sold more than 100 Billion hamburgers and still selling @ 75 hamburgers per sec (2.3 billions per year). This is equivalent to 10 millions cows slaughtered every year. May be whenever we have a desire to eat McDonald, we should think of poor and donate the money to needy. Can we make such a small sacrifise to please Allah?
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Souce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse
In the United States, around ten billion animals are slaughtered every year in 5,700 slaughterhouses and processing plants employing 527,000 workers. In 2007, 28.1 billion pounds of beef were consumed in the U.S. alone. In Canada, 650 million are killed annually. In the European Union, the annual figure is 300 million cattle.
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source :http://www.scribd.com/doc/16103366/Halal-The-most -humane-slaughter-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dha bihah
According to research conducted at school of veterinary medicine by Professor Schulze Islamic way of slaughtering the animal is the most humane and painless method.
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An obvious question here is why all this cattle are not extinct even after slaugheting billions of them every year? It is also worth pondering that in Mecca which is devoid of any vegetation cattle still survives and flourishes in such huge numbers that every year inspite of slaughtering in huge numbers they are never short. I believe this is the result of the prayers of Prophet Ibrahim as mentioned in Quran to make this region self sufficient in meat and water.
We can very well imagine the millions of people linked to cattle industry. Cant understand why we want to make millions jobless and make them dependant on our sadqas and zakats? As regards to qurbani skins, no one forces us to give them to Madrassas or Mullas. Personally, I owe it to my laziness in properly disposing the skin, I give it to anyone who comes first to pick it up. Can’t blame anyone else.