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.
@Adnan Siddiqi
“Pagan arabs also used to pay respect to the Kaa’ba made by Abraham(AS).”
Yes the pagan arabs used to pay respect to the Kaa’ba because they had their gods inside and not because the house was built by Abraham or Adam.
“Now you would say,”How can Allah gives respect to a building worshiped by Pagans?”
No, I will not ask the above quzstion, but I will simply say that the Muslim Arabs continued that pagan tradition replacing the pagan gods by a Unique
Invisible God who is present everywhere according to their Belief. Other Muslims could not do otherwise except following the Arab tradition.
AHsn
http://pakistaniat.com/2008/12/07/kick-cow-amazing /#comment-194320
MQ and Watan Aziz: Really no bakra or Prohet Ismail mentioned in the Qur’an about this story?? Wow, oh my, what would we the simple minded blind followers do now?! My whole belief system seems shattered! Oh, shoot, just rememberd that the story is also explained in the ahadith where the animal and Prophet Ismail are both mentioned, but your kufr teahces you to not believe in ahadith; so, of course, you’ve a new controversy on your hands!
Btw, you guys would come off as more logical and intelligent if you deny the Qur’an as the unaltered words of Allah because transmission of both the Qur’an and hadith passed through the same people (the Mullahs you so despise) and in similar fashion (orally more than in any other way).
@AHsn…”Before Islam the Pagan Arabs also used to sacrifice animals to the gods of their choice. The Muslim God (Allah) gave a nod to this practice and the Muslims continued this Pagan ritual in the name of unique God (Allah). How the same bad act of Pagans becomes a good act in Islam?
Do you even read what you write before you hit the submit button?
But, let me try to answer this joke of an argument of yours: Pagan Arabs also spoke Arabic before Islam including the word Allah (as in Abd Allah…the name of the Prophet’s father), Muhammad was a name given by a Pagan person, the Hajj was a pagan ritual as well (as Adnan has mentioned), the Pagans did sajdah too (but to statues), the Pagan believed in Ibrahim and Ismail not only as prophets but as their forefathers (as we know that all Arabs today are the progeny of Prophet Ismail); pagans also paid blood money, pagans also wore the same clothing as the Prophet (saw) and so and so forth. You see the point? No? It’s Allah who decides what is part of Islam and what is not, and He decided to include some habits and rituals of Arabs after purifying them from shirk and commanding the purification of intentions for Muslims who do these rituals (which is accidently the point of the verse which temporal mentioned and misrepresented to distort Islam).
So, the same act of pagans became noble for Muslims because it was made part of Islam by Allah and it also becomes noble because the intention behind it is to slaughter the animal for Allah’s sake in Allah name (tawheed) unlike pagans, who did it in the name of their statues (shirk) or some other associate to Allah that the pagans would make up.
Oh, why do I waste my time talking to agnostic/atheist leftist people like most of those who show up here. If only Sara had answered AHsn herself!
@ dear Ali Khan (December 2nd, 2009 12:15 pm)
Its sheer easy to cite those portions that suit you.
However its being deliberately omitted that at the same time, the Prophet was very kind towards animals.As it goes,someone had captivated a cat and kept it hungry for three days. Prophet scolded the fellow and freed the cat.Another one, once a wounded dog was thirsty, and a woman soaked her dupatta in water to and squeezed it to put drops of water into dog’s mouth.Prophet praised the woman and said all her sins would be absolved and forgiven.I’m writing this from my memory, someone can throw more light on these stories.
Question is ,are muslims following this practice (kindness to animals!) also?
As argued previously, slaughtering animals in those times was necessary, today it is not.
Being thankful to Allah for food does not make a slaughter a “sacrifice”.
However, pls clarify whether your cited narrations anywherer reveal that Prophet slaughtered (or “sacrificed”) animals every year on the same day in the same manner as has been adopted by muslims subsequently. Did He anywhere or anytime ordered that you kill animals every year on a fixed day?
Pls do answer and give a pointed reply.Thanks.
(@Ali Khan says:
December 2nd, 2009 12:15 pm)
“…Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) commanded that a ram with black legs, black belly and black (circles) round the eyes should be brought to him, so that he should sacrifice it”
Can you pls tell how many rams being sacrificed today have black legs, black belly and black (circles) round the eyes?