Eid-ul-Adha. Sacrificial, a must?!

Growing up in the Middle East, I was always dragged into a lot of multi-cultural festivals and Islam being a major religion in Dubai, Eid was always celebrated on a grand scale. Today is Eid-ul-Adha, the “Festival of Sacrifice”. The muslims believe that on this day, their Prophet was ready to sacrifice his son in order to prove his faith in Islam to Allah but just as he was about to strike the knife, Allah replaced his son with a sheep to sacrifice instead. Thereafter, the muslims sacrifice cows, sheep, and goats on this day to keep up the tradition and in memory of Prophet Ibrahim and his faith. The day of Eid is deduced by the Islamic Lunar Calendar.

Prophet Ibrahim sacrificing his son Ishmael

 

I personally enjoy and feel that the first of the two Eids (Eid-ul-Fitr) that are celebrated annually makes more sense. Forgive me for voicing my opinions on a community’s religious festival, but while growing up, all these years, I was under the misconception that Eid-ul-Adha was about sacrificing these animals to free them from their present animal lives so that their soul may obtain a better body in the new life. Perhaps a human form. My doubts were clarified by a friend, H, who told me that, there is no such belief. They are just keeping up the tradition and by carrying out his actions, its more of a remembrance of their Prophet. Like paying tribute. I was pretty much disappointed to hear that thousands of animals loose their lives, every year on this day, to keep up a tradition? Why do they have to spend large amounts of money, sacrifice these animals and then rejoice over meat eating? There are other ways, aren’t there?

Today, while I was stuck in traffic, I saw a man, get out of his car and open the boot of the car, and in there was a poor little goat, almost suffocating in the dark. The man checked on something and shut the boot back up and got into his car. The first thing I noticed was that the back seat of the car was completely empty. The only two occupants were sitting in the front two seats. The first thought that crossed my mind. How heartless! He could have sat the goat in the backseat. Give it its last view of the world?!

I have watched my friend’s families buy their sheep, goats or cows at least a week or a month earlier and they feed the animals, take care of them until the date of the sacrificial. That seemed justifiable. To treat the animal with love and respect until you put it to sleep, if u must. But this man was rushing by, taking this goat on the morning of Eid day and ill-treating it. God certainly is watching! As the years rolled by, the holiness that surrounded this procedure seems to have vanished. When I was younger, people treated animals well and the whole perspective of the ritual was purely religious and holy. But nowadays, and especially after returning from Oxford, I have noticed that this ritual has become somewhat cynical and commercialised. When I got onto facebook today, all I saw was people wishing each other a “meatlicious” Eid whereas previously the wishes were plain old, “Eid Mubarak” and “Happy Eid”. There were pictures of slaughtered animals all over the place and some people had actually uploaded pictures of the sacrificial at their homes for others to comment on it saying “cool!”. Funny commercials and pictures of mockery have also been created for the occasion, one of them had a cartoon goat on it saying “Game over”!  

Is this the correct message that is going out to the world? Is religion taken too lightly or are people treating it as an obligation? Just another public holiday? The entire affair has come across to me as a meat eating festival rather preserving the sanctity  of what Eid-ul-Adha truly stands for. It comes across as animal cruelty. I know that this maybe a tradition or as per belief, it may also be a religious obligation, but when I asked my friend H, for answers, she din’t have any, because she din’t know for herself. I asked her “why can’t there be another way of showing gratitude for what Prophet Ibrahim did?” , “Just because the Lord replaced his child with a sheep, does it mean that every year millions of animals all over the world deserve to be put to sleep?”.

I may be in no position to do anything about this, or to even oppose. But in my perspective, I think it is wrong. They call it “freeing the animal” but what sort of freedom are you exactly talking about? How are we so sure that these animals may find a better life in the “afterlife”! At the end of the day, every living thing has the urge to live more and see more of life, be it a human being or a cockroach. We are all gifted with life, we have no right to take others. Alas, I am as hopeless in bringing about a change as anybody else, who is reading this post would be.  

Sacrificed goats

 

I tend to wonder, is this all about an action misinterpreted? Have people made up this tradition so that they can follow in the Prophet’s footsteps and are assuming that, this is what the Good Lord may have wanted of them? The Prophet was put to test by the Lord himself to sacrifice his “child” to prove his faith in God, but why carry on killing animas in the name of sacrifice? In today’s times, what does it signify? Food for thought.

-Tash.x

P.S- I know this post may give rise to a lot of contradiction and opposition but it wasn’t intended to do so. I apologise if I have unintentionally offended anyone, but even after close study, I haven’t been able to find a justifiable answer for the way people today behave. Let aside the religious aspect, with all due respect, it maybe right to those who believe and wrong to others who may not believe, but the commercialising? I think its demeaning the entire sanctity of the action. I am just voicing my opinions and maybe someone can clarify my doubts, if Im wrong.