Guest Author - Serkan Tufan

Today, I would like to talk about the second holiday for Muslims in this lunar year. It is called Eid - Al Adha, or the feast of sacrifice by Muslims. It is going to be celebrated all around the world on December 20th and it will end on December 24th.

The underlying story behind this holiday is a well-known one in Bible about Isaac ( peace be upon him) being almost sacrifised by father Abraham ( Ibrahim ). In Quran, this story is explained almost as the same, except it was Ishmael, not Isaac in Islamic sources. Regardless, in this holiday, Muslims, in remembrance of this event sacrifice sheep , goat, cow and the like animals. This is only done by financially able Muslims, and it is not a "must", but it is a "should" as it laid out by God.

The wisdom behind this sacrifice is countless. One of the reasons for the sacrifice is to follow Prophet Abraham's example, proving to our own soul that we are able to sacrifice the things we love (represented as money, goods, a well bred , healthy and productive livestock in sacrifice) for Allah.

Another wisdom about this is a psychologic relief to cut something and shed blood, preventing our carnal self to harm anything and using the violent part in human nature in something that is helpful to others and is also a good deed.

One of the most important outcomes of this duty of sacrifising is that this time around every year, poor people get to eat meat which is very expensive in usual, becuase of the Islamic rule that you have to give away the meat from the animals.

Being one of the five pillars of Islam, a flip side of this holiday is that the pilgrimage to Mecca, to the Ka'ba (the most sacred space for Islam, namely " the house of Allah" is performed in this time. Muslims follow the exact path that Hagar (peace be upon her) and Ishmael ( peace be upon him) took to migrate to Mecca, in remembrance of the tradition of Ibrahim aleyhisselam (peace be upon him). This is an incredibly purifying soul travel that makes people fall in love with the Ka'ba and miss it for the rest of their lives.

People who do pilgrimage may also sacrifice animals there.

Another thing I love about the sacrificing process is that all precautions are taken for the feelings and well-being of animal. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) , the master of compassion and mercy, was very sensitive about animal rights.

Ibni Abbas narrates: We were on our way with Prophet Muhammad when we saw a man who tied his sheep up to slaughter it. Yet, he was sharpening his knife in front of the animal. Prophet Muhammad scolded the man: Do you want to kill him plenty of times? (Mustadrak,, 4/231, 233)

(In Islam tradition, there are rigid procedures for slaughtering, mostly for the aim of hygiene and not to cause any pain to animal. First, an animal can only be slaughtered by God’s permission And for only His sake, that is, by reciting God’s names during the slaughter meaning we are His servants and not real owners or decision makers above anything, People first help the animal lay down in dignity with gently fondling it. A very sharp, plain edge knife is used to cut through throat in one second while the eyes of animal closed with a cloth in advance, so that he will not suffer from any psychological and physiological pain. The blood is completely drained from the main vessel to prevent any deterioration and microbes caused by dirty and old blood.

I’d like to caution about the modern serial slaughtering techniques most slaughtering places uses; first all the animals are given a painful shock or stun by a hammer on the head, then altogether hung upside down and cut on the throat in groups, causing a huge stress, fear and pain on the animals, moreover, after cutting loosely, dirty blood often let stay in, causing many harmful bacteria and microbes to grow in the tissues).

I will try to post more on this holiday and how it is celebrated,

bless you...