Personals

Eid ul Adha (Bakra Eid) And Its Real Message

Have you noticed that I didn’t post anything for quite a long time? I just got lazy and didn’t do anything fascinating for last few days, just played with sony vegas and I just celebrated Eid ul Adha in Korea without family member and friends, sorry with friends.

It was a good opportunity to think about some real spirit behind celebrating eid adha (Bakra Eid). You would have noticed that Muslims around you would sacrifice sheep, buffalo (bull or cow), and camels. Don’t mind if I say cow, I said it because in many places in India its legal to sacrifice cow and in all places you can sacrifice an old cow, usually govt. does it too. And also slaughtering ammonals is not a strange ritual for us as we see almost all religions have this. Some of them call it Bali, Sacrifice and some call it Qurbani. Apart from all sociopolitical issues and discussions related to sacrificing animal lets spend sometime to understand the essence of doing a sacrifice especially in Islam.

Eid ul Adha is celebrated in remembrance of sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham in Bible and Tawrah) Alaihissalam. Instead of telling a long story and boring you I present two verse from Quran that mention all in a beautiful and most concise way, which is impossible to concise any further. Here it is

“O my Lord! Grant me a righteous (son)!” So We gave him the good news of a boy, possessing forbearance (gentle). And when (his son) was old enough to walk and work with him, (Abraham) said: O my dear son, I see in vision (dream) that I offer you in sacrifice: Now tell me what is your view!” (The son) said: “O my father! Do what you are commanded; if Allah wills, you will find me one practicing patience and steadfastness!” So when they both submitted and he (Abraham) threw him down upon his forehead, We called out to him saying: O Ibraheem! You have indeed fulfilled the vision (command); surely thus do We reward those who do good. Most surely this was a manifest trial. And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice. And We perpetuated (praise) to him among the later generations. “Peace and salutation to Abraham!” Thus indeed do We reward those who do right. Surely he was one of Our believing servants. Quran [37:100-111]

This tells all about the sacrifices and trails prophet Ibrahim was put on and on how he fulfilled his commands and as a reward God praised it by making it a compulsory for generations. This is story is more or less same with all people of book (Ahl e Kitaab), the one who have revelation and book from God, like Muslims, Christians and Jews.

The real reason for celebrating the festival is to celebrate the spirit of following the commands of God the same way prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail has done. Sacrificing an animal is just a physical form but the actual learning is to remind everyone that how one needs to be ready to follow the commands of Allah SWT. As its clearly mentioned in another place in Quran

Their flesh and blood do not reach God: it is your piety that reaches Him. Thus God has subjected them to you, so that you may glorify Him for the guidance He has given you. Give glad tidings to those who do good. Quran [22.37]

These two verses give a clear idea of what Eid ul Adha is and why Muslims practice it, though most of them just enjoy having delicious food and get into the discussions of cow, buffalo, a bull or a sheep sacrifices.

The real sacrifice is the determination of leaving things behind which you like the most for the sake fulfilling the commands of the God. The way prophet Ibrahim had shown dedication when he was commanded to sacrifice his son. And the way prophet Ismail had shown his faith when he was informed of his sacrifice.

Now let me give a broader look. This story makes it true for everything in life. You are determined to work harder for achieving your goals. If you don’t have guts to stop wasting time on watching movies, dramas, chatting with friend and internet,how can you fulfill your dreams? Something is commanded to you from your inner consciousness and you believe in it. How come you can succeed without following it?

The real test is to scarify your desires for something you believe in, then everyone will remember you as people remember prophets and legends. Just visualization is nothing without being acted upon. Having desire to reach to IITs is nothing but a dream without sacrificing cricket matches, movies, drama, TV programs and all other worthless time wasters. With this I call you to be more determined for your future though you need to walk through a way which most of others think is crazy.

Wish you all a great Eid ul Adha time and great future ahead

There were two important questions I wanted to address for a long time in this regard. 1. What is the spiritual significance of slaughtering and 2. Why not just donate the amount instead of slaughtering. You can read further to know about it (updated: 12.09.2016)

There is a misunderstanding about slaughtering animals for eating in India, as a good number of Indians are vegetarians. I think this is totally because they think its cruel and should not be done that way or some other reasons. But over ninety percent of the world use animals for daily food. That way there is an argument against vegetarians too on killing plants and their fruits and eating the food to animal newborns in the form of milk and it’s by products. I leave it to people for their choice of food and don’t want to get into that.

There is no spiritual connection to slaughtering an animal it’s the sprit behind slaughtering the animal have that connection. If you understand why you are slaughtering an animal, you will know what is important to take care and what to do after you have meat from it. The rule of thumb is two third of the meat goes to poor who cannot afford and relatives and you are entitled to only one third of it.

Just to showoff slaughtering more animals and wasting food is neither part of Islam nor from the sprit of festival. Rather these kinds of acts are highly discouraged.

Second Question can come to mind why not just donate that money to some poor people. The simple answer to that is the sacrifice is symbolic remembrance of the sacrifice of Ibrahim (Abraham) AS. You can understand it by the example birthday. We celebrate and cut a cake and without that there is no celebration. Even small cup will do but there is a symbolic attachment to it. Similarly different events in life have symbolic attachments we need to follow them. The sacrifice have a symbolic attachment to it and cannot be complete until you give away two third of it to poor and needy. So the essence of whole festival is to sacrifice and help need and poor people, remember family and seek forgiveness and blessing through it.

36 Comments

  1. Drashty

    Sir y don’t you try to sacrifice you’re parents Allah will feel better and proud coz I think nothing could be more important and loved for you other than them! You will then follow allah’s preaching in a true way. Coz You will get it back someday someone might cut u too in the name of God or pleasure or to celebrate their spirit.

  2. Shruti

    What nonsense,, barbarism is in blood. And what beautiful explanations for most heinious crimes. Fulfilling the order of Allah be it for goats or humans of other religion in terrorist attacks again in name of Allah. How shamefully. Please learn to live in peace and harmony. Don’t just go on justifying your brutal deeds beautifully.. It’s a wake up call!!

  3. tarunparkash

    zahid sir ! u hv indulge in wrong debate …… some people can never understand that india is secular and everyone has there right to practice there religion in there own way! and if u dont know in the border of each country thousands of people r killed and many of then r innocent. So dont judge the stopping of killing for the sake of humanism when human can kill human for whatever reasons gud or bad why cant we accept the killing of animal for religious belief
    And move on and there more imp socio-eco and environment issues if u like to contribute ! but this is a gate discussion blog so plz go somewhr else!

  4. Kalyan

    Everyone admires zahids effort to motivate Us and help Us people but can you stand the idea of a highly educated man who got his Phd from Iit in just three years is supporting animal killings(in the name of religion thats the issue here). dont you find that Odd?when uneducated people do this stuff its not a thing for concern but when people of this stature support,surely it hurts!killing an animal for Food is not wrong but in the name of religion,definitely it is.

  5. Padmavathy

    There was not this much hullabaloo when Zahid wrote a post wishing Diwali greetings and giving nice inspiration. Why can’t people be more patient and take in what you need and leave the rest. If u are here for education, take that. If for inspiration, take that. There is no need to get hyper when one voices their views in THEIR blog. use yours to shout out loud about your big ideas. Be more secular and more polite in speech and writing too.

    1. thyagaraj

      I completely agree with you Padmavathy. Thank you for expressing your view. We should be grateful to someone who is doing something good. If one cant do anything good one should at least support but not look in a negative manner. I thank Zahid for his initiative.

    2. Jay

      @Padmavathy
      exactly. India is a secular country. Everyone have rights to express their feeling and religious views.

      “The right to freedom in Article 19 guarantees the following :

      Freedom of speech and expression, which enable an individual to participate in public activities. The phrase, “freedom of press” has not been used in Article 19, but freedom of expression includes freedom of press. Reasonable restrictions can be imposed in the interest of public order, security of State, decency or morality.”

  6. Kalyan

    Zahid bhai,why did you bring all this stuff here?it would be more appropriate If we talk about things pertinent to Iits and Nits rather than chicken and goats.i Am an atheist but i never discuss about these things in public.our grand grand children will be laughing in future reading stuff like this in their history books when it will be proved like “there is No such thing like god” . hinduism christianity islam whatever will be going to be left as mere jokes that i can tell since i have “common sense” and unfortunately Phd from Iitr you dont have that.

  7. Irtiqa

    That was the best possible way to explain the reasons for the sacrifices made on the day! Honestly, I being a Muslim myself, had never been across such a clear explanation of this point. And i coudn’t agree more with Mitul that if we are commemorating the sacrifice made by prophet Ibrahim on this day then then there is no better way of celebrating it than by sacrificing(abandoning) all our bad habits to make way for a better and brighter future!And that I think will be the true essence of the festival.

  8. sravya

    i didnt undestood well abt dat story……bt the way u replicate evrythng in life was in a awesome way……..!!!
    u r really superb.!!! i mean all these…!!!

  9. sajad ahmad rather

    thanks a lot for this great piece of information,sir.my suggestion to you sir is that don’t write these posts because there is a scarsity of people which can understand a post in real sense and their is abundence of people which are narrow minded.why white britishers had ruled on us(india),why they call us backward people,why they call us third world people,why they call us poor people, this is only because we don’t respect each others religions,we are bessy in fighting in the name of religion.they rule on us by adopting divide and rule. policy which is based on religion.my message to inspirenignite community is that try to think openmindedly because your narrow minded thoughts can hurt someone,esp you*indirectly*,and is dangerous for the development of a country.may god bliss all of us open minded thinking power.thanks.

  10. bakeel khan

    *2012

  11. bakeel khan

    hi frndz, we celebrates the Eid-ul-Ajha with the spirit of sacrifice and to prove that we can sacrifice everything in the way of Allah by that we prove our obedience to Allah and want his “Razaa” and “rahmat”…

    Now I think that what Zahid Sir want to say by this post is that we can’t get anything without sacrifies and it is hundred percent true.
    bcoz if u can’t sacrifice ur cricket mathes, parties, serials on tv, traveling and other bad habits, u can never get success or u can never achieve ur goals.. so please dont take this post personaly or religiously..
    bcoz i think u also beleive in “if u want something, u have to give up something”
    so to make ur dreams true, to achieve ur goals of life, to live ur dreams u have to leave ur sleep, u have to leave ur parties, u have to leave many things if u really want to achieve something good…

    So All d best to All and a great luck in Gate 2011…

  12. zaheer

    Zahid bhai masha allah this is a great job keep it up and Allah may bless you with everything you wish

  13. MOHAMMAD ASIF IQBAL

    Dear friends, there are different way to saw everything, as we saw in this Article posted by Mr. Zahid. As I feel the intention of Mr. Zahid was not to appreciate the act of killing animals but make visible the spirit of sacrificing, in short if we can sacrifice our beloved think (Which may be some evil deed) for our sustainer, then only we can do same to achieve our goals also. Truly speaking, the biggest halt in our way of success is our evil thoughts and deeds.

  14. Prathamesh Desale

    Just like everything else in the World, the Controversy is arrived through this post on Our Good Old GATE website…….

    [b]I really don’t know and understand why This Thing happens !! One good Thought of Helping Poor GATE people is messed….

    No one seriously don’t have an Inch of Interest Looking any post like this in Educational website.

    I don’t know know that anybody is been hurt or not but yeah You almost Killed me with this. I might wanna come to see this again….!!!

  15. Mitul

    First of all thanks for this much detailed explanation this thing kept running in my mind since I came to know about killing animals. Till what I understood this basically this festival is to teach you sacrifice as Ibrahhim sacrifices his son. But ‘what we actually sacrifice when we kill a goat ??’ Do we love that goat as much as we love our child ?? If you want to sacrifice than sacrifice some bad habits like smoking or drinking or any thing that ‘you’ feel is not right. That might also make your life better. Killing an animal doesn’t mean sacrifice according to me. Where actually it is a sacrifice made by that animal which even don’t understand any of this !

    I think I have made my point clear. This festival teaches you to to sacrifice something that you love. Killing an animal is normal no non-veg eaters (not a sacrifice) so it doesn’t makes any sense to connect this with what real sacrifice is explained in Quran.

    1. Zahid

      Thanks Mitul for making the point clear. This is what I was trying bring it to the readers by quoting a verse from Quran. But one the same time many reader because of prejudice took the post from wrong angle.

      Thank you so much for elaborating it.
      I request you all to read the post again without any pre-assumptions and I hope you will get the clear message.

      Thanks you again.

    2. Mitul

      One thing that I cant understand still is why that son of Ibraahim is replaced by any animal now a days ?? If you answer this I will be so thankful to you. I want to thank you so much again for guiding me for GATE and as a result only I got admitted to IITR. Here also I continue reading you posts for inspiration.

    3. Zahid

      Its not now a days. It was replaced by God at that time. His son was never sacrificed. God just tested him if Ibrahim’s love for his son took over the commands of God or not. And when both father and son proved that Gods commands are at highest preference, God replaced son with a sheep and mentioned this will continue for generations.

      Why cut an animal? Because except India, all over the world people eat meat without any obligations. Even animal right activists all across the globe dont argue on not cut animals, they argue not to be inhuman to them. As Prophet Ibrahim was from dessert between Egypt and Saudi, therefore it was not a question. His son was replaced by best possible food at that time.

      Also in that sheep (food) there are three divisions, one goes to family, another goes relatives and third part is for poor and unprivileged people, who rarely get meat to eat.

      About IITR 🙂

      I loved my campus, if you go to Ravindra Bhawan you can see my name on bhawan secretary list and in E&CE Dept PhDs passed out board 😀

    4. Mitul

      Thanks for the whole information which cleared all doubts and thanks again for this much fast reply ! About IITR I am doing M. Tech in CS only so will surely see your name on PhD passed outs 🙂

  16. Pruthviraj

    Zahid!

    Its clear!

    That’s the test of God that these people fail to understand!

    They think that it is they who will decide by their limited knowledge and thinking; about something is permissible or not!

    They think the word of God has no value compared to the logic they apply through their logic!

    Prophet Ibrahim Passed the test!

    While these people are amongst those who will keep on asking the details of the Calf!

  17. chandrakant

    Sacrifice of animals and human beings have catastrophic effects on mind. People lost mental imbalance and continue to kill innocent creatures in the name of pleasing Allha!!! God, Devi, Kali, etc with ever increasing number of counts. What a mess!!!

    Dont ever compare the sacrifice of burning 1kg of cow Ghee to Killing of cows.

    Dear Zahid, I appreciate your efforts helping students

    But Dont be an islam cleric. and invoke fatwa…

    Restrict the discussion to technical topics else you would be redundant.

    Thanks

    1. Zahid

      Chandrakant, one thing to share. Its impossible to abandon sacrifice in any form. In the post i tired to explain the real essence and spirit of sacrifice. Just for a moment dont be stereotype and read the post again. And when it comes to killing people it does not depend on what eat. People eat meat and people who eat veggies kill each other if they dont understand a reason for living. There are millions in India itself, members from all communities right from hindus, muslims, chirstian and sikhs who eat meat and slaughter animals for that sake.

      If you read post carefully you will understand that i mentioned strongly its not satisfyingly an animal would make the God happy. Its the will and determination to practice all the rules in life not just sacrifice.

      Regarding being a cleric and fatwa, 99% of people talk about it are not familiar what these terms means. I think you can refer wiki for both these and can understand can zahid be a cleric 🙂 We usually use these terms lavishly.

      We all live in a religious world specially in India, if you live abroad it sounds good to say that have only technical discussion otherwise you would be redundant. Every single day we try to practice religion and get holidays on religious events how can we avoid getting inspiration from them and stop making it to right way.

      I always tried to bring it to a common student to know what we are doing and how to focus on lives through different religious events.

      To cut the discussion short, I just want everyone know about different religious event we celebrate and what is their essence. It is just a try to make every one know why muslims celebrate Eid ul Adha and what its real spirit.

      I request you to read the post again 🙂
      Thanks for the comment. I hope to read your inputs soon on other posts too.

  18. Amit Sharma

    My previous message went to spam so I am trying to comment again with a different website url.
    Anyway what I wanted to say is sacrifices and hard work can make somebody successful but only genuine interest with hard work can accomplish extraordinary.

  19. Annapurna

    thank you for a nice explanation and example of how important sacrifices are in our life…….and as u said that for acheiving our dreams,big goals sacrifices are must…..i agree with it…

  20. Mohammed Saleem

    I agree with you Zahid..It is not the act we do, but the “Intention” of the Act that does matter the most, Esp in carrying out religious activities.
    And by doing ‘Sacrifice’ we follow the command of Allah and show our obedience to his orders.As, it is not he Blood or meat that reaches Him, but your “Neeyat”. we should never debate on the Rituals of any Religion.

    We, in India celebrate so many festivities across religions.Like hindus celebrate,say “Dussera”, to commemorate the “victory of Good over evil” by Burning the effigy of ‘Ravan’ and slaughtering the Sheep-Called Bali.

    If we are so concerned with the so-called killing of animals,we will have to live a life almost without food as Plants do also have life and its a ‘killing’ of plants and their future offsprings- in the sense,fruits and vegitables as they are sources of new plants, if we eat the veggie food.

  21. naheed haq

    A fabulous piece of writing that is thought provoking and inspirational.Keep up the good work.

  22. Ravi

    Thank you for the articles !..you writings are motivation to me to achieve my goal..It helped me to understand and realize many important values in life…Thank you very much sir !!

  23. Purvishkumar

    first time dont agree with you Zahid. I dont know how you could give spiritual touch to act of killing?? And I dont agree with any of those Hindus too who thinks ‘bali’ is a spiritual deed.. It is ORTHODOX, not spiritual. Great men and holy souls have seen God in every living being. If you can kill other living beings, you should be in a mental position to kill all your loved ones also, cook them and eat deliciously, enjoying d festival, giving it d so called ‘spiritual’ tag. It can be the enjoyment, it can be the festival, it can be the delicious dish, or sometimes it can be struggle for existence (as Darwin said) BUT it can’t be a spiritual act ever. and this goes with all human beings whether Hindus or Muslims or xyz. Actually there is nothing to do with religion in this. It has to do with humanity.

    1. Zahid

      Dear Purvish, As I said in the post its not about killing. You should also understand that we are talking about food here. Its not living being. Your idea is because of our traditional values of being veggi. But if you consume meat then slaughtering animals even dont even come to your mind as killing. And also I said in post that even if you eat meat and cut animals for your food, its not what religion expect from you. The more important thing is to follow the rules in everyday life not just have meat in food and forget the rest.

      Cutting animals is neither orthodox nor spiritual, its just a need for food. No theories would work when it come food and eating, whether it is Darwin or Lamarck. If you go into detail and its just food and same as killing plants for eating them. Its a debatable topic and I think food is a food we should not make it a issue. Regarding any sacrifice its not only animal slathering, any sacrifice like giving our time, money in charity, giving effort to help a friend should come with a realization of why we are doing it. We leave our joy to reach a bigger goal is also a form of sacrifice. And that is the essence of sacrifice.

      Not eating meat is also a sacrifice, a bali or a qurbani. One should know why they are doing it so and how it should impact their lives. That is the essence of religion and learning of living. Any act of worship without knowledge and application to real life is dangerous and will never bring peace to lives.

      Also I never wanted to bring a Socio-Political debate because we live in a world where we differ a lot of things and its hard to convince someone because their cultural backgrounds. Wiht this post I just wanted to bring the essence and spirit of festival 🙂 I hope till some extent I justified the post.

    2. saad

      wow dude I love your logic “if you can kill other living beings………kill and cook your loved ones”
      but dont you think you have this thinking just because your religious background
      in the very same sense i can also say that by driving bikes and cars people are harming the environment and killing it and if one can do that then one can be in a mental position to wipe out an entire civilization or an entire planet

    3. Ben

      Dear friends,
      Its very hard to understand God. All of us have understanding to a certain limit called ‘ Human understanding’. God is above human understanding. The only favour God expects from humans is ‘Obedience’. Abraham was known for his deep respect and obedience to God. He was tested by God , and he proved to be more obedient than ever.

    4. Asif

      Hello! I am an Indian but I live in Saudi Arabia. Thankyou Zahid for your article.
      I am gonna say to Saad that what you said I really agree. But Zahid also didn’t said wrong. I have serched on this issue for a little long time ago that why can we eat PORK(pig flesh) or many types of creatures that we see in our surrounding. Then I realised that ALLAH الله (our god) loves his people so much that he can’t see them even if we are in trouble. For us only he made those food haramحرام means the thing we should not do. Because eating pork don’t give us like that energy that our body requires and even though dog, cat, etc. He said us to eat those animals who are habitated to good foods, surroundings, etc. Pig eats poo. Then why he would allow us to eat stupidity. If any objection on my reply plz give me a reply in this message only. I would like to answer and I will check for a reply. Thankyou.

  24. Saquib Nawaz

    alhumdolillah!

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