Eid Adha

Today is Eid Adha, a day to celebrate and commemorate Hajj for the Muslims. as a Muslim myself, i would like to dedicate this post to tell people of the beauty of Islam and the significance of todays celebration.

i was inspired to write this right after my morning prayers today and was bombarded by questions from my non-muslim friends about the significance of Eid Adha. apart from the great food and company, the main theme of the celebration is Sacrifice. yes, sacrifice in every sense of the word, physically, mentally and emotionally.

as muslims, we are often reminded that no matter what we do in our lives, we should do it in the name of God, to bring benefit not only to ourselves, but also for those around us. and one of they ways that we can do this is through sacrifice. Physical sacrifice can be anything from giving of our time to donating of money or food. An example would be how a father sacrifices his time and effort to work and earn a living for his family. and for all those shopaholics out there, when you see something really expensive that you really really want but decided not to buy it so that the money could be used in other ways to benefit others, that is sacrifice as well.

Mental sacrifice involves us controlling our urges against doing things that are against God's will. by doing so, we are putting God before our own desires and is thus, thought as a sacrifice because we are considered to be doing a selfless act. for example, have you ever been in a club, surrounded by friends who are taking alcohol and somehow, you just feel like having a sip, but in your head, you keep telling yourself that you can't and you won't because God said alcohol is damaging to your body as well as to all those around you? if this has happened to you, then you are considered to have carried out a mental sacrifice. that brings us to the story of Hagar, the wife of Abraham, and her son, Ishmail. one day, when Ishmail was dying of thirst, Hagar ran between two hills in the blazing sun of the desert in search of water for her son. after running 7 times, but to no avail, she refuse to give up and instead of blaming God (like most of us would), she accepted it as a challenge and continued to pray and kept her faith in God. because of that, God sprang up Zamzam water out of no where to reward her and till today, we the children of Abraham are still able to enjoy this spring.

that brings us to the third type of sacrifice, and that is emotional sacrifice. Emotional sacrifice involves us, accepting fate and being determined to pull through any challenges put forth before us believing that God will help us through and that believing that God will keep his promise that good always comes after a turmoil.

Finally, the customary act of slaughtering a sheep during Eid Adha is the best representation of sacrifice. it emcompasses physical, emotional and mental sacrifice. by slaughtering a sheep, we are carrying out physical sacrifice because the meat of the sheep is used to feed the less fortunate. it is also a form of mental and emotional sacrifice because as much as we want to feel sad and pity for the sheep, we are told that we cannot have such emotions in us as we carry out the ritual because we must believe that the sheep, will be in the hands of God and will feel no pain. and that ultimately, the sheep is a gift from God given to us as food and we should share it by feeding the poor. and thus, we should not feel pity but be thankful for His Blessing.

Having been brought up in a Christian school, i understand that many believe that Islam is a cruel and violent religion. but i beg to differ. To me, this religion is all about sacrifice,selflessness and love for humanity and all other creations of God. it requires us to sit down and look at a situation from many different angles before making a judgement. and ultimately, we will be able to see the greater good. something beyond our comprehension but yet we know it exist. i think, it is every Muslims' dream to find out the reasons behind the very many rituals we have to perform and our ultimate purpose. but i believe, that God will only reveal that purpose to those that He deems worthy of such knowledge and have made numerous sacrifices in order to get that knowledge. but to those who do not have faith or give up easily, they will never fully comprehend or understand the beauty of this religion.