In few days, it will be the Feast, The Great Feast of Islam and Muslims (‘Aid al Adhâ, ‘Aîd al-Kabîr). Millions of the faithful are in Mecca performing the pilgrimage. From the Centre, they convey their blessings to all parts of the world. Days of meditation and prayers. Our Feast.
A jihad for everybody. Some will walk for hours around Mecca; others will fast during these days of light and love. These are the very hours of nearness, with God, with human beings.
Among those who deserve special attention during our feasts are – of course – the poor and needy people, as well as the orphans. Never will a feast be approaching in Islam without carrying with it the remembrance of poverty.
During the greatest feast, there is a sunna, a recommended act of worship, which consists in sacrificing a sheep in remembrance of Abraham’s sacrifice. It is a recommended deed which national and family customs have sometimes transformed into duty. It is not the case. It is but a recommendation. In addition to that, Muslim scholars have, for a long time, reminded Muslims that they could donate the sacrifice’s equivalent in money or food to needy people. In a time when animals are often mistreated and suffering and many people do not show them their due respect, in a time of so much waste of meat… it is imperative not to lose our way by being driven by traditional practices and to come back to the very essence of the Islamic message: to respect the animals and to feed the poor people. It is thus better to refrain from sacrificing a sheep, avoid waste and suffering, and send the equivalent sum of money to the needy people of the world.
The Muslims are invited to pray, to come back to the essential and – beyond anything – not to betray the message of Islam through a narrow literalism and cultural traditions which transform into obligation a recommendation and which do not help us reach the true objective of our spirituality. The poor people have this right on us.
Happy Feast, ‘Aid Mubârak. May God, The One, The Most-Nearer, love you, protect you and go along with you.
Tariq
Salam Dr. Tariq,
Yes, something to be said about the waste. “Eat and drink but do not waste” (Qur’an). But I believe it would be difficult to give up sacrifice for Muslims and donate money because it is an act of worship to sacrifice. I follow the logic in going over the ‘illa (reason) for the command. But I think it runs into a problem since, in Hanafi fiqh, Qurbani is wajib. I know it is a sunnah in the three other madhabs. I just find it difficult to convince scholars to give fatwa (esp. Hanafis) based on the maqasid and not on literalist interpretation.
Having said that, I think it is good to think outside the box. I would ask for a study (here’s a grad research project 🙂
to be done just on this qurbani/udhiya (sacrifice) issue. Perhaps we should take this empirical study and base our view on it.
Eid Mubarak to all especially Dr. Tariq to you and your family. May God protect all.
faraz khan
usa
http://liberalartsforum.blogspot.com
why do people need a fatwa to arrive to their own conclusions. isn’t donnating the whole amount of the sacrificed animal gonna serve the whole purpose of the sacrifice. there is not a ritual in the qu’ran that doesn’t have a humanitarian purpose, be it for humans or for other creatures. making it a tradition was the only way to get people commited to it, that’s all. now, we are more educated than just following a tradition blindly. since we know what the purpose is, then let’s raise it to more than just a ritual. let’s donnate the whole amount of the sacrificed animal, and help way more than one poor family. a sheep in america costs around $200.00, i personaly know that i can help more than one kid with their education fees, or feed two families for couple of months in my country.
i certainly don’t need a fatwa or an islamic research to get to that conclusion. anyone with some basic math background and some common sense will get to that conclusion too.
peace, manondessources.
The truth is, the sacrificing is not only a islamic ritual, it has become a cultural one as well. Many people for that last reason will find it hard to abandon it. Yet again an example of culture prevailing over religion.
Gazzak ALLAH Kheiran,
I love in the sake of ALLAH.
Dear Tariq ,
Eid Mubarak to you and your family; and to all our brothers.
May Allah be with you always and help you always.
Warm regards
NT
Assalamu Alaikum,
That article was incredible. You give people so much to think about, Mr. Ramadan, thank you for imparting your knowledge on us, and may Allah (swt) bless you for it.
Eid Mubaarak to you and your family, and inshallah may you enjoy it with all those you love and may Allah (swt) help us to help those in need so that they may experience happiness during this blessed time.
Dear Teacher,
I respect your wishes to donate money to the poor but see this as a band-aid solution to a larger problem that you avoid to address. The problem is the abhorent conditions worldwide of our slaughterhouses especially those that we also get our halal meat from.
Your arguement states we should give the money to the poor so that one does not have to participate in buying meat under unacceptable conditions. But do the poor not deserve the same as the rich? They also need halal protein from the animal and with the money we donate, the poor will also have no choice but to go out and buy the same meat that we refuse to buy because of the conditions the animal was killed in.
Your intentions are pure but your solution is misguided. We need a better answer. We eat meat all year round and if we were present at the actual killing of these animals and observed the less than “halal” conditions, perhaps Muslims would be more upset.
Eid Mubarek to you and your family.
Traci
hello,
i would like to remind you that the prophet and his big family almost never ate meat. it is said that people never saw smoke coming out of the prophet’s homes. this means that he almost never ate meat. there are many other ingredients that can give you protein. plus, if you look at medical research, you will find that doctors tell you to eat as less red meat as possible and if possible to just avoid it alltogether. muslims are very much stuck on the idea that only meat could give you protein. that is a myth, otherwise the prophet and his family wouldn’t live long and healthy lives.
dear tariq ramadan,
just this morning, i told my husband the fact that this tradition doesn’t serve its purpose anymore. we are killing so many animals just to satisfy our ever hungry apetite. i suggested that we give the whole amount of a sheep to the poor instead of following our lustful taste buds; like this we save an animal(since my heart can’t stand an animal suffering) and at the same time we serve the main purpose of islam. when, i read your message, i realized that my heart is definitly on the right track. thank you for this article.
manondessources.
And instead of our nation minding some useful thought into important issues it looks away. Unfortunately, swallowing a cheap bait in the form a of an ex-dictator. The whole nation looked at the golden idol shaped into a symbol by the invaders. Instead of following the call of The One God to preserve life, they are mourning the death of he who killed their own flesh and blood. And to add insult to injury, they aim their next move against their own brothers, as if to bolster the score of the dead tyrant. Now we know why the Prophet (PBUH) cried when he was allowed to view his nation’s condition in the future!
Salaam Imam Tariq,
Thank you for this reminder, as timely today as when it was posted four years ago. But who is listening? Has anything changed?
May God lift the veil from our hearts and grant us inner sight.
Your loving student,
Ameen
Dear Imam Tariq,
Thank you so much for this article and your wise words! This is contributing to the development of the world! Stop animal slaughter! The Profet loved animals!!!!
Thank you for speaking up!!!!!!!