The basis of writing this topic is because EID is this Saturday, the second Holiest Day in the Muslim Calendar. And with it is an important practice called the Kurbani in Pakistan, has other names in other cultures. Anyway first let me explain what the Kurbani is.
What is Kurbani?
Kurbani is in remembrance of Ibrahim AS sacrifice to Allah SWT. Abraham (for most of you), was a prophet who was one day commanded by God Almighty to sacrifice his son on the top of a mountain on a certain day Distraught at the command he felt sadness but decided to follow the order and told his son and his wife the decision. Satan hoping to lead them astray coaxed them to disobey and each, wife, husband and son, stoned the devil for doing so. Upon the day and location as Abraham was about to slaughter his son, God Almighty switched the son with a goat, and with that explained to the confused Abraham that this was only a test to see his loyalty and he would never have made him sacrifice his son.
With this story the muslims have been carrying on the tradition of slaughtering an animal for their family since the days of Muhammed SAW. The practice mainly calls for the one animal to be slaughtered for the family and the portions divided into multiple portions, with one two the person, another to the family and another couple portions to the poor. The main reason was
Why am i talking about it?
Well one would say it might be because i want to educate you people, but for me it is a question. As the practice has been taking place i notice a lack of care for how the animals are slaughtered. People will kill these animals and not care about the importance of taking a life that i feel was the purpose of the Tradition. As life is important one had to understand what it means to take the life of a living being. Sadly i see it now as a way for people mainly in the muslim dominated countries to show their wealth as they buy huge number of animals and exotic ones and slaughter them. A bloody practice but one with no understanding as to why it was done.
It does help in feeding the poor, as major portions of the sacrifice are given to charity organizations, and in Pakistan, when i visited i noticed many not well off people come door to door to get a portion of the meet.
Problem for me is that as i grow older in my family i am expected to carry on the tradition as the oldest able man in the family must be responsible for the sacrifice the animal although does not need to do it physically. The sadest part for me is that these animals are taken care of for days by kids and then on the day of Eid are slaughtered. And although it does have some benefits it feels dark and painful. Watching something you took care of for a couple weeks or month get slaughtered is a horrifying sight but something that really strikes you hard in the heart.
Although it is not Fard(Obligatory), it is Sunnah(highly recommended). Still i cannot stand feeling that it seems like a brutal action. Quite hypocritical as i myself eat meat, and am heavily removed from the process of the slaughtering of the animal. I mean if i eat it i should be able to see what is being killed and how a life is being taken away. After all if you support the death sentence i always believed you should be able to carry it out, but also carry the burden of the action.
Anyway thoughts, does the tradition hold value that could teach people or is it just some brutal act that is barbaric and will never help human kind?
Kurbani