A Blissfull Ignorance

As the day of eid-ul-adha  approaches , one could see the increasing number of goats and cows being sold ,bought and tied in muslim households ,including mine.Each lunar Year , muslims all over the world slaughter millions of animal to commemorate Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to obey Allah. Islam is the only religion that practices blood sacrifice as a ritualistic norm on such a huge scale in the form of eid-ul-adha. Ironically the festival of bloodshed is present in the religion which strongly advocates love and compassion towards all creatures.

On that very day, these innocent animals are slaughtered brutally and this craven act is deemed by muslims (if not GOD) as an act of 'sacrifice' in the way of GOD

Is it really a sacrifice in the way of GOD or just an insane ritual being carried out for centuries?

Sacrifice means to give up something over which we have complete possession and which is very precious or close to our heart as was the case in Prophet Abraham's story .Does this sense get justified when we merely buy an animal for a few bucks  and slaughter it? Do we have ultimate right over an animal's life? Is it logical to forcibly kill an animal desiring to live and call it your 'sacrifice' in the way of God? We did not sacrifice anything but the poor animal who lost its life bearing all the pain, unwillingly sacrificed itself.  Isn't this just a ritual of bloodshed of innocent animals and turns out to be a mockery of the true spirit of the sacrifice of Prophet Abraham? In fact a cheap skit of commemoration pursued so 'piously' .It’s called Qurbani but where is the spirit of 'sacrifice' involved in this brutality?  Shedding blood of innocent animals is worse and doing so in the name of God is worst. 

In many cases, the animal is bought, fed, taken good care of; sometimes decorated with colorful draperies, paints and beads. But for what?  Just for the day of betrayal when the animal learns it had actually been bought and served to be ultimately killed. A wolf in sheep's clothing'; a mask of kindness concealing the face of cruelty. So craven brutality combined with betrayal is what is considered as 'sacrifice' to please Allah.

This ritual of Qurbani often turns into an ostentation as the number and size of animal you slaughter is considered the yardstick of your financial prosperity and social status. Sometimes, people who cannot afford the cost of an animal still buy it just to maintain their standard in society.

-it’s a pity that sadistic spectators including children enjoy witnessing the genocide. The streets and grounds run red with blood.The parents who ask children to abstain from violent scenes filmed or televised are okay with their children becoming the spectators of the live scene of four men brutally shedding blood and skinning a seven or eight hundred pound alive animal. In many muslim countries,children daub their hands in blood,spatter one another,make blood imprints of their palms on the walls of home(often regarded as good omen).But no censorship because it's 'religious’. One can imagine the impact of such an upbringing on children.

Why are we so okay with killing animals ?

Might be our temptation for pleasure of tongue even if it costs a being's life. Secondly, our social and religious conditioning has led to deeply entrenched anthropocentric belief in us that we humans are the supreme of all the creations (Ashraful Makhluqat) and God has created other forms of life just to be consumed and utilised for our convenience in terms of food, clothing, labor, transportation and agriculture. But the fact is, all the species, including humans, have been perfectly designed within a framework of food-chain and food-web and any sort of threat to any one or more species or their habitat  disturbs the whole co-ordination of ecological balance which brings about ruin both at local and global level in the long run . Life on this earth is so intertwined as an homogeneous unit that it cannot be disentangled for the melioration of one species at the expense of the other.Even if we are dogmatic of our kingship, we overlook that dominance and hegemony should incorporate the obvious responsibility of protecting and respecting rights of the underdogs, and not to persecute.

Animal Sacrifice and Charity

Many say Animal sacrifice or Qurbani champions a great social cause-it offers charity. Really? Slaughtering of animals and donating the meat might be the simplest and most useful way to perform charity in a desert community where money and other resources were scarce. In the modern world, however, it would be simple and more helpful to donate money. The poor have many needs. Meat can at best serve only one, it can satisfy their hunger and that also, only for a day or two following the very day of sacrifice .Meat gets spoiled in a few days even if it is provided the best refrigeration and thus its scope of charity ceases to be vast, if meaningful. But money can satisfy a variety of needs and can be used as and when required. The poor have a variety of other needs like shelter, cloth, education, health services. If we donate even half of the money that we spend on buying our animal, much social service can be financed. We can please ALLAH by performing charity in a way that would be of the greatest benefit to the recipient without taking the lives of innocent animals.

Can God ever be pleased with killings in His name ?

 As spectators to this bloodshed ritual, we all notice the poor animal struggling at its best to escape but all in vain. Terror, pain and desire to survive is so perceptible in its teary eyes as it refuses to drink the final gulp of water.But people ,blindfolded by religion, hardly get moved by such  signs. Just think! How can God , whom we consider the most Merciful and Compassionate, get pleased watching a helpless and innocent animal , His own creation , restlessly struggling for life, with its legs tied in pairs that it cannot move , jaws tightly tied that it cannot even brawl , while two men holding it and tossing it on the floor, and finally slitting the throat , thereby completing the inhumane ritual of so called Sacrifice. The animal excruciatingly bleeds , moans, gasps and finally succumbs to death while the sadistic crowd rejoices. Who can justify this splurge of Bloodshed? Do you beileve that God, whom you revere as the most merciful, most benevolent would be pleased at such a sight? 

Inflicting pain on sentient creatures might satisfy our 'nafs' with the physical pleasure of delicious meat or our craving for taste but can never ever please God. The Islamic approach of sacrifice involves one's willingness to submit one's will to God, giving up one's temptation and evil desires in the way of God. Islam demands personal sacrifice and submission (and not the physical sacrifice of the animal you buy). The idea of gaining favour by offering the life of another is not only illogical but also antagonistic to Islamic true ideology. In fact, Islam was the religion which broke away from the longstanding  tradition  of appeasing an "angry god" by shedding blood of any innocent creature ; vicarious  atonement of sin which was common especially among pagans and is a common practice  in many regions.

Quran 22:37 "it is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah, but it is piety from you that reaches him"