This is time for the Islamic festival of animal sacrifice. Muslims all over the world with varying passion and rituals are celebrating the Eid-ul-adha - the festival of sacrifice in the name of the Supreme Being. The event is celebrated in the memory of Prophet Abraham who offered to sacrifice the life of his son following the wish of his Creator. As the tale goes, God replaced Prophet Abraham's son with a sheep at the last moment and rescued Prophet Ismail's life. The willingness to offer the life of his son by Abraham and the equally admirable attitude of his son, Ismail, to oblige is cherished both in Christianity and Islam. The underlying concept behind the tale is that of sacrifice of things most dear to us in the name of our Creator, which is a noble notion.
Having said that, the current practice of the festival in the Muslim world in general and Pakistan in particular, however, seems to have lost its original spirit. Now this religious ritual has simply become an exercise of over-consuming overpriced meat during the Eid-ul-adha time. Every family has their self-serving motive behind the exercise – some do it out of their misplaced religious belief while others feel compelled as part of their effort to seek society's approval (whether they like to admit this or not is a separate debate). The idea of sacrifice has come down to a monetary sacrifice only as families hardly get to spend enough time with these animals to develop a strong sense of connection with them before they are slaughtered in the name of Allah. You obviously can't expect them to be feeling any sense of loss associated with the sacrificed animal – the 'sacrifice' of the money that went to pay for them, however, is genuine. On one extreme, some households never even get to see the animal they have sacrificed as the entire exercise for them is to make the trip to the community centers to collect their portion of the meat. The only real sense of 'loss' or sacrifice is felt by the children as they truly fall in love with their goats and cows during the few days leading up to the Eid. I know that because I remember it from my childhood.
I don't mean to disrespect this holy practice or disregard the faith of those who believe this exercise will make God happy but we must make some room for rational thought in our religious rituals. On one hand we claim that Islam is a progressive religion and is timeless in its application and on the other, we cling to practices and rituals that have little to do with the original spirit of their tradition. If the act of slaughtering millions of animals were to bring peace or help millions out of poverty then I would blindly support the cause but until then I continue to question its utility.
