Eid ul Adha was celebrated on the 10th of July 2022 in Pakistan. It represents one of the two holy and special occasions for Muslims around the world i.e., Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha. Amidst the festivities of Eid ul Adha and the sheer joy of meeting/greeting family/friends, there is also a question and an idea bothering me; and that stems from the dialectics of “essence and practice” of this very religious festival/activity.
Eid ul Adha is celebrated in commemoration of the sacrifice presented by Prophet Abraham to Allah Almighty: Prophet Abraham was ordered in his dream by Allah to sacrifice his son Ismail. The devil tried to infiltrate the mind the of Abraham (A.S) but he told his son, Ismail, of the same and he replied (As Qur’an Says): “Oh my father! Do that which you have been commanded, Insha’Allah you shall find me among the patient ones.” (37:102) This gave Prophet Abraham further strength to carry out the sacrifice for which he took his son to Mount Arafat, but at the point of the slaughter, Allah sent a ram (male sheep) instead. This was a test only the truest of believers could withstand!
What was symbolic at a certain time and space
must constitute a different practice in each era
keeping in context the social realities of that time
This presents a major lesson for all the humanity: We should not get attached to people/things to the extent that it consumes us and overtakes our life but should rather submit ourselves to the divine and should place the word of the divine in its highest. A person loves his family (daughter/son/sister/brother/mother/father/spouse) to an unmeasurable extent, but should it surpass our love for the Almighty? The sacrifice of Abraham (A.S) will always stand exemplary. Alongside, there is another important lesson to be learnt: Celebrating Eid ul Adha is to sacrifice what we cherish most in the name of Allah in order to submit to His will and to purify ourselves from the material attachments to anything in this life, be it anything. This makes the sacrifice of the ram symbolic in nature. However, even that symbolic at those times was the right practice since the wealth of the society was mostly stored in livestock, alongside agricultural produce. This ensured that resources flow from those who own to those who do not!
Today, the dynamics are completely different to what they used to be! The social and political realities of our times have undergone massive change, including how wealth/value is stored in the society. Thus, what constitutes sacrifice should carry and manifest a very different kind of practice: people need to sacrifice what they value most today i.e., their money (wealth). This sounds more practical as the sacrifice should constitute something more than slaughtering an animal while holding onto a luxury car and a mansion (which is cherished more: the animal worth PKR. 100,000/- per say or the mansion worth millions?). This should make us rethink “Sacrifice”.
Thinking of sacrifice that way is a sudden paradigm shift; it brings into focus the monster of inequality. The rich giving away their precious possessions as a surrender to the Almighty by placing Him above everything will redistribute wealth in the economies and would drastically lower the poverty and inequality.
But this isn’t happening! A friend perfectly summarized its reason: Symbolization and institutionalization correspond well with the commodification of the rituals/festival of any religion. Simply put, our religious practices are taken over by the social, political, and economic order of Capitalism where everything is commodified.
If we avoid the basic question, that constitutes the whole practice of sacrifice, of “What do we value most?” and then sacrificing that in the name of Allah, the current practice is simple mass slaughter of animals. Thus, the dialectics of essence and practice needs a re-examination and a different interpretation! Why hasn’t the essence affected the practice? and has the practice undermined the essence in fundamental ways to change its meaning? What was symbolic at a certain time and space must constitute a different practice in each era keeping in context the social realities of that time!
