Islam and Sacrifice

The concept of "Sacrifice (Qurbaani)" which is believed to be one of the important essences of Islamic philosophy becomes narrower and selfish when it is only promoted through the practice of animal slaughtering. A pure sacrifice can only be achieved from freeing one's personal greediness and ego. One’s sins cannot be absolved by the blood of another. In Islam, all that is demanded as a sacrifice is one's personal willingness to submit one's ego and individual will to Allah. This is what the Holy Quran says in Chapter (64) sūrat l-taghābun :

“So fear Allah as much as ye can; listen and obey and spend in charity for the benefit of your own soul and those saved from the covetousness of their own souls,- they are the ones that achieve prosperity.”

Islam actually tried to break away from the longstanding tradition of appeasing an "angry God" by animal sacrifices practiced during the pre-Islamic Arab world. Both Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son as per Allah’s order (which was only a test and never meant to be realized) and Ismail’s willingness to surrender his own life to fulfill his father’s duty to Allah signifies the virtue of ultimate sacrifice. This action only symbolically represents the paramount psychological determination needed for surrendering human being’s closest emotional attachments to great Allah's mercy and justice. According to Surah 22. Al-Hajj, Ayah 37:

“It is not their (animals for sacrifice) meat nor their blood, that reaches Allah: it is your piety that reaches Him: He has thus made them subject to you, that ye may glorify Allah for His guidance to you: And proclaim the Good News to all who do right.”

“No one should suppose that meat or blood is acceptable to the One True God. It was a pagan fancy that Allah could be appeased by blood sacrifice. But Allah does accept the offering of our hearts, and as a symbol of such offer, some visible institution is necessary. He has given us power over the brute creation, and permitted us to eat meat, but only if we pronounce His name at the solemn act of taking life, for without this solemn invocation, we are apt to forget the sacredness of life. By this invocation we are reminded that wanton cruelty is not in our thoughts, but only the need for food …" (Yusuf Ali commentary)

Dear Pranjal

Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 1:53 AM

The Icfai Guest House,

Chaltlang, Aizawl

Dear Pranjal,

It’s been more than a week that you have moved on to your new life. I still remember when you said that it is only one person that we are going to miss but for you it’s an entire world with so many persons that you are going to miss. I hope you have slowly but surely adjusted to your new surroundings. The news of you leaving came all of a too sudden that I couldn't really feel its true magnitude at that point. And that’s kind of strange because no one was perhaps more aware than me about how things were gradually proceeding to one particular direction. Besides, the busiest last few days had hardly offered me any opportunity to think about the future empty sofa in our living room which we often used to share while watching those noisy prime time television debates. It was only during our last dine out together with Taslima and Co at Floria where I started to realize that once you will not be there, things are going to change forever.

So what has changed…? First of all I have started to miss the office bus a little too frequently and that is bad considering the fact that Tim has almost stopped bringing his car to Aizawl, ruling out the luxury of my second option. I had earlier realized that there won’t be any fighting for front seat when you won’t be there but that you can see is not even among the least that I have gained from the situation. Now me and Tim are in a “consideration phase” of reviving my vintage motor bike for the purpose. The emptiness that you have left inside our guest house had become so annoying that one day we replaced our giant dining table with a small study table. This may sound stupid but it somehow helped by cutting short the unoccupied space between us when only three of us are now eating together. Among all these the only thing that I couldn't replace is perhaps the times when you and me used to come out from our respective rooms after our failed attempts to sleep and sat together to discuss on and on about life, career, politics, culture, girls, marriage, dreams….yes, those unending sagas of frustrations and hopes.

I don’t know how often we will be able to meet in future. I don’t know how often we will be able to call each other… As from my own experiences, I have came to know that the occasions of physical, telephonic and electronic contacts tends to become less frequent with passing time and growing distance. However, my optimism about our friendship is strengthened by the sincere hope that you, me and Manjit might have a very common connection in near future.

And lastly one thing that I want to remind both of us is that we have too many unfinished tasks at hand. I remember you often used to say that we keep talking but never do. Now since we will have less chance to talk, may be we should focus more on doing.

I wish you all the best and I know you will be the best in whatever you do…

Shamim