Now that Dusshera and Bakr Id have taken the lives of millions of animals, let us look at the word animal sacrifice so that we understand what we are doing. After all the same animals are killed for food every day – in one year , the human race kills 56 billion animals – so why are we objecting to them being killed for religious practices ?
Let me give you my Hindu argument first: I have a son whom I love dearly. One day, hypothetically, he comes to me and says “Ma, thank you for loving me and taking care of my needs for thirty years and being there when I needed you. I believe I should do something for you as well. So here is my thank you: I have brought you the severed head of your favourite dog and I have covered your house with blood, urine and feces so that it stinks. And once you have cleaned up the house, I promise you I will filthify it again at regular intervals. And every time there is a festival which the rest of the world is celebrating with sweets and loving family get together, I will come to you and kill some more of the animals that you love and throw the blood on your new clothes. And if society and the police tell me this is wrong and you look horrified and angry at my gifts of love, don’t worry, Ma. I will break every rule, get my friends to riot on the roads, defy all the authorities who want to stop me and become such a violent nuisance that everyone backs off and lets me kill. And Ma, don’t worry about the cost. I will take the money that you have gifted me or I will mortgage my land and borrow it from the local moneylender and, as a token of my love, since I know you love animals, I will have as many as I can killed.”
What would I say to such a son? I would tie him down and get a psychiatrist to examine him for mental disorder.
Why do we pray to the Gods? Because they are our elders, parents, teachers, beloveds. They take care of us, they bring order to our universe, they give us hope that if life is not great this time, perhaps next time, if we are good and please them, we will get a better deal. And what do they ask from us in return ? Love and an adherence to their values of compassion, honesty and bravery. Every holy book says that when you want them to notice you , serenade them with prayers, flowers, dhoop batti and a token offering of sweets. As you would a mother/father. Be clean, frugal and respectful. Not maniacally cover yourself with blood and grin from ear to ear as you wield some hideous weapon and chop down meek defenceless animals who have already been beaten and starved so that are paralysed with fear as if you were some great warrior. And the next day go back to your normal work and cower before some office superior or village patwari / inspector who abuses you.
And , if you are Muslim , you do the same to your Prophet who was one of the greatest animal lovers that the world has known. You misinterpret the simple story that he told you about a holy man who was asked by Allah to love him above all else and to prove it by sacrificing his own son. And when he trusted Allah enough to obey him, the sacrifice was stopped. What a simple, beautiful story illustrating to all faiths that trust is the key to happiness and the ultimate test of love.
Instead you have turned it into a ritual where you go to a bazaar and buy goats, camels, cows, buffaloes and kill them. And if one of the animal has a holy sign on it , you bid lakhs of rupees for the thrill of killing an animal so dear to God that he has put his sign on it and sent it out into the world ? How weird is that ? Should your mothers tie you down and ring up the local lunatic asylum ?
Here is a piece written by Syed Rizvi who is a well known Pakistani physicist and the head of a group of scientists and engineers.
“Once again, Muslims around the world have “sacrificed” millions of animals in a three day period during the month of Eid-ul-Adha to please God.
Sacrifice inherently means that you part with something that is very close to your heart and experience pain and a sense of loss during the process.
Abraham was asked to kill his beloved son. This act of Abraham can be seen as a spirit of true sacrifice.
Today, if I say that I sacrificed an old sofa, I will be laughed at, since the sofa doesn’t mean anything to me. However, this hypothetical act of mine is not much different from someone slitting the throat of a goat to please God and call it a sacrifice, since the person has had no attachment to the goat except a few bucks that he would soon forget.
I am just wondering if that is what God had in his mind when he asked us to follow a path in remembrance of Abraham’s devotion to God. Today what we do on the streets of Karachi during the Eid-ul Adha is a mockery of Abraham's devotion to God.
It is beyond my comprehension that our God, whom we regard as compassionate and merciful finds pleasure watching a helpless camel with one of his front legs tied off the ground and two of his hind legs so closely tied together that he becomes incapable of using those legs independently. And apart from that, his jaws are tied with a rope that he cannot even cry out. And then, a pious looking person sticks a knife into the camel's throat. The camel bleeds for hours and suffers excruciating pain until he dies.
I read somewhere that the Prophet stated “La taqtolu bil-la iza’a” if you must kill, kill without torture. I don’t see any concerns among Muslims honoring Prophet’s words. We Muslims are very good in cherry picking things; we choose what suits us and disregard those that hinder our ways of doing things.
I often wonder what if God had asked us to sacrifice our children to make him happy. I doubt any commandment like that would have seen the light of the day.
Read the following verse.
“It is not their flesh, nor their blood, that reaches Allah; nor yet their blood, but your devotion will reach him (Quran 2:196; 2:28. 35-37)
What happens on the streets of Karachi during these three days of the festival it does not take much to notice that the so called Qurbani has transformed into a blood orgy defied by all standards of human decency.”
Let me give you my Hindu argument first: I have a son whom I love dearly. One day, hypothetically, he comes to me and says “Ma, thank you for loving me and taking care of my needs for thirty years and being there when I needed you. I believe I should do something for you as well. So here is my thank you: I have brought you the severed head of your favourite dog and I have covered your house with blood, urine and feces so that it stinks. And once you have cleaned up the house, I promise you I will filthify it again at regular intervals. And every time there is a festival which the rest of the world is celebrating with sweets and loving family get together, I will come to you and kill some more of the animals that you love and throw the blood on your new clothes. And if society and the police tell me this is wrong and you look horrified and angry at my gifts of love, don’t worry, Ma. I will break every rule, get my friends to riot on the roads, defy all the authorities who want to stop me and become such a violent nuisance that everyone backs off and lets me kill. And Ma, don’t worry about the cost. I will take the money that you have gifted me or I will mortgage my land and borrow it from the local moneylender and, as a token of my love, since I know you love animals, I will have as many as I can killed.”
What would I say to such a son? I would tie him down and get a psychiatrist to examine him for mental disorder.
Why do we pray to the Gods? Because they are our elders, parents, teachers, beloveds. They take care of us, they bring order to our universe, they give us hope that if life is not great this time, perhaps next time, if we are good and please them, we will get a better deal. And what do they ask from us in return ? Love and an adherence to their values of compassion, honesty and bravery. Every holy book says that when you want them to notice you , serenade them with prayers, flowers, dhoop batti and a token offering of sweets. As you would a mother/father. Be clean, frugal and respectful. Not maniacally cover yourself with blood and grin from ear to ear as you wield some hideous weapon and chop down meek defenceless animals who have already been beaten and starved so that are paralysed with fear as if you were some great warrior. And the next day go back to your normal work and cower before some office superior or village patwari / inspector who abuses you.
And , if you are Muslim , you do the same to your Prophet who was one of the greatest animal lovers that the world has known. You misinterpret the simple story that he told you about a holy man who was asked by Allah to love him above all else and to prove it by sacrificing his own son. And when he trusted Allah enough to obey him, the sacrifice was stopped. What a simple, beautiful story illustrating to all faiths that trust is the key to happiness and the ultimate test of love.
Instead you have turned it into a ritual where you go to a bazaar and buy goats, camels, cows, buffaloes and kill them. And if one of the animal has a holy sign on it , you bid lakhs of rupees for the thrill of killing an animal so dear to God that he has put his sign on it and sent it out into the world ? How weird is that ? Should your mothers tie you down and ring up the local lunatic asylum ?
Here is a piece written by Syed Rizvi who is a well known Pakistani physicist and the head of a group of scientists and engineers.
“Once again, Muslims around the world have “sacrificed” millions of animals in a three day period during the month of Eid-ul-Adha to please God.
Sacrifice inherently means that you part with something that is very close to your heart and experience pain and a sense of loss during the process.
Abraham was asked to kill his beloved son. This act of Abraham can be seen as a spirit of true sacrifice.
Today, if I say that I sacrificed an old sofa, I will be laughed at, since the sofa doesn’t mean anything to me. However, this hypothetical act of mine is not much different from someone slitting the throat of a goat to please God and call it a sacrifice, since the person has had no attachment to the goat except a few bucks that he would soon forget.
I am just wondering if that is what God had in his mind when he asked us to follow a path in remembrance of Abraham’s devotion to God. Today what we do on the streets of Karachi during the Eid-ul Adha is a mockery of Abraham's devotion to God.
It is beyond my comprehension that our God, whom we regard as compassionate and merciful finds pleasure watching a helpless camel with one of his front legs tied off the ground and two of his hind legs so closely tied together that he becomes incapable of using those legs independently. And apart from that, his jaws are tied with a rope that he cannot even cry out. And then, a pious looking person sticks a knife into the camel's throat. The camel bleeds for hours and suffers excruciating pain until he dies.
I read somewhere that the Prophet stated “La taqtolu bil-la iza’a” if you must kill, kill without torture. I don’t see any concerns among Muslims honoring Prophet’s words. We Muslims are very good in cherry picking things; we choose what suits us and disregard those that hinder our ways of doing things.
I often wonder what if God had asked us to sacrifice our children to make him happy. I doubt any commandment like that would have seen the light of the day.
Read the following verse.
“It is not their flesh, nor their blood, that reaches Allah; nor yet their blood, but your devotion will reach him (Quran 2:196; 2:28. 35-37)
What happens on the streets of Karachi during these three days of the festival it does not take much to notice that the so called Qurbani has transformed into a blood orgy defied by all standards of human decency.”
Maneka Gandhi