Islamic Catechism and Animal Sacrifice

Tomorrow the Muslims in many parts of the world will celebrate the festival of Eid-ul-Adha (Bakrid). I've always questioned the practice of animal 'sacrifice' during this festival and have faced the wrath of my Muslim friends. Some of them term me as 'kafir'. Unlike most pseudo-religious people, I accept I'm not adherently religious. Well, I may not be a true Muslim but then who is a true Muslim? Today everyone is in a race to prove that they are more authentic Muslims than others. So how does one identify a true Muslim? Islam is considered to be a scientific religion by the Muslims. It gives a test known as the 'Five Pillars of Islam', to check the authenticity of a believer. The five obligations that Muslims must satisfy include-


1. Belief in Allah and his messenger Prophet Mohammed
2. Prayers - Five times a day
3. Charity to the poor
4. Fasting during the month of Ramzan
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca

Anyone who fulfills the above five obligations is a true Muslim. So now the question arises, "Is Qurbani (Animal Sacrifice) necessary in Islam?" If yes, then why is it not included in the fundamental pillars? Muslims say that they perform it to commemorate the sacrifice of Abraham and Ismail. In the holy Quran, Allah never asked Abraham to kill his son but it was Abraham and Ismail's willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice—Abraham of his son, Ismail of his own life. Sacrifice means giving up something valued for other considerations. Both Abraham and Ismail were able to transcend notions of self and false attachment to the material realm, thus removing a veil between themselves and Allah.

Islam was born in the desert of Arabia in the late 6th century AD. In those days, people in those regions were mostly nomads and where settlements were present, the society was principally pastoral. An animal was the most prized possession for a man. The concept of animal sacrifice was present in the tribal Semitic society even before the birth of Islam. Animals were sacrificed very often to please various deities. Looking at it in the Islamic context, when an animal used to be slaughtered to commemorate Abraham's sacrifice, a man used to sacrifice a part of his livelihood, which displayed his zeal to forgo materialistic comfort to satisfy the will of Allah. This tribal Semitic tradition of animal slaughter has continued since then.

But the times have changed now. The present society is not what it used to be in those days. Today a man purchases an animal a few days before Eid, slaughters it on the day of Eid, distributes a portion of the meat among the people in the society and keeps the rest for himself. When there is no element of attachment with the animal then how does it become a sacrifice? Isn't it a mere tokenism? What is the relevance of this so-called sacrifice in the contemporary world? Some people justify it on the ground that a portion of the meat is distributed among the poor, thus giving them a chance to taste something that they consider as a delicacy. Although the argument is fair enough, but when so many animals are slaughtered in a single day, the meat needs to be stored for days together which often leads to wastage. Why not make better arrangements so that the poor and needy are not left to starve on other days as well.

Religious practice is a sensitive issue and Muslims have particularly been very conservative about their religion. There is a consensus among most Islamic scholars that every verse in the Quran is associated with some context. Without the contexts, the verses have no meaning. At a time, when acute poverty, corruption, illiteracy, fundamentalism, and terrorism have torn apart the Muslim world, it becomes essential to rethink what would be a real sacrifice for a Muslim to satisfy Allah's will. Are we really following the spirit of Islam? It is the spirit that needs to be upheld and not the letters.