Insincere and Incomplete Sacrifices
It’s Eid. Take a look around you and explore the happenings and life around. Animal Fairs will be seen everywhere with great hustle bustle and decorations at various places.
Mostpeople who come to buy cattle examine the animal in the same way as the butchers do. The flesh found in the animal is calculated, although Almighty has already made it clear that neither blood nor flesh reaches Him. He decides whether to accept or reject the sacrifice only on the basis of sincerity and devotion of the sacrificer.
The appetite for food is so high that it is planned in advance which dishes to prepare. A lot of money is spent on buying other items for them. The prices and demand of refrigerators and freezers are also high during these days. There are indications of how concerned people are about storing and preserving the meat and how much they care for it, even though the sacrificial meat is commanded to be distributed.
I feel like Eid-ul-Adha is a festival of eating meat instead of sacrificing it. It is as if on the occasion of sacrifice, the intention is not to sacrifice in the presence of Allah, but to take advantage of this opportunity to show-off one's name, fame and wealth. Expensive cattle are bought for sacrifice in order to prove the superiority of wealth over the people.
Remember, when the intention itself is not pure, the sacrifice will have the same fate as the sacrifice of Qabeel which was inconsequential.
The sacrificial meat has been made halal for the Muslim Ummah, everyone can eat it. Distributing the sacrificial meat is recommended. It is to be divided into three parts, one for oneself, one part for others and one part for relatives. It is permissible for a person to distribute all the meat and if the family of the sacrificer is large it can all be kept to oneself. However, people have now started hoarding sacrificial meat for the entire year in deep refrigerators. Still others who do distribute meat, often keep the fleshy parts to themselves and distribute the bony parts to others, This defeats the entire purpose of sacrifice.
Sacrificers should keep in mind that Allah Almighty does not need meat or blood. At the time of sacrifice, neither the blood of the sacrifice nor the flesh of the sacrifice reaches Allah. What Allah wants is the sincerity of the sacrificer. The perfection of goodness can be reached only by sacrificing one's dearest possessions as Abraham did. If we celebrate Eid-ul-Adha as a Sunnah of Abraham, then it should be remembered that this Sunnah will be performed only if we give a valuable part of our wealth in the way of God. The sacrificial meat should be evenly distributed.
Additionally, Islam is the religion of nature and never gives any command that affects the beauty of it. Islam requires purity and cleanliness. Sacrifice does not mean bringing cattle and scattering their waste all over the neighborhood.
Sacrifice has been considered a source of nearness to God since time immemorial. This passion of offering the best part of one's wealth to Allah in order to attain nearness to Allah is not limited to the day of Eid-ul-Adha but it is a lesson that we should follow every day. Eid-ul-Adha is inviting us to sell our lives and our wealth to Allah, in exchange for Paradise and to live our lives according to His commands. So, on this occasion of Eid-UlAdha, sacrifice your stubbornness, ego, jealousy, hatred, and mistrust. If we learn this lesson, we are successful, otherwise, merely cutting the throats of animals will not bring us closer to God and our sacrifice will be rejected like the sacrifice of Qabeel.