‘He bought one ram for N350,000’

Brethren, I know you are in the mood already - that mood of happiness that humans usually experience each time they move from one station of happiness into another. But it is not only Muslims who are happy in this season of happiness, rams, quite ironically, are ‘joyous’. It is their season too! This is the only season of the year when rams become the ‘cynosure’ of all eyes. It is their season of gathering.

But each time they are brought together, particularly on occasions like this, I have a strange feeling that the rams are gathered for their own ‘resurrection’. Yes. It feels as if the rams are witnessing their own ‘day of resurrection’. They have been brought together from far and near; from unknown regions and unsung landscapes. They are gathered together not by choice but by force. Perhaps, nothing speaks to our reality more than these herbivorous animals: in their life and death are lessons for those imbued with discernment.

In other words, brethren, each time the Id al-Kabir is here and I see the way rams are gathered waiting for the day of sacrifice, I remember our own day of resurrection. On that day, we shall equally be gathered by our Creator from all around the world. All of us shall be gathered by force, not by choice, to an open landscape where the Almighty would ‘sit’ in judgment over our actions here on earth, and indeed, inactions. We shall be gathered together in order that we may be recompensed for our conduct while on earth. On that day, neither money nor position, neither power nor might, neither kith nor kin shall be of advantage. Nothing shall avail man on the day humanity shall rise for judgment other than his righteous deed.

However, I am amazed by the ease with which some among our brethren have lost the importance of this occasion. It was a couple of days when I received a call from a former student and now a lecturer who teaches in one university in Abuja. He called to enquire about preparations for today and how affordable the rams on sale had been. He said: “Ustaz, some people around here are busy turning the season of sacrifice to that of iniquitous display of wealth and luxury”. I said he should explain what he meant. He then said: “Can you imagine a ram being sold for three hundred and fifty thousand naira?”

But then I remembered that it is not all those who usually buy rams on this occasion who actually desire to please the Almighty. For example, it was the practice of some wealthy Muslims some time ago to take pictures with the rams they bought for this occasion. They would thereafter show the pictures to their friends. Their friends would in turn show the former the pictures of the rams they also bought. As far as those Muslims are concerned, rams had become one other marker for material prosperity and comfort. The costlier the ram the more they experience sense of fulfillment.

Rams had become one other way they compete among themselves, the rich men in the city. Sacrifice of the animals does not, in their world, hold any spiritual significance anymore. Rather, it is on their bodies and in-between their hoofs these Muslims now transact in vainglorious identity politics.

Brethren, when I heard the above story, I immediately remembered the other story- that of those who brag and boast that they go to Umra and Hajj every year. They go to Makkah and Madinah every year even at a time members of their families wallow in abject poverty; they go to Hajj and Umra every year looking for the ‘face’ of the Almighty in utter ignorance and negligence of the ‘faces’ of the Almighty which they encounter everyday on our streets, in our villages, in our cities - the faces of the poor, the wretched, the sick; faces of their mothers and fathers which have gone completely dry and emaciated from nights and days of hunger and deprivation. Brethren, the Almighty has no use for the ram, its meat or its blood particularly when we have lost the very essence of this occasion (taqwa), when we have lost our humanity. The ram which the rich bought for, for example, five hundred thousand naira, would yield no dividend in comparison to the one bought by the poor which cost less than fifty thousand naira. Ask yourself brother- which type of sacrifice are you doing today: is it that of Abil or Qabil?