GNK ENGLISH DESK
The Essence of
sacrifice
(Qurbani)
By Aaqib Shaheen
Doha Qatar
Qurbani means sacrifice. Every year dur
ing the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, Mus
lims around the world slaughter an animal
- a goat, sheep, cow or camel – to reflect the
Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son
Ismail, for the sake of God الله
The purpose of the sacrifice
While it is not possible to fully comprehend the
divine knowledge underlying the sacrifice, one can
discern some of its purposes:
Sacrifice, from the depths of the soul, expresses
one’s gratitude to
God for bringing it
into existence.
The sacrifice is a
revival of the primitive way of Abraham,
peace be upon him,
peace be upon him,
the father of the
prophets. The believer sacrifices the
sacrifice in remembrance of the epic
patience that
Abraham and
Ishmael, peace be
upon them both,
summoned from the
depths of their supernatural faith in
obedience to the
commandment and
the arduous test.
Their faith is from God. We, as believers, offer
our sacrifices in memory of two of them, the father and the son, who put life into the person of
Ishmael ?-the first son of Abraham in his old agein submission to God and faith in His Messenger,
his Father. 3. Father Abraham in his tragic willingness to sacrifice his beloved son, his Prophet, as
a sacrifice in submission to God alone, embodies
forever the example of true faith. The believer after him “remembers” this cosmic moment in human history amid one’s self-sacrifice by demonstrating his will to pursue their sacred relics and
emphasizing their complete and absolute submission to the One God without warning.
- The sacrifice is an act of explicit refutation of
those who say that it is forbidden for humans to
slaughter animals and eat meat because of the
pain they cause to animals or because of human
claims that God has made certain classes of animals sacred as part of the religion. worship. - The sacrifice proves that the most humane
way to kill an animal is the slaughter blow that
releases blood. The sacrifice is explicit proof that
God has subdued the earth to humanity and made
it moral for us to take the lives of these particular
creatures to satisfy our need as humans.
As such,
it increases our gratitude to God for His great
bounty on us and for raising us above so much
of His creation.
How is the sacrifice distinguished in Islamic
law?
The majority of scholars are of the view that
the sacrifice is a confirmed Sunnah, and it is a
definitively recommended action on the path of
the Prophet, peace
and blessings be
upon him. This is
the opinion of two
of the Rightly
Guided Caliphs,
Abu Bakr and
Omar, may God be
pleased with them.
The legal conditions and the
confirmed
Sunnah
The person
who sacrifices, the
sacrificer must be
a Muslim as the
sacrifice is not required of a nonMuslim because the
intent of doing it is
to make the
sacrificer come
closer to God in worship, and one must freely
submit his will to the will of God before one acts
to approach him. From this intent of slaughtering
an animal as a gift of free will presented as faith
and submission to God in order to “close” to it in
worship comes the Arabic word “Qurban”, from
which comes the Persian word Qurbani, now also
common among English-speaking Muslims indicative of sacrifice.
Must be a resident, not a traveler. The traveler
is not obliged to offer the sacrifice because it
must be a sacrifice, and accompanying a sacrifice on the journey weighs heavily on a person.
The one who is offering the sacrifice is in a
state of financial ease, and the evidence for this
is the saying of the Prophet, may God bless him
and grant him peace, that the sacrifice must be
“one who has wealth.”
The sacrificer is an adult of sound mind, and
this is a condition for making the sacrifice a Sunnah,
and among those who consider it obligatory۔
