10. SACRIFICE
Next
week, on the 24th of September 2015 the Muslims around the world will
celebrate the festival of Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice. It
commemorates the willingness of Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son Ismael.[1]
Iblīs (Satan) persuaded him not to do so, telling him that Allah would never
order something bad like sacrificing his son. Prophet Abraham threw stone at
him, ignoring his advice in obeying Allah without any condition, whether
rational or irrational. It is a total obedience. This is an example of total
submission to Allah, whereas Iblīs, using his analogy but polluted with envy,
disobeyed Allah when he was ordered to pay respect to Adam. It is because he
was created from fire, while Adam was created from clay. He thought that fire was
better than clay, and therefore he who was created from fire was not supposed
to bow to Adam who was created from clay, even it was Allah’s order. He was
supposed to have totally obeyed Him without any reservation, because it was
Allah Who created him. That is what Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael did:
total submission and obedience to Allah, and we are supposed to do the same. At
the last moment Allah replaced Isma’il with a ram to be sacrificed.
Following this example the
Muslims all over the world who are affluent are urged to share their fortune by
sacrificing a goat, a sheep, a cow, or a camel. The meat is to be divided in
three parts: a part is to be distributed to the poor, the other part to his
relatives, and the remaining for himself and his family. It is the piety that
reaches Allah, not the meat and the blood, as mentioned in the Qur’ān,
لَنْ يَنَالَ اللَّهَ لُحُومُهَا
وَلَا دِمَاؤُهَا وَلَكِنْ يَنَالُهُ التَّقْوَى مِنْكُمْ كَذَلِكَ سَخَّرَهَا
لَكُمْ لِتُكَبِّرُوا اللَّهَ
عَلَى مَا هَدَاكُمْ وَبَشِّرِ الْمُحْسِنِينَ (الحج:37)
It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah,
but it is piety from you that
reaches him. Thus have We
made them subject to you that
that you may magnify
Allah for His Guidance to you. And give glad tidings
(O Muhammad) to the doers of good. (Q. 22:37)
Anas r.a. said: “While we were with the
Messenger of
Allah in the mosque, he dozed off into a
slumber. Then
he lifted his
head smiling. We said, ‘O messenger of Allah! What has caused you to laugh?’ He
said, “Verily, a surah (chapter) was just revealed to me’, then he cited,
إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ.فَصَلِّ
لِرَبِّكَ وَانْحَر.إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَالْأَبْتَرُ(الكوثر1-3)
Verily, We have granted you (O Muhammad)
al-Kawthar. Therefore, turn in
your prayer to your
Lord and
sacrifice (to Him only), For he who hates you
(O Muhammad),
he will be cut of (from posterity
and every good thing in this
world and
in the Hereafter) (Q. 108, 1-3)
Then he said, ‘Do you All know
what is al-Kawthar?’
We said, ‘Allah and His
Messenger know best.’ He said,
“Verily, it is a river that my Lord, the
Mighty and Majestic
has promised me and it has abundant goodness.
It is
a pond where my Ummah will be brought to on
the day
of Judgement. Its containers
are as numerous as the stars
in the sky. Then a servant of allah from among
them will
be (prevented from it) and I will say: “O
Lord! Verily, he
is from my Ummah (followers). Then: “He
(Allah)
will say, “Verily, you do not know what he
introduced (or innovated) after you.
(Reported by
Muslim Abū Dā’ūd, and al-Nasā’ī)
The Arabs called
anything abundant in number, degree and significance kawthar. Sufyān
said that when an old woman was asked what her son brought with him from his
traveling, she answered kawthar, meaning lots of goods. Therefore Qur’ān
commentators say that that kawthar in the above verse generally means
anything good in abundance, such as the Qur’ān and wisdom, besides the name of
the river in Paradise given to the Prophet.
Then Allah ordered
the Prophet and the Muslims to make obligatory and optional prayers, and to
give sacrifice of animals solely and sincerely for Allah. The term naḥr has
two meanings: upper portion of the chest, namely, putting the right palm on the
top of the left palm on the upper chest while praying, and slaughtering,
namely, giving sacrifice by slaughtering animals as sacrifice. Both meanings
are applicable to the above verse.
The verse “For he who hates you (O Muhammad), he will be cut of (from
posterity and every good thing in this world and in the Hereafter) was
revealed in replying the following allegations:
1.
Al-‘Āṣ ibn Wāil. Whenever the
Prophet was mentioned in his presence he would say; “Leave him, for he is a man
who is cut off having no descendants. So when he dies he will not be
remembered.” (Narrated by Ibn ‘Abbās, Mujāhid, Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, and Qatādah)
2.
Ka‘b ibn Ashraf and a group of
disbelievers. The Quraysh people told him that he was the leader of the people,
and asked him his opinion about the worthless man who was cut off from his
people (meaning the Prophet), while they were the custodians of the Ka‘bah and water suppliers to the pilgrims. He
answered that they were better than him. (Narated by Ibn ‘Abbās recorded by
al-Bazzār).
3.
Abū Lahab. When a son of the
Prophet died, Abū Lahab went to the idolaters, and said, “Muhammad has been cut
off (i.e. from progeny) tonight.” (Reported by ‘Aṭā’)
The verse replied that having no son his remembrance
would not be cut off. On the contrary, Allah preserved his remembrance. He is
the only person remembered, mentioned by name, loved and respected the most by
Muslims consisting of one-sixth of the world population. His name is mentioned
in the adhān (calling for prayer), as well as in prayer.
There
are six terms for “sacrifice” in the Qur’ān: (1) dhabḥ (slaughtering) used
in the Qur’ān as a sacrifice for other than Allah, such as idols, as in Q. 5:3,
and the slaughtered animal is called dhabīḥah; (2). qurbān (sacrifice,
offering) as in Q. 3:183 in which the Jews would not accept a Messenger unless
he gives an offering devoured by fire from heaven; in Q. 5:27 it is about the
offering of the two brothers Hābīl (Abel) and Qābīl (Cain); in Q. 46:28 the
term qurbān is not the sacrifice or offering, but “a means to be close
to Allah, a way to approach Allah,” as the term is derived from the word qaruba
or qariba meaning “to be near, to come near”, so that qurbān literally
means “something made to become closer to Allah,” and could be an offering, and
also by worshiping idols, as the Quraysh
idolaters said, “We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allah…” (Q. 39:3); a weak ḥadīth said “The
daily prayer is the qurbān i.e., a means to become near to Allah) of every pious man (3) Naḥr
is a kind of sacrifice by cutting the jugular veins, as mentioned above; (4) uḍḥiyah
is used for annual sacrifice by pilgrims in Makkah; (5) hady (animal
of sacrifice) is offered when the Prophet and the Muslims were prevented
from completing their pilgrimage, ending with the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyyah to
avoid bloodshed. They sacrificed the hady, shaved their heads, and ended
their state of iḥrām, and returned home (Q. 2:196); hady is also
the animal brought to Makkah for penalty of killing animal while one is in the
state of iḥrām (Q. 5:2, 95, 97); (6) mansak (religious
ceremonies) as mentioned in Q. 22:34, interpreted by Mujāhid as shedding blood
of animals, namely, sacrifice.[2]
Muslim scholars hold
different views concerning the legal judgement of the sacrifice (qurbān or uḍḥiyah).
The vast majority of them say it is Sunnah Mu‘akkadah (definitely
recommended act). This is the view of Shāfi‘ī, and Mālikī schools, and the
well-known view of Aḥmad. The other view is that it is wājib (obligatory)
according to Ḥanafī school, one of the two views of Aḥmad and Mālikī school,
this is also the view of Ibn Taymiyyah of Ḥanbalī school. It is important to
note here, that there is difference between wājib and farḍ according
to Ḥanafī school. Wājib is obligatory but without strong evidence, such
as sacrificing on the Ied al-Adha day. On the other hand, farḍ is
something with strong evidence, such as performing the five-daily prayers and
fasting in the month of Ramadan. For them, they are not wājib but farḍ.
For others both are the same.
Some conditions for the validity
of the qurbān are as follows:
1. The slaughtering process must be carried out in
accordance to the Sharī‘ah: it has to be with a sharp knife or object,
no gun, no electric shock or carbon dioxide.
2. The animal should be laid on its left side, its
face pointing towards the Qiblah, and slaughtered quickly.
4. Before slaughtering recite بِسْمِ اللّهِ
اللهُ أَكْبَر “Bismillāh Allāhu Akbar (In the name
of Allah, Allah is Great).
5. At least three of the four veins in the throat
of the animal must be cut.
6. It has to be completely dead before it can be
skinned or cut into pieces.
Animals that are impaired,
such as sick, blind, crippled, wounded, etc. cannot be slaughtered as qurban.
Their minimum age as follows: sheep (male and female) at least 6 months
(one share); goats (male and female), at least one year (one share); cows, oxen,
buffaloes, at least two years (7 shares); and camels (male and female), at
least 5 years (7 shares). The period for the sacrifice is 3 days, starting after
the Eid prayer of 10 Dhul Hijjah till before sunset on the 12th of Dhul Hijjah
according to Ḥanafi, Mālikī, and Ḥanbalī schools, and 4 days till before sunset
the following day, namely on the 13th of Dhul
Hijjah, according to Shāfi‘ī school. It can be done preferably on the
day time. The exception is if the animal to be slaughtered ran away, and was caught
later, or the person entrusted for slaughtering was asleep or forgot it, then
it can be slaughtered after the lapse of the period. It is like a person who
forgets to pray, he has to do it the time he remembers it.
It
is not acceptable to replace qurbān with money, or the institution of qurbān
would be forgotten, whereas these livestock are for us to eat. Let our poor
Muslim brothers and sisters share the taste of the meat and have benefits from
it, including Vitamin B12 in it.
(CIVIC,
18 September, 2015)
المصادر:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ(
تفسير القرطبى
(ت. 671 هـ)
تفسير ابن كثير
(ت. 774 هـ)
spreadingthetruthofislam.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/what-is-qurban.html
[1] According to the Bible, it was Isaac who would be
sacrificed instead of Ishmael. Then
God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the
region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the
mountains I will tell you about.” (Genesis 22: 2). This verse means, either Ishmael was
not considered Abraham’s son, or Ishmael was not loved by his father, Abraham.
Neither of these statements is acceptable in Islam. In fact the genuineness of
the Bible in general is doubted, and the Genesis in particular, which is like a
weak ḥadītḥ. Genesis 22: 12 states the Isaac was his only son.
[2] Al-Qurṭubī said: يُقَالُ: نَسَكَ إِذَا ذَبَحَ يَنْسُكُ نَسْكًا.
وَالذَّبِيحَةُ نَسِيكَةٌ، وَجَمْعُهَا نُسُكٌ، وَمِنْهُ قَوْلُهُ تَعَالَى:"
أَوْ صَدَقَةٍ أَوْ نُسُكٍ"» (البقرة: 196). وَالنُّسُكُ أَيْضًا الطَّاعَةُ.
وَقَالَ الْأَزْهَرِيُّ فِي قَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى:" وَلِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ جَعَلْنا مَنْسَكاً":
إِنَّهُ يَدُلُّ عَلَى مَوْضِعِ النَّحْرِ فِي هَذَا الْمَوْضِعِ، أَرَادَ مكان نسك.
جَعَلْنا مَنْسَكاً":. وَقَالَ الْفَرَّاءُ: الْمَنْسَكُ فِي كَلَامِ الْعَرَبِ
الْمَوْضِعُ الْمُعْتَادُ فِي خَيْرٍ أَوْ شَرٍّ. وَقِيلَ مَنَاسِكُ الْحَجِّ لِتَرْدَادِ
النَّاسِ إِلَيْهَا مِنَ الْوُقُوفِ بِعَرَفَةَ وَرَمْيِ الْجِمَارِ وَالسَّعْيِ. وَقِيلَ:
مَنْسَكًا عِيدًا، قَالَهُ الْفَرَّاءُ. وَقِيلَ: حَجًّا، قَالَهُ قَتَادَةُ. وَالْقَوْلُ
الْأَوَّلُ أَظْهَرُ، لِقَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى: (لِيَذْكُرُوا اسْمَ اللَّهِ عَلى مَا رَزَقَهُمْ
مِنْ بَهِيمَةِ الْأَنْعامِ) أَيْ عَلَى ذَبْحِ مَا رَزَقَهُمْ. فَأَمَرَ تَعَالَى
عِنْدَ الذَّبْحِ بِذِكْرِهِ وَأَنْ يَكُونَ الذَّبْحُ لَهُ، لِأَنَّهُ رَازِقُ ذَلِكَ
(تفسير القرطبي)
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