We are literally surrounded by animals of sacrifice this eid, everywhere you look there is a herd of cows lolling about, there are bakras and goats and their owners all puffed up with pride at owning such animals in the first place. Camels tied outside the main gates in every other lane, and huge cows and bulls all made-up waiting for eid.
I am told there is no sacrificial animal less than twenty/thirty thousand rupees, and with their food and straw and all, for however many days you keep them, its a neat package and well beyond the reach of an average person - every person I meet is cribbing about the high prices of these animals - and yet all and sundry have a few of these beasts tied up in their yard awaiting the propitious day! So what exactly is going on?
I know we believe in this sacrifice as a token of remembrance of the dedication and loyalty of Hazart Ibrahim to the will of Allah, it is a token of a complete submission to the will of our Creator. But, this ritual killing, this grotesque happiness at killing animals in your front-yard and then distribution of that still fresh bloody meat, the instant cooking up of the entrails of the animal is too graphic and pagan if you really sit back and think about it!
The concept of killing as a sacrifice is a bit unsettling, why do we have to do that? and how in its true sense is this 'killing' close to home, Islamic? I am not questioning God in his infinite wisdom, I am merely thinking out loud at the significance of this bloody ritual in a society like ours which has become increasingly macho, increasingly violent, and on the edge.
Can this killing serve a cathartic purpose? apparently not, because it has over the years not made us any less addicted to killing and torturing each other, in fact it has seemed to me a keen unified desire on part of the whole nation to kill and let blood flow! There seems a kind of national frenzy to fatten animals all year round and then kill them, and then - eat them!
I for one, am going on a vegetarian diet for the next few weeks, and will keep myself away from indulging in any form of flesh!
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