Farzana Naina

Eid Ul Adha – عيد الأضحى November 29, 2009

“Festival of Sacrifice”

“Greater Eid” is a holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to c

ommemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God.

Eid al-Adha is the latter of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims, whose basis comes from the Quran. Like Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha begins with a short prayer followed by a sermon (khuṭba).

Eid al-Adha annually falls on the 10th day of the month of Zul Hijja (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar. The festivities last for three

days or more depending on the country. Eid al-Adha occurs the day after the pilgrims conducting Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from Mount Arafat. It happens to be approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan.

The Arabic term “Festival of Sacrifice”, ‘Īd ul-’Aḍḥā was borrowed as a unit into Indic languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali and Austronesian languages such as Malay and Indonesian.

Another Arabic word for “sacrifice”, (Arabic: قربان‎ Qurbān), was lent into Dari Persian – Afghanistan and Iranian dialect of Persian as Eyde

Ghorbân (Persian: عید قربان), into Tajik Persian as Иди Қурбон (Idi Qurbon), into Kazakh as Құрбан айт (Qurban ayt), into Uyghur as Qurban Heyit, and also into various Indic languages. Other languages combined the Arabic word qurbān with local terms for “festival”, as in Kurdish (Cejna Qurbanê [2]), Pashto (Kurbaneyy Akhtar), Chinese (Chinese: 古尔邦节 Gúěrbāng Jié), Malay and Indonesian (Hari Raya Korban, Qurbani), and Turkish (Turkish: Kurban Bayramı). The Turkish term was then later borrowed into languages such as Azeri (Qurban Bayramı), Tatar (Qorban Bäyräme), Croatian and Bosnian (Kurban-bajram), Serbian (Курбан бајрам), Russian (Курбан байрам).

Another Arabic name, ‘Īd ul-Kabīr (Arabic: عيد الكبير‎ `Īd al-Kabīr), meaning “Greater Eid/Festival”, is used in Yemen, Syria, and North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt). The term was borrowed directly into French as Aïd el-Kebir. Translations of “Big Eid” or “Greater Eid” are used in Pashto لوی اختر Loy Akhtar, Kashmiri Baed Eid, Hindi and Urdu Baṛā Īd, Malayalam Bali Perunnal, and Tamil Peru Nāl.

Another name refers to the fact that the holiday occurs after the culmination of the Hajj (حج), or pilgrimage to Mecca (Makka). Such names are used in Malay and Indonesian (Hari Raya Haji “Hajj celebration day”, Lebaran Haji), and in Tamil Hajji Peru Nāl.

In Urdu-speaking areas, the festival is also called بقرعید Baqra Īd or Baqrī Īd, stemming either from the Arabic baqarah “heifer” or the Urdu word baqrī for “goat”, as cows and goats are among the traditionally-sacrificed animals. That term was also borrowed into other languages, such as Tamil Bakr Eid Peru Nāl.

Other local names include 宰牲节 Zǎishēng Jié (“Slaughter-livestock Festival”) in Chinese, Tfaska Tamoqqart in the Berber language of Jerba, Tabaski or Tobaski in West African languages ,Babbar Sallah in Nigerian languages, and ciida gawraca in Somali.

Eid-al-Adha has other popular names across the Muslim world. The name is often simply translated into the local language, such as English Festival of Sacrifice, German Opferfest, Dutch Offerfeest, Romanian Sărbătoarea Sacrificiului and Hungarian Áldozati ünnep.

History Four thousand years ago, the valley of Mecca was a dry and uninhabited place. According to Islamic history, the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) was instructed to bring Hajar and their child Ismael to Arabia from the land of Canaan by God’s command.

As Ibrahim made ready to return to the land of Canaan, Hajar asked him, “Who ordered you to leave us here”? When Ibrahim replied: “Allah”(God), Hajar said, “then Allah will not forget us; you can go”. Although Ibrahim had left a large quantity of food and water with Hajar and Ismael, the supplies quickly ran out and within a few days the two were suffering from hunger and dehydration.

According to the story, a desperate Hajar ran up and down between two hills called Safa and Marwa seven times, trying to find water. Finally, she collapsed beside her baby Ismael and prayed to Allah for deliverance. Ismael struck his foot on the ground, causing a spring of water to gush forth from the earth. Other accounts have the angel Jibral (Gabriel) striking the earth and causing the spring to flow. With this secure water supply, they were not only able to provide for their own needs, but were also able to trade water with passing nomads for food and supplies. When the Prophet Ibrahim returned from Canaan to check on his family, he was amazed to see them running a profitable well.

The Prophet Ibrahim was told by God to build a shrine dedicated to him adjacent to Hajar’s well (the Zamzam Well). Ibrahim and Ismael constructed a small stone structure–-the Kaaba–which was to be the gathering place for all who wished to strengthen their faith in Allah. As the years passed, Ismael was blessed with Prophethood and gave the nomads of the desert his message of surrender to Allah. After many centuries, Mecca became a thriving city and a major center for trade, thanks to its reliable water source, the well of Zamzam.

One of the main trials of Prophet Ibrahim’s life was to face the command of Allah to devote his dearest possession, his only son. Upon hearing this command, he prepared to submit to Allah’s’s will. During this preparation, when Satan tempted Prophet Ibrahim and his family, Hajar and Ismael drove Satan away by throwing pebbles at him. To remember this rejection of Satan, stones are thrown during Hajj.

At the time of sacrifice, Ibrahim discovered a sheep died instead of Ismail, whom he hacked through neck. When Ibrahim was fully prepared to complete the sacrifice, Allah revealed to him that his “sacrifice” had already been fulfilled. Ibrahim had shown that his love for his Lord superseded all others: that he would lay down his own life or the lives of those dear to him in order to submit to God. Muslims commemorate this superior act of sacrifice during Eid al-Adha.

The Hijrah

No longer safe in Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad, in the year 628 traveled to Medina (lit. the city) with 1400 of his followers. This is considered as the first ‘pilgrimage’ in Islam, seeking to re-establish the religious traditions of the Prophet Ibrahim, as he believed they were originally practiced

The Takbir and other Rituals

The Takbir is recited from the dawn of the tenth of Dhu al-Hijjah to the thirteenth of it. The Takbir consists of:

Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar الله أكبر الله أكبر الله أكبر

lā ilāha illā Allāh لا إله إلا الله

Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar الله أكبر الله أكبر

wa li-illāhil-ḥamd ولله الحمد

Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest,

There is no deity but Allah

Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest and to Allah goes all praise

Variation

Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar الله أكبر الله أكبر

lā ilāha illā Allāh لا إله إلا الله

wa Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar والله أكبر الله أكبر

wa li-illāhil-ḥamd ولله الحمد

Alḥamdulillāh `alā mā hadānā, wa lahul-shukru `ala mā awlānā الحمدلله على ما هدانا و له الشكر على ما اولانا

Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest,

There is no deity but Allah

and Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest

and to Allah goes all praise, (We) sing the praises of Allah because He has shown us the Right Path. (We) gratefully thank Him because He takes care of us and looks after our interests

Traditions and practices

Men, women, and children are expected to dress in their finest clothing to perform Eid prayer (ṣalātu l-`Īdi) in a large congregation in an open area or mosque. Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice their best domestic animals (usually sheep, but also camels, cows and goats) as a symbol of Ibrahim’s sacrifice. The sacrificed animals, called uḍiyyah (Arabic: أضحية‎, also known as “al-qurbāni”), have to meet certain age and quality standards or else the animal is considered an unacceptable sacrifice. Generally, sacrificial animals must be at least one year of age.

The regular charitable practices of the Muslim community are demonstrated during Eid al-Adha by the concerted effort to see that no impoverished person is left without sacrificial food during these days.

During Eid al-Adha, distributing meat amongst the people, chanting Takbir out loud before the Eid prayer on the first day, and after prayers throughout the four days of Eid are considered essential parts of the festival. In some countries, families that do not own livestock can make a contribution to a charity that will provide meat to those who are in need

While Eid al-Adha is always on the same day of the Islamic calendar, the date on the Gregorian calendar varies from year to year since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. The lunar calendar is approximately eleven days shorter than the solar calendar. Each year, Eid al-Adha (like other Islamic holidays) falls on one of two different Gregorian dates in different parts of the world, due to the fact that the boundary of crescent visibility is different from the International date line.

The following list shows the official dates of Eid al-Adha for Saudi Arabia as announced by the Supreme Judicial Council. Future dates are calculated according to the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia. The three days after the listed date are also part of the festival. The time before the listed date the pilgrims visit the Mount Arafat and descend from it after sunrise of the listed day. Future dates of Eid al-Adha might face correction 10 days before the festivity, in case of deviant lunar sighting in Saudi Arabia for the start of the month Zul Hijja.