Wednesday, November 24, 2010

the goats are going to heaven...

Muslims around the world celebrated Bakrid last week. This year was my first in a city with a big Muslim population, and the festivities were a new experience. Growing up in VIzag, Id-ul-Zuha and Id-ul-Fitr were just national holidays and news items on TV and were never personal. It isn't like that in Hyderabad. Bakrid (for that matter, any festival, Hindu or Muslim) brings out the hordes to the streets, touching everyone that ventures out. So, its practically impossible to be unaffected. Until now, I never knew that Bakrid was a festival celebrating the sacrifice of Ibrahim; but with the number of goats sold on the streets of Hyderabad overwhelming you for weeks before the auspicious day, it is hard not to wonder what the connection is.

For those of you who don't know, Ibrahim sacrificed his son as proof of his fealty to the almighty. Allah is pleased with the sacrifice and in return lets Ismail (the son) live, and Ibrahim finds a goat lying dead at the altar instead.

Traditionally, Muslims celebrated this by sacrificing their livestock. I guess this symbolized their devotion to Allah and their willingness to give up material wants. A few centuries ago, when animal husbandry was practiced by most everyone, this tradition may have made some sense - since you are giving up a source of income when you are killing that animal and giving away the meat. This day and age, most people who are making the "sacrifice" are definitely not goat herders. So what exactly are we sacrificing, or shouldn't I ask?


Sacrifice, by definition, is to give up something that is important to you. How is killing a goat on Bakrid any different from taking friends to lunch and paying for the mutton biryani everyone ate? It's not sacrifice. It's a pathetic attempt to con the almighty and is no way your ticket to paradise.

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