Why Sacrifice?
It is mentioned in narrations that the Companions (Sahabah) asked the Prophet Muhammad: O Messenger of God, what are these sacrifices? He replied: This is the way of your father Abraham. (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 3127) So, sacrificing an animal on Eid al-Adha is to remember that great historical event which took place four thousand years ago.
Sacrifice means committing to make the life of Prophet Abraham your ideal. It is not just a one-time yearly ritual, but a yearly expression of a lifelong way of living. If a person offers a sacrifice while understanding its real meaning, only then can we expect that they will follow its message throughout the year. And if they do not keep this real meaning in mind on the day of sacrifice, how can we hope that they will make it a model for the rest of the year?
Prophet Abraham was born in 2160 BC in the ancient city of Ur in Iraq. According to the Torah, he began thinking deeply at the age of 10. At that time, his people worshipped the sun. They believed that everything they received came from the sun. He began to say that the sun and stars were all created by one God. Worship the Creator, not the creation. But when people hold something sacred, they become very sensitive about it. So, the people turned against him. To become a caller to the Oneness of God, he had to pay the price—it became difficult for him to live in his own country. Friends and relatives all became his enemies. The ruler of the time threw him into the fire. But God saved him through special divine help. When the entire nation rejected him, he finally left his homeland. Only his wife (Sarah) and his nephew (Prophet Lot) remained with him. He continued travelling through Syria, Palestine, East Jordan, Egypt, and the land of Arabia. There was not a single human settlement that accepted his call to the Oneness of God. Finally, he reached an uninhabited place in Hijaz (today’s Makkah), and trusting in God, he settled his wife and child in that desert.
By this time, Prophet Abraham was old. He had already given everything in the path of God—his home, his family, his property, his wealth, his country. There was nothing left that he had not presented to God. Even when he was thrown into the fire, it was as if he had offered his life. But one final sacrifice still remained—the sacrifice of his beloved son. He had this child at the age of 86. Naturally, his only son was dearest to him. When this son grew up and could walk and run with his father, a command came in a dream from God—to sacrifice his son in His path. After a lifetime of hardship and loneliness, now the only support he had—he was told to give that up too. And not just give it up, but to sacrifice it with his own hands. The aged father submitted to the command of God, and with unwavering devotion made ready to sacrifice his beloved son, rising above even the deepest love of his heart for the sake of the Almighty. Just then, a voice came from God: You have fulfilled the dream. After that, an angel brought a ram, and Prophet Abraham sacrificed the ram instead of his son. This event took place on the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah. That is why Muslims all over the world sacrifice an animal on this date. This sacrifice is like offering your own life. In this way, the person doing the sacrifice says through their action: O God, our lives are present for You. Today, we are offering this animal as a sign of surrender, and we are always ready—whenever You command—to present ourselves and our belongings in Your service.
One of the important supplications on the day of Eid al-Adha is: “My prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for God, the Lord of the worlds.” (6:162) From this we learn that prayer signifies a person’s life, and sacrifice signifies a person’s death. In prayer, a person turns to God with full attention, establishing a connection with Him. This same focus is necessary in all aspects of life. A person should live in such a way that their life becomes centered on God, just as their prayer is. The same applies to sacrifice—a person should die in such a way that their death becomes a sacrificial death. One’s death should not merely be a natural end due to old age, but the culmination of a life filled with sacrifices on the path of truth. Sacrificing the animal is a symbolic promise—that a person will continue giving everything in God’s path, until their end comes in that very state.
Through this, we understand that for a sacrifice to be accepted, it must embody the same spirit of devotion seen in Prophet Abraham and Prophet Muhammad. The key to acceptance is that there must be genuine dedication behind the sacrifice—the kind of commitment exemplified by the prophets. True sacrifice comes from those who live every day as a sacrifice—not from those who only sacrifice an animal once a year. The essence of Abraham’s sacrifice was that after giving everything in the path of God, when a man had nothing left but his life, he brought that as well and presented himself before God. But God, out of His mercy and kindness, accepted a ram in place of his life. The real meaning of sacrifice is to give up everything, even the last thing you have, for God—not to keep everything for yourself and only sacrifice one animal a year in God’s name.
About the reality of sacrifice, the Quran says: Their flesh and blood do not reach God: it is your piety that reaches Him. (22:37)
This means, what matters to God is a heart full of God-consciousness. Not the animal. The animal sacrifice is only an outward symbol of what lies within the heart.
If the inner state is not correct, then slaughtering an animal from the outside is like a shop that has no goods inside but hangs a fake signboard outside.
All India Radio, New Delhi,
28 October 1979.
