A MUSLIM undergoes several schools or madrasah throughout his life. The compulsory prayers performed five times a day is a form of daily madrasah to remind Muslims of the Almighty Creator. The Friday prayers are a weekly madrasah to forge unity and friendship amongst Muslims while at the same time, create better understanding on issues delivered through the sermon (khutbah).
Once every year, for a period of a month, Muslims perform the act of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan. This is an annual madrasah to strengthen the body and soul by enduring hardship and hunger. Ramadan is also a time for inculcating and strengthening the virtues of Islam such as patience and perseverence.
Another important madrasah is the one that needs to be performed at least once in their lifetime, and that is the performance of the haj or pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. There are many lessons that can be learnt through haj, the fifth pillar of Islam.
Today, we commemorate Aidiladha in conjunction with the haj season. It is interesting to note that Aidiladha is one of the two auspicious days for Muslims to rejoice and celebrate. Aidiladha was first celebrated after Prophet Muhammad migrated to Madinah.
Even though in certain Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Aidiladha is often referred to as Hari Raya Haji which literally means the Haj Festivity, in actual fact, the name Aidiladha is connected with the act of sacrifice or korban. In truth, Aidiladha is a day that marked the greatest sacrifice ever seen performed by man. The sacrifice of a child who was chosen as a messenger of Allah in this tale of Aidiladha was in essence the climax of a series of tests put forth by Allah upon the child since the day he was born. The first test came when a young mother named Hajar was carrying the child of one of the greatest prophets of Allah, namely Prophet Ibrahim.
Suddenly, Allah ordered Prophet Ibrahim to leave the mother in an uninhabited valley far-away from civilisation. The order was carried out without a single shred of doubt by both Prophet Ibrahim and his wife, Hajar, even though Prophet Ibrahim, who was already in his old age, was so eager to be there when his child was born. Then, the blessed child of Prophet Ibrahim was born in the midst of hardship. The child was given the name Ismail, who would later be a prophet. He was born in the driedup valley without a single drop of water. The baby Ismail started to thump his feet on the earth from where a spring was formed. This spring, which is now known as the Well of Zamzam, became a source of precious water to the valley. It was this incident that made the valley fertile. Ismail’s childhood years were spent without his beloved father by his side. Nonetheless, the child was staunch in his belief of his father’s prophethood and the message that his father brought from Allah. There was a special bond between Ismail and his father, Ibrahim. This special bond turned out to be the bond of prophethood.
Ismail was later reunited with his father, Prophet Ibrahim but soon a greater test would surface. The Almighty Creator had instructed Prophet Ibrahim to carry out his greatest sacrifice in his life, that is to slaughter his own flesh and blood. Even though the instruction came in the form of a dream to Prophet Ibrahim, his son was confident that the dream was a divine revelation. There was not a single doubt in the mind of the young Ismail as to the authenticity of the order from Allah. He urged his aging father to perform the sacrifice as instructed by the Almighty. At the very last minute, just before Prophet Ibrahim sacrificed his son, he received another instruction from the Almighty Creator to stop his action. Instead the sacrifice was replaced with a lamb.
This act of sacrifice is emulated by Muslims all over the world today. During Aidiladha, Muslims would sacrifice lambs, goats, cows, buffaloes or camels. The meat is then distributed to the poor and the needy as a form of giving thanks to the Almighty Creator. This in actual effect is to commemorate the feeling of thankfulness or syukur from Prophet Ibrahim a.s. to Allah s.w.t. for saving his beloved son from being sacrificed.
Islam’s auspicious days such as Aidiladha is unique in that it is spiritual in nature whereby if observed correctly would bring Muslims closer to Allah. This closeness is known as taqarrub. The joy and happiness felt during Aidiladha should be coupled with a feeling of syukur for all the blessings that have been bestowed upon us by the Almighty God.
Aidiladha is also a day of reminders. For instance, wukuf in Arafah in essence is a small glimpse of what it would be like during the Day of Judgment when all of mankind is gathered in a large area known as Mahsyar. This would directly give an insight to thinking Muslims of the need to prepare for the Hereafter. The act of sacrificing livestock would take place shortly after the performance of the Aidiladha prayer. The sacrifice could be performed on any of the days of tasyriq, that is between the 10th day and 13th day of Zulhijjah. The meat would then be distributed among the unfortunate people, the poor, the needy, the orphans and the like. This act of charity is a means of strengthening ties between the ‘ulya (the haves) and the sufla (the haves-not).
Aidiladha is a form of madrasah to remind Muslims of the need to continuously strengthen their relationship (silaturrahim) within their ummah.
The Prophet Muhammad once again reminded Muslims on the need to strengthen the ummatic bonds when he likened each member of society as a building block that strengthens one another.
Hence, it is important for Muslims to carry out the sacrifice or korban on Aidiladha as a means to forge a greater unity within the ummah specifically between the rich and poor members of the society.
The concept of taqarrub can further be highlighted by looking at the act of korban (sacrifice) itself. The meat from the sacrifice is divided into three parts, whereby one third is given to the person who carried out the korban and his family members, another one third is distributed to his neighbours and friends, while the last one third of the meat is handed to the poor. As a matter of fact, Islam very much encouraged Muslims to give more than one-third of the meat to the poor. This exercise of distributing the meat from the korban is a form of amanah or trust put upon the shoulders of all Muslims.
The act of korban should never be looked at from a narrow perspective. Instead it should be viewed from a wider scope. Korban is not just about distributing meat to the poor and the needy. This narrow point of view should be translated into a global perspective where there is a distribution of wealth between the richer nations to the poor nations. Korban in this aspect is a sense of co-operation among the global Muslim community. For the richer and more developed Muslim countries, their contributions would be more significant compared to those countries which are only just developing.
This is just like the actual act of korban where we see those who can afford a whole livestock would sacrifice the whole animal and distribute the meat from the animal, while those who can only afford a portion of the animal would only sacrifice and distribute that much.
In actual sense, the amount of sacrifice is immaterial. Instead, what is more important is the sincerity and the awareness of the need to help others. This is the bottom line of the act of korban as put forward by Islam.
Such is the beauty of the teaching of Islam. Korban is not just about individual act of worship, rather it is very much related to collective act of worship. Thus, korban is a form of fardu kifayah or collective responsibility, which is in the heart of societal and civilisational development of Islam and the Muslims as a whole. Tireless efforts to develop society, nation and religion coupled with piety to Allah s.w.t. would be rewarded accordingly by the Almighty Creator. This is stated by Allah in verse 37 of Surah al-Hajj to the effect that: “It is not their meat nor their blood that reaches God. It is your piety that reaches Him. He has thus made them subject to you, that ye may glorify God for His guidance to you and proclaim the good news to all who do right”.