Understanding the Lessons of the Feast

On Sunday 6th November, it will be the Great Feast of Islam and Muslims (Eid al-Adha) symbolizing the culmination of the pilgrimage to Mecca; a few days of light, fraternity and love intended to symbolize meditation, a return back to the Creator, blessings and prayers for peace.

Yet, we are observing that this noblest of occasions has seen custom transform into duty and practice, descend into commercialization and waste: waste of money, waste of meat and waste of food.

Over the last three weeks, you would have been bombarded with emails, text messages and adverts on who offers the better deal on doing one’s Udhiyah (sacrifice) or Qurban at a competitive price. The hadith (sayings) of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to “compete to outdo one another for the good things” has become symbolized by market forces as ‘charities’ around the world outbid each other to offer the best price to slaughter a cow, sheep or goat. And so, the most noblest and holiest of acts of worship has been denigrated to shopping around like buying a car: ‘What is the best price for a cow, goat or sheep that I can get, so that I can get a happier recipient and thus a better reward in the Hereafter?’

And so like any market system, there are problems such as the manipulation of prices, corruption and abuse as suppliers try to meet the demands for slaughter.

So in the essence of rushing to seek that instant satisfaction of redemption, we trivialize the essence of the need on the ground. Yes the poor, vulnerable and needy do not have meat, but no one stops to ask whether simply giving them meat for a day would help improve their lives.

Therein lies the problem, the closure of the space for reasoning, debate and rational thinking about faith, spirituality and practice. A symbolic and recommended (not obligatory) act of worship in remembrance of the Prophet Abraham’s (Peace be upon him) sacrifice becomes a literal obligation of animal sacrifice, so that the blood flows deep and the distribution of meat becomes the anchor for the duty.

We have forgotten what the sacrifice is supposed to symbolize. The story and lesson of the Prophets Abraham and Ishmael (Peace be upon them) deserves to be shared, remembered and celebrated. The conversation between father and son, on the hardest of scenarios bears serious contemplation. In the height of challenging circumstance, the consultation of a parent with his child and the firm but soft acceptance of a parent’s wish by a child highlights a dying relationship in the world today. Very often, as older people, we neglect to pay those younger than us the respect of equal treatment, often speaking down to them or dismissing their views. As younger people, we are often quick to rebel against the wishes of the older (and often wiser) generation. Though such relationships can be open to abuse, this story reminds us of the delicate balance that is necessary in human relationships to ensure respect, understanding and acceptance. Through showing the ultimate sacrifice of a parent’s closest and most beloved possession for the sake of the God to whom you will eventually return, we are taught that whatever we own and are close to pales in comparison to the ultimate possession that we have: Our relationship with The One Most High. This sacrifice coming at the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is the very essence of the celebration. In our journey back to the beginning, how much will we be able to sacrifice?

This sacrifice not only reminds us to be thankful for all the blessings that we have, but to be content with them. We are asked to keep in check our greed as whatever excess; we share with those who deserve special attention - the poor and needy, as well as the orphans. This is the true meaning of the sacrifice that we make so that those in need will benefit. So the question becomes, is it the principle or the actual act of sacrifice that we need to be thinking about during this time?

The message of the Hajj is the principle of the sacrifice and the message: ‘to serve humanity, those in need; those without... to awaken your conscience in the proximity of the wounds and the injustices people face... to move away from your heart, your bad thoughts… to distance yourself from the darkest dimensions of your being, your violence, your jealousies [and] your superficialities.’

By not allowing space for discussion to examine these ideas and principles, we negate the very concept of our heritage and teachings.

For the benefit of the voiceless, it is imperative not to lose our way by being driven blindly by traditional practices or by commercialization, and to come back to the very essence of the message that is part of all Abrahamic faiths: respect and love of human beings (especially those who are vulnerable and have been unjustly treated) is a manifestation of the love for the Almighty.

So this festive season, let us come back to the essential. Let us remember that this more than anything is a feast of fraternal atmosphere that is shared by all and thus in reaching out to address the true objective of spirituality through prayers and good deeds, let us remember the right that the poor have on us. Let us avoid the waste and more importantly the wasted sacrifices.

May the Almighty, who loves you, guide and protect you. May there be peace and respite for all those who are suffering. May you spend time with your loved ones in an atmosphere of happiness; Happy Feast!

Originally published here

The Commercialisation of Eid

Eid has come and gone and as the dust settles, I am trying to reflect on the day gone by and find out exactly what has happened to Eid? I think we are suffering from an intellectual inferiority complex. How did it go from being one of spiritual upliftment to one of commercial value? Have we forgotten the spirit and the principle of what Eid stands for?

The reason why I say this is that over the last 3 weeks or so, I have been bombarded with emails about Qurbani from organisations that I have not even heard of, each offering me better deals than the other. It seems that they have taken the concept of ‘competing with each other for good things’ literally as they competed to out do each other in offering the best price to slaughter a cow / sheep / goat around the world.

Forget even the Islamic magazines, flyers, TV stations etc who have carried out live appeals for people’s Qurbani. It seems that the powers that be have been intent on ensuring that we are left with no doubt as to who is the best service provider. The last straw for me was receiving a text message from one organisation whom I have not heard about saying they were the most competitive. I don’t even know how they got my phone number and don’t get me started on the legality of unsolicited contacting. As if these organisations would understand that!!!

The issue is this: it has come down to a competition on price. Pure capitalism at its raw and most original!! ‘I am offering a better price for a cow or goat or sheep so that you can get a better reward in the hereafter’. Each price is competitive and if you were to examine, you could actually shop around for the best deal in town, sort of like buying a car.

The numbers of players have increased as everyone wants to get into the business of doing charity and offering people redemption. This trust or that foundation or that relief agency seem to be doing the same thing but at a lesser price. Unfortunately with the proliferation of these organisations, it doesn’t necessarily mean things are getting better or that poverty (as these organisations are seeking to do) is being alleviated.

The problem is that they all work in pretty much the same areas of the world and considering the time of the month, most of these areas will be Muslim. With the addition of the organisations, it doesn’t mean that a space is being created for discussion on vital issues of dealing with the non Muslims, so all these organisations concentrate on Muslims. The problem comes when they undercut each other to provide the best prices on cows and goats in Pakistan, or Bosnia etc. However what people do not realise is that there are couple of issues inherent with this:
• Most of the organisations based in the UK, do this type of work through their local contacts and partners in whichever country that they operate in. The point is that these organisations do not want to incur additional administration costs or staff costs, which is understandable, so they rely on ‘reliable’ local people to do their work for them in choosing the animals, slaughtering and distributing.
• Yet how is it possible that in one country alone, different agencies offer different prices for effectively the same commodity, so for example in Sri Lanka, there are different costs for the cattle but this is not the reality on the ground. Come on Sri Lanka is a small country and the variations in price is minimal.
• Most of the local organisations that work in these countries are quite sophisticated in operation. They know that most of the UK based organisations will rely on them totally for the selection and distribution of meat as well as the reporting, and hence this is where the gap in transparency comes through. The UK based organisation takes at face value what is reported from the ground.
• Often in countries where there are fewer reliable local Muslim partners, you find that they have access to some of the main UK based Muslim agencies, and so they end up taking all the ‘contracts’ for Qurban from them. It also helps if you have people from your country as well living in the UK so they can effectively ‘lobby’ the UK charities for their business. So for example after working in Sri Lanka, I know one organisation that does Qurban for at least 5 different Muslim organisations based in the UK. I have no doubts about the integrity and honesty of this said organisation, but after working in Muslim Aid in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, I have come across instances where organisations have taken a photograph of a distribution of meat taking place at one area and using photo shop have inserted the different logos of the different organisations that they were supposed to be working for. Quite sophisticated I would say.
• Often the same cow has been ‘sold’ to different organisations who think it belongs solely to them.
• With very little coordination on the ground, you will find people being duplicated in terms of receiving meat, so the same person will receive meat from three different organisations (who believe they are solely giving it to the individual) whilst others go free.
• Often there is some internal corruption as meat prices are inflated to the donor, or the families of the people working in the organisation also receive the donations. I came across one instance where the butcher was the brother of the person in charge of receiving the donation from the UK based organisation, the person who distributed (and got paid for this was the son) and so on. Hence there is a nice internal family flow of money.
• The most serious problem though is that for the amount of money that flows into a country for the cattle, there are not enough animals to sustain that. I had someone tell me that their organisation alone receives 10 crore rupees (roughly 10 million rupees) which means that, that itself should satisfy all the needs for cattle without taking into account the local consumption as well as the other organisations., But this brings into question how can all this money be flowing into a country just for the slaughter of animals on one day and how can there be some much animals for that to happen?

This is just for the uk? How about the rest? How about Saudi? How about the locals who also choose to slaughter cattle? We need to be more systematic and transparent in our way of working. The amount of money that is given and spent on this alone can alleviate poverty ten times over, yet are being ‘wasted’ on this.

These local organisations are not entirely to blame. They are responding to a market demand. The fault is also partly ours, because of our commercial approach to eid. We want instant satisfaction. We want to go on the website or call the phone and pledge to help the poor people, without actually appreciating or understanding the realities on the ground. Honestly should the poor need meat for a day or do they need something for the year to help them live a better life, like better health care, education and so on?

So as we remember the sacrifice of Abraham, perhaps it is better that we actually revisit our concepts of charity otherwise, we will just be deluding ourselves.