Again, the light of Islam shines glowingly today as Muslims, all over the world, celebrate yet another Eid-el-Adha, the festival of sacrifice. The symbolic message in the yearly ritual is the consciousness that sacrifice is a positive driver of noble actions dedicated solely to the service and worship of the Almighty, the creator and sustainer of the universe.
  
Eid-el-Adha, also known as Eid-el-Kabir (the Big Feast) is a powerful reminder of our common humanity and the obligation to take care of one another. Most significantly, the festival reminds humanity that the attainment of success goes along with the sacrifice of tangible and intangible capital.
 
As an act of worship, Eid-el-Adha, for Muslims, is a festival instituted by the Almighty through the agency of Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail (upon them be peace and blessings of Allah).
 
The narrative captures the story of faith and the faithful. Prophet Ibrahim started as a believer, a lonely believer in the Almighty at a time when humanity chose to disbelieve in Him. He started by asking his mother who his creator and god was. His mother told him it was his father, Azar. Prophet Ibrahim was not satisfied with her answer. The notion that his father was his god appeared confusing to him. So, he asked his mother: who was the creator of his father? His mother told him it was Nimrod, the emperor, the king of the time. “If Nimrod is the god of my father, who was his own creator?” Nobody could provide a categorical answer. But Prophet Ibrahim knew the answer. He knew that his Creator is neither a human being nor a genie. He knew his Creator had no beginning and no end. He knew that his Creator is both undated and beyond spatial limitations. He knew that his Creator is He who fashioned and created the cosmos out of nothing.
 
Thus, he chose to believe in Him. He chose to believe in the Almighty. But to believe in the Almighty is to make a difficult though extremely rewarding choice. To believe in the Almighty at a time when humanity has apostatized is to run the risk of oppression and humiliation. Thus, he was tormented and punished by the idolatrous community in which he was born. But he knew that adversity is a precondition or prerequisite for posterity, not the other way round. He knew he had to endure tribulation. He was thrown into a burning fire but the power to burn was taken away from the latter by the Almighty (Q21V68-70). He emerged from the inferno unscathed.
 
Consequently, Prophet Ibrahim became an eternal model for all pretenders to faith. He became an exemplar in our ongoing battle against earthly principalities.
 
The lesson is: when someone proposes to oppress, torment and subject you to untold suffering, the Eid-el-Adha takes place every year to remind humanity of the emptiness of that threat once you stand for and with your Creator.
 
But the greatest lesson is in the character of the family established by Prophet Ibrahim, a family of faith, piety and perseverance. He was the patriarch, not a masculinist. Sarah was the wife, the extremely contented and humble mother of Ishaq, from whose womb the Jews emerged.
 
Hajar was the other wife, the mother of Ismail from whose womb Muslims emerged. Prophet Ibrahim’s family featured a man, two women and two sons all of whom were individually destined to impact human history in extremely dissimilar and similar ways.
 
Every action of these characters was destined to be a signifier. They were all involved in creating history without actually knowing it; they ‘transacted’ spiritual-mundane businesses which eventually became models till eternity.
 
For instance, Prophet Ibrahim dreamt he offered his son, Prophet Ismail, as a sacrifice to the Almighty. He proceeded to inform Ismail of what he saw and the son, without hesitation, encouraged his father to carry out the divine inspiration without prevarication. Why was Prophet Ibrahim blessed with such a child who was ready to travel with him in the wilderness of spirituality? Why was he blessed with such a faithful child?
 
Thus, in that lonely desert that day, father and son got together to do what the father deemed to be the bidding of the Almighty: to sacrifice his son; who also submitted himself to the Almighty. Father and son desired to please the Almighty;
 
Meanwhile, the mother of the son, Hajar, occupied a lonely space. In silence, she bore the pain of the inevitable loss of her son. In silence, she opened up her heart to the Almighty. Ismail was the only fruit of her womb. She had hoped he would take care of her tomb. But there she was all alone, going through the most painful experience in submission and devotion.
 
Today, Eid-el-Adha reminds us, of the mercy of the Almighty to turn a situation of hopelessness to that of hope and happiness. Prophet Ibrahim was told: “You have indeed affirmed the dream” and consequently a beautiful ram was given to him as ransom for his son (Q37V101 – 111).
 
Thus, sacrifice became not an end in itself but a means towards a nobler end: an end to the sacrifice of humans in history, an end to the ascension of pernicious authorities in humans which usually make them go against the will of the Almighty, an end to greed, self-conceitedness, and inane glorification of the ephemeral not the eternal.
 
The sacrifice of animals as a form of worship is as old as human existence on the surface of the earth, as against today’s unwholesome practice of ritual killings, cultism and occultism being elevated as the civilised culture of modernity.
  
Significantly, Eid-el-Adha became institutionalised to put an end not only to the killing of humans by humans as a form of worship to gods but equally to properly situate the meaning of sacrifice as a positive driver of noble actions: meant to commemorate the unparalleled readiness of Prophet Ibrahim (AS) to dedicate his choicest and priceless treasure (his son) to the service of his creator. Thus, Muslims are expected to sacrifice animals with the awareness that neither the meat nor the blood of the animals reaches the Almighty who only desires from us submission to His will,
 
The Almighty says: “It is not their (animals) meat nor their blood that reaches Almighty; it is your piety that reaches Him: He has thus made them subject to you that ye may glorify the Almighty for His guidance to you: And proclaim the good news to all who do right.” (Quran 22: 37).
 
Eid-el-Adha as season of acts of worship and sacrifice, the virtues of love and compassion, promotion of kindness and generosity should become template of engagement in order to create enduring peace and harmonious co-existence among the creatures of the Almighty.
The Guardian wishes all Muslims and all Nigerians a happy Eid-el-Adha celebration; and a safe return of pilgrims on Hajj, another pillar of Islam observed in conjunction with the festival of the ram.