Qurbani Islamic Festival Of Animal Sacrifice

By Author: Salvatore Andrea
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Eid-al-Adha is the second most important festival in Islamic history and is usually celebrated in the last month of the Islamic calendar which is 10th, 11th or 12th. The main purpose of celebrating this festival is to honor the sacrifice by Prophet Ibrahim of his son Ishmael as a sign of respect and obedience to God. In order to show respect to this act of bravery, Muslims across the globe sacrifice an animal like goat, cow, sheep or camel on Eid-al-Adha. This sacrifice of the animal to honor the prophet is called qurbani in the Islamic world.

The animal used for Qurbani has to meet a few requirements. The most important requirement is that the animal must be free from any kind of illness or disability. It must be healthy and fully nourished and meet certain age requirements. For instance if a goat or sheep is being sacrificed the age limit is at least a year old whereas for cows it can be 2 years and the age can go up to 5 years for the camels.

Qurbani is mandatory for Muslims who have wealth and can afford the same. It is considered one of the ...
... most important islamic charities hence every Muslim should adhere to it. For the sacrifice of a single individual, one sheep or goat is enough. If you want to sacrifice in the name of seven or more individuals then a cow or camel will suffice. The meat from the Qurbani is not only just consumed by the owner who bought the animal for sacrifice. It has to be equally distributed to 3 groups, the first group is for the person who performs the sacrifice, second for family and friends and third one has to be distributed amongst the poor people. This not only symbolizes the goodwill to part with things that are valuable to us but also imbibe the habit of caring with those who are the deprived lot in the society.

Although it is advised to all male Muslims of a certain age to perform Qurbani with their own hands but in the west the policies do not permit this. Hence, the sacrifice has to be done by someone else on one’s behalf post which the meat is circulated to the three groups as mentioned above. The key part of such Islamic charities is to chant their God Allah’s name before performing the slaughter.