Fulfilling the required duties obliged to a person makes him a responsible constituent of a family and is ultimately important to manufacture a mere respectable society to live in. A dutiful person is obviously seen as a constructive member of the society rather than a rebellious one who continuously cries about not getting enough perks forgetting the fact that he isn’t even contributing for the betterment of the social order. This is very easy to digest this way as the non-performing employee of a corporation doesn’t get the annual bonus or promotion depending on his yearly performance. This has to be analyzed on a broader prospect as well to evaluate our performances and decide our fates accordingly. We, as a demanding member of society should also come across our shortcomings and deficiency in satisfying our recital and evaluate ourselves as per merits.

Allah has granted a few Obligations to every individual with the aim of making them a dutiful person towards Him as well as society. Major responsibilities are cased for the betterment of society if they are to be understood along with their spirits and not only restricting to their visible contents. Every obligation in Islam acquires its basic spirits and roots along with its evident regulations to be understood and acted upon consequently. As we are heading towards one of the most commonly recognized annual practice among the Muslims i.e. ‘Sacrificing Animals’, we need to enlighten us with the foremost theme of this obligation in order to attain the spiritual blessings behind such a sacred duty which certainly got many secrets behind it than just slaughtering the animals and eating or distributing their meat.

Sacrificing of animals are done in order to remember the supreme example of Hazrat Ibrahim (Aleihi Salam) who sacrificed his son Hazrat Ismail (Aleihi Salam) as per orders of his Lord, but only to find his son replaced by a heavenly goat which was slaughtered instead of his son, however, the sacrifices of both Hazrat Ibrahim and Ismail were accepted by Allah. Both of the personalities have proved their enormous love for Allah which supersedes any likelihood of getting over the superlative love of parent-children. When we study the core values of this memorable incident, we get to understand an ample of hidden treasures behind this sacred job. An aged father decided to sacrifice his beloved teenage son just to fulfill the orders of his Lord and that is the duty of the prophets as well; to fulfill the instructions of their Lord and provide guidelines to their followers. When we come across to the conversation of Father-son prior to this job, we found the unforeseen passion of a teenager son who is ready to be sacrificed on the name of Allah.

Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal has summarized the sacred message of this event in a single verse:

“Ye Faizan e Nazar tha, Ya k Maktab ki Karamat thi,

Sikhaye Kis ne Ismail ko Adaab e Farzandi?”

Translation:

Was it the blessing of a glance, or the miracle of tutelage?

Who taught to young Ismail the ways of filial obedience?

Nowadays, we have just restricted the concept of this obligation to sacrificing of animals only; however, it takes a vast realization and execution in itself. Every commitment desired from an individual grasps the concept of ‘piety’ behind it. Piety; an element to keep yourselves close to your creator.

As stated in the Holy Quran:

Never does their flesh or their blood reach Allah, but your piety successfully reaches Him. [22:37]

From the likes of Prayers to Fasting, Performing Hajj to Slaughtering animals, every obligation contains the assessment of piety inside it. What is the method of achieving piety? What are the main features of piety that takes you close to your Lord? And the ultimate answer of this question is the sacrifice of your ‘ego’ and sacrifice of your dire self aka ‘nafs’ which drives you towards unlawful behavior and actions and takes you far away from your Lord and strives to break your internal connection with Him. Devil, on the other hand, also makes umpteenth efforts to inject the immoral desires in your heart and somehow helps you to think about illegitimate thoughts and deeds. Efforts are needed from one’s part to suppress our Nafs and defeat the immoral desires of Devil. As of now, we are more concerned about the random people commenting on us rather than our Lord who knows the slightest of thoughts inside our hearts. In our festivals and traditions, we are more apprehensive about the community rather than Islamic Legal System (Shariah). We are more concerned about our outside looks rather than decorating our soul and character and that is what we are getting in reaction; Hate, refutation and trust denial are evidently observed inside our ranks.

Time has come to analyze our deficiencies and make proper inroads towards the betterment of our soul; hence resulting a more powerful connection with our Lord. On this sacred occasion of Eid, Let us promise ourselves to take a step further and understand the basic concept of sacrifice. Ultimately, it is Allah who’ll reward us on this practice and not our relatives, neighbors and community who’ll eventually judge the outer prospect of this sacred practice and can only comment on the health or price of your animal. Let us not worry about the price of our animals which is intended to show off among the community and envisage that; As I am sacrificing this animal on the orders of Allah, I will also present myself for sacrifice in terms of my awful habits and shady character to purify my soul and be an obedient servant of my Lord. As I’ll press the knife on the required four veins of this animal to slaughter it, I will also slash my four crooked practices and slaughter my criminal soul consequently. Only then, we’ll be able to reach the spirituality of this obligation and gather the astonishing fruits of this tree.

The utmost duty of a servant should be to please his Lord by performing His obligations and designated duties and ultimately receive the unforeseen blessings in reward. By obtaining the core values of a particular duty, a person not only considers the satisfaction of his Lord but of his creation as well. It would be a pleasant sight to view people depending on their Lord rather than the other dependencies which aren’t even reliable for good. Eventually, this would make an ideal environment around us where people are more caring towards each other and not only drowned into gratifying their own needs and achievements while crushing the basic rights of others.

On This Eid, Let us promise ourselves to sacrifice our Nafs,

 And be an obedient servant of our Lord.

Happy Eid!!

By: Umer Dilshad (Contributor)