Bilal Ahmad Khanday:
Every year on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the twelfth and final month of the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Adha is celebrated throughout the Muslim world to commemorate the unparalleled example of faith and willingness shown by Prophet Ibrahim (AS), who was ready to sacrifice his son as an act of absolute obedience and submission to Allah’s command. The moment Ibrahim (AS) was about to place the knife on the throat of his son, Allah commanded him not to sacrifice his son and instead provided a ram from the heavens to be sacrificed as a symbol of submission and faith. It is this practice that is commemorated throughout the Muslim world on this sacred day.
But the question is: does Allah need our sacrifice of animals, or does He require something else from us?
Obviously, the meat of the sacrificed animal is distributed into three shares: one for the family, one for relatives and neighbours, and one for the poor and destitute. This is one exoteric aspect of sacrifice — to provide food for family, friends, neighbours, relatives, and the needy.
However, the more important aspect lies in its esoteric perspective, which the Holy Quran mentions in Surah Al-Hajj:
> “Neither their meat nor their blood reaches Allah. It is your piety that reaches Him.”
(Al-Quran 22:37)
Thus, it is our piety that truly matters. The immaterial is more important than the material. Unfortunately, we often do the opposite. We have altogether forgotten the essence and remain focused on the secondary while ignoring the primary.
We must remember that Allah’s command to Ibrahim (AS) was not about the material sacrifice of his beloved son; rather, it was a test of his piety, faith, submission, and surrender before the Divine command.
Today, we follow the ritual but have forgotten its true essence. When we sacrifice an animal, we are actually expected to sacrifice our animalistic self. We must sacrifice our arrogance, conceit, cruelty, unchecked desires, ego, greed, hatred, and jealousy. When these vices disappear, they automatically pave the way for humility, modesty, kindness, altruism, generosity, love, and inner joy. Simply put, when negativity fades away, positivity is born.
Therefore, before buying sacrificial animals, we must first rethink our ideology. We must prepare ourselves to sacrifice our negative traits, behaviour, and personality.
Before sharpening our knives, we must be ready to sharpen our hearts — lest our knives become sharp while our hearts remain blunt.
Even if we sacrifice animals without understanding the real essence of sacrificing our ego, pride, and other inner evils, it becomes merely a waste of money and resources, because before Allah neither money nor blood is counted. What truly matters is submission, obedience, and faith.
The tragedy of the Muslim world today is that we remain occupied with the secondary — the outward ritual — while neglecting the primary, which demands inner transformation.
To put it simply, the real sacrifice is not of an animal, but of the self.
