Eid-ul-Adha: On The Day of Sacrifice, Slaughter Your Greed And Desires!

Eid-ul-Adha Asks:

Slaughter Your Desires/Greed,

Submit To The Will of Allah,

Care And Share!

(M. Javed Naseem)

 “And cover not Truth with falsehood, nor conceal

the Truth knowingly! And be steadfast in prayer;

practice regular charity; and bow down your heads

with those who bow down (in worship)!”

(al-Quran 2:42-43)

The Muslim Ummah just celebrated Eid-ul-Adha (the festival of sacrifice). This is held every year to commemorate Prophet Abraham’s (or Ibrahim’s) submission to the Lord Creator. Abraham was commanded in a dream to sacrifice the most precious thing of his life and there was nothing dearer to him than his first son Ishmael. As he put the knife on the throat of his son, the angel appeared and told him that he had passed the toughest test and his sacrifice had been accepted by God. So, the son was replaced by a lamb and he sacrificed a lamb. Muslims follow the same ritual and sacrifice different animals (lambs, sheep, goats, cows or camels) to please their Lord. They are supposed to share the meat with the poor and the less fortunate.

 

There are three messages in this ritual:

1. Surrender or submit to your Lord unconditionally and obey His Will! Obedience to Allah is the first and the foremost thing in the life of a believer. And that’s the real righteousness or piety (Arabic: ‘Taqwa’).
2. No precious object (offspring, wealth or property) is more important than the pleasure of the Lord Almighty, Who gives us all the bounties. So, we should give (or sacrifice) the best things for Him whenever we are required to do so.
3. Share with the poor, the needy and the less fortunate whatever good things Allah has blessed you with, showing Him your gratitude and contentment. That’s the way of the righteous.

In today’s world, we are running a race of material possessions and monetary gains. We have forgotten all codes of ethics, all morals, our values and our obligations. In fact we have forgotten God and have been following the Devil who is our eternal enemy. Hence all the bloodshed, wars, bombing and killing, injustice, moral bankruptcy, corruption and numerous other political, economic, social, cultural and spiritual problems. This storm of death and destruction is triggered by the so-called Torah and Bible believing people who want to control the entire world and plunder its wealth. The rich and characterless believers of the Quran are playing as their puppets and destroying their own world. The Bible says to these people:

Deuteronomy 31:29

“I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and will turn from the way I have commanded you to follow. In the days to come, disaster will come down on you, for you will do what is evil in the Lord’s sight, making Him very angry with your actions.”

James 4:4

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the World is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the World, makes himself an enemy of God.”

Countries are being invaded and nations are being destroyed in the name of freedom and democracy. The evil-doers are claiming to be the reformers and helpers. Above all, they claim to be believers in God! In fact, they are just hypocrites – corrupt and evil. The Bible refers to such people:

2 Peter 2:19

“… Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”

2 Peter 2:2

“Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.”

Isaiah 5:20

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

These are the End times. We have been warned by the Scriptures about it and about those friends of the Devil who are spreading hate, fear and war for the world hegemony.

We see now the corrupt preachers, ignorant Mullahs, evil-spreading churches, child-molesting pastors, and many false prophets. It is only going to get worse. The only remedy is that we revert to God and spread the truth. The fake ‘believers’ need to be exposed. Deceitful people with evil character are taking over all important and powerful positions in our world today, spreading lies and false teachings as authentic ‘religion’.

Corrupt preachers have teamed up with corrupt and evil politicians and both are living luxury lives at the expense of the poor taxpayers.

Hosea 9:9

“They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”

2. Isaiah 1:4

“Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord.”

Proverbs 3:33

“The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous.”

There is no honor and dignity! What we have lost is invaluable. We have lost honesty, contentment, patience, modesty and with that our peace and happiness. Money cannot get you those precious commodities. We need to revert to the One and Only Who can provide us with those blessings. We need to revert to Allah and follow His commands to achieve peace and happiness.

We are fighting wars left, right and center. What we really need to fight is our own self, our desires and our greed. And that requires a lot of courage!

On Eid-al-Adha, I would like to remind you of the Divine Message that is contained in the last 10 verses of Surah (Chapter 89) al-Fajr (meaning: Dawn) of the Holy Quran. Allah, the Almighty, says:

89:15
“Now, as for man, when his Lord tries him,

giving him honor and gifts, then says he, (puffed up),

"My Lord has honored me."

89:16
“But when He tries him, restricting his subsistence

for him, then says he (in despair),

"My Lord has humiliated me!"

89:17
“Nay, nay! But you honor not the orphans!”

89:18
“Nor do you encourage one another to feed the poor!”

89:19
“And you devour inheritance - all with greed!”

89:20
”And you love wealth with inordinate love!”

Allah has clearly defined the root-cause of all our problems: We are committing crimes against other human beings, especially the down-trodden, the weak, the orphans, and the poor with our greed. We are violating other people’s rights and spreading corruption. We are running a fatal race of materialism defying all rules and norms. In other words we are promoting corruption and injustice on the earth. And believe me, Allah does not like that a bit. Don’t you know that ‘all that is in the Heavens, the Earth and in-between, belongs to Allah’? You cannot be allowed to destroy that! Therefore, Allah reminds us of the warning and the consequences on the Day of Judgment, in the following verses:

89:21
”Nay! When the earth is pounded to powder;”

89:22
”And your Lord comes, and His angels, rank upon rank;”

89:23
”And Hell, that Day, is brought (face to face),

on that day will man remember, but how will

that remembrance profit him?”

89:24
”He will say: "Ah! Would that I had sent forth

(good deeds) for this life (in the Hereafter)!"

89:25
”For, that Day, His chastisement will be such that

no chastisement could be worse than His.”

(al-Quran 89:15-25)

The earlier nations had the same problem and they were punished. They were destroyed because they disobeyed Allah and spread corruption and evil in the earth. We can learn a lesson from their ruins around the world. God sent to them Prophets with the similar messages but they defied and revolted.

The Bible says:

Genesis 6:12

“God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5

“You must realize, however, that in the last days difficult times will come. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unfeeling, uncooperative, slanderous, degenerate, brutal, hateful of what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They will hold to an outward form of godliness but deny its power. Stay away from such people!”

Psalm 14:1

“Fools say to themselves, “There is no God.” They are corrupt and commit evil deeds; not one of them practices what is good.”

Deuteronomy 16:19

"You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.”

Psalm 37:12-13

“The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming.”

Psalm 94:21

“They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.”

We have abandoned righteousness; we have discarded compassion. We are controlled by our greed, lust and never-ending desires. We are speeding towards Hell and there seems to be no ‘speed-breakers’ on the way. Can we still reflect and repent (and be saved)? Time is running out!

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