THIS IS HOW QURBANI IS DONE IN HUNZA | TAJWAR ALI BAIG

Muslims around the globe celebrate Eid ul Azha in the memory of Hazrat Ibrahim and Hazrat Ismail and their sacrifice for Allah. Allah ordered Ibrahim to sacrifice his most precious thing on Allah’s path and Ibrahim was ready to sacrifice his son Ismail but Allah saved Ismail. Ibrahim and Ismail succeeded in the valuation of Allah. Muslims around the globe celebrate in the memory of that event. They slaughter animals.

Sitting in my room when I think of Eid ul Azha then I see beautiful sheep, goats, camels and Ox in the streets of Islamabad. Kids playing with the animals in the streets and elders do every possible thing for the hospitality and comfort of animals. People perform this ritual whole heartedly.

At the same time competition of beautiful, expensive and large animals is at the peak. My neighbour is going to slaughter a sheep so I must slaughter a goat. My neighbour is going to slaughter a goat and my turn is of Ox, if people in my street are sacrificing an Ox then I must go for a camel. With this competition a day will come when someone will say my neighbour is going to sacrifice a camel and I must go for a dinosaur. My Question is, is this the essence of Eid ul Azha??

Then bloody streets of Islamabad are coming to my mind and the garbage or animal’s waste after slaughter. The animals waste and blood remains on roads for weeks and it becomes impossible for people the cross the streets without covering their nose because of the unpleasant smell. This situation also spreads number of diseases. On one hand we the Muslims are celebrating Eid and we make these days so difficult for the Christians community because all the sweepers belong to Christian community. My Question is, is this the essence of Eid ul Azha??

The war for the pelt starts in cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi etc. Political, religious and welfare organizations start to fight against each other for the pelts. Even the situation comes to cross firing between the parties and people lose their lives in the acquisition of pelt. Banned religious groups become vivacious in this situation and administration remains spectator. My question is, is this the concrete essence of Eid ul Azha?

Two days before Mr. Arshad Saeed, member of Karachi electronics dealers association said that sales of deepfreezes and refrigerators increase of around 15 to 20 percent this Eid ul Azha and on every Eid e Qurban usually sales attract more buyers of total annual Hijra year sale. People purchase deepfreezes to store more and more meat. People store whole Ox or camel in the freezers for months and enjoy BBQ parties and hundreds of different delicious dishes. Footpaths in Rawalpindi are full of BBQ stands and sale of BBQ stands also increased to a large percentage. My question is, is this the essence of Eid ul Azha?

Qurbani is actually name of sacrifice in the name of Allah. But what type of sacrifice is this?? We just made it a ritual of party dance and enjoyment. The concept of sacrifice is buried under the BBQ parties, competition of showing off their wealth. Late night parties and hundreds of delicious dishes in the kitchens of the wealthy people of our society. The poor is still sleeping with an empty stomach on the footpaths after a continuous full day struggle, holding a plastic bag in his hand, going door to door and asking for meat for the sack of Allah. And at the end he goes to the big waste bin placed in the middle of the city picks the offal and brings it to their children who are waiting under the fly overs of different roads. They wait for their father because this is the only day in the whole year they expect that they will eat meat in their family. My question is, is this the real essence of Eid ul Azha?

But there is a place in Pakistan where people celebrate Eid ul Azha with its soul concept. Yes this is not other than Hunza. After performing the Eid prayers people gather their sacrifice animals to one place which is commonly their community canter which they call Jamat Khana. All the sacrifice animals of the village are gathered in Jamat Khana and after a concentrative prayers all the animals are slaughtered and whole meat is divided into equal quotas for each household in the community. If there are five hundred householdswhole meat will be divided into five hundred equal quotas. Each home gets the equal share of the meat irrespective of who owned the animal. Household who do not have sacrifice animal and Household who sacrificed an Ox get equal share of the meat.

I think this is the actual sacrifice and this is what Islam teaches us and this is actual essence of Eid ul Azha. This is the actual concept of the sacrifice of Hazrat Ibrahim and Hazrat Ismail.

     Tajwar Ali Baig

Researcher Pakistan