Ali's Sacrifice

"There! I found the moon," exclaimed six yearold Ali to his father.
"Where?" asked Ali�s ten year old brother, Abdullah.
"See that big tree? Its right next to it," replied Ali.
The boys were trying to sight the new moon for the beginning of the
Islamic month of Zulhijjah.Eid would be ten days from the day they saw
the new moon.
"Oh, I see it now," said Abdullah.
"Daddy, can we go tomorrow to buy a goat?"asked Ali.
"Sure, we�ll go tomorrow after the Zuhr prayer," replied their father.
The next day, all of the boys got in to the car with their father.
They were going to the neighboring hills to buy a goat to slaughter on
the day of Eid in commemoration of what Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham),
alayhi salam, did.
"We�re going to bring thegoat home this time," saidtheir father, "so
you will have to take care of it andfeed it. You can also play with
it."
"Yahoo! I�ll take care of it," said Ali, "I�ll even teach it tricks!"
The boys and their father finally found a goat and took it home. The
next day, Ali woke up early long before the time he used to wake up.
He washed and dressed, thenwent outside to play withthe goat. His
brothers Usman and Abdullah werealready outside playing with the goat.
"Assalamu alaikum," they said together.
"Wa-alaikum as salam," replied Ali.
"We have decided that wewill take turns to feed thegoat. Everyone will
take care of the goat for one day. You can be the first one to feed
him," said Abdullah.
"Okay," said Ali, "where is the food?"
"Right here," replied Abdullah, pointing to the food hidden in a corner.
"Make sure, you give him enough water and hay," said Usman.
Ali then called the goat. The goat came to him obediently and ate the
food. Then he drank a little water.
The boys kept on taking turns until the Eid day. Many times they took
it for walks around their neighborhood. One time, as Abdullah was
getting out of his house to go for the Maghrib prayer, the goat
followed him. Abdullah then had to force the goat back into the
backyard, which the goat resisted very much. The boys started liking
the goat very much.
After the Eid prayer, on the Eid day, the family returned home. It was
time to slaughter the goat.
"D-d-daddy, why are you going to k-k-kill the goat?" asked Ali, who
wasnearly crying, as his fathersharpened his knife.
"We have to kill him, because Allah has orderedus to," came the
reply,"Every Eid-ul-Adha, Muslims all over the world, who can afford,
slaughter a goat, sheep, lamb, cow, or camel. Prophet Ibrahim, alayhi
salam, was ordered by Allah to slaughter his son as a test. He was
about to do that because it was Allah�s order, but then Allah provided
him with aram to slaughter, and Ibrahim, alayhi salam, slaughtered
that. As a commemoration of that great sacrifice, Muslims are asked to
slaughter an animal. You will also be slaughtering an animal when you
grow up."
Ali did not reply but rather watched his father as he slaughtered the
goat. Then he ran into thehouse, because he could not stand watching
the goat die.
Abdullah went after him and explained everything to him again that his
father had said before. Ali finally understood, but he still seemed
sad.
The boys then helped their father in doing the rest of the work. As he
kept thinking about it, Ali realized he had just learned the
word"sacrifice" now: you give up something you love for a higher
purpose. He had become happy now because he knew they had killed the
goat because Allah had commanded them to do so. Then he skipped into
his house and started helping his mother clear up the meat.
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