Eid-ul-Adha: Abraham and the Sacrifice

Islam celebrates two great festivals annually - Eid-ul-Fitr and
Eid-ul-Adha. The first is the great festival that followsthe month of
Ramadan when the fast is broken. The second occurs about two months
later during the month of Zil-Hajj when an animal is sacrificed in
commemoration of Abraham's sacrifice of hisson. This festival is
incorporated in the greatpilgrimage to Mecca which should properly
bemade during this month but it is also observed all over the Muslim
world at the same time. The underlying importance ofthis festival is
the spirit ofsacrifice (qurbani) in memory of Abraham's great act of
faith many centuries ago.
Eid-ul-Adha is, according to Islamic teaching, a time for Muslims to
learn the value of self-denial by making a sacrifice of something
living to God. It is stringently denied bymost Muslim theologians that
the sacrifice has any further significance and it is especially denied
that religious sacrifice has any atoning or propitiatory value.
Abraham's great act of submission is thus regarded solely as an
example of genuine surrender to the will of God and is to be
followedas such.
In this booklet we shall examine in some detail this great event in
Abraham's life and will study all the circumstances around it to
decide whether the Islamic negations of any propitiatory value or
representation in the sacrifice of his son are justified, or whether
there was not really somegreat underlying revelation in it.
We shall begin by makinga study of Abraham's faith for it is very
rarely realised just how considerably God tested his belief in his
faithfulness and trustworthiness.
1. THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM.
The story of Abraham andthe sacrifice of his son is of profound
significance and the best way of obtaining the deepest knowledge of
its meaning is to go throughthe life of Abraham from the very time
that this son was promised to him to the end when this son became the
progenitor of a great nation.
When Abraham was seventy-five years old, God spoke to him and said:
"Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the
land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and
I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who blessyou, and him who curses you I
will curse; and by you all the families of theearth shall bless them
selves". (Genesis 12.1-3).
The Quran confirms that God gave this great promise toAbraham that he
would be the father ofmany nations:
"Lo: I have appointed thee a leader for mankind". (Surah 2.124).
As Abraham left his country and was travelling through the land of
Canaan (subsequently known as Palestine and Israel), God again spoke
to him and said "To your descendants I will give this land" (Genesis
12.7). Later, when Abraham again came to the land ofCanaan, God spoke
to him and said:
"Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward
and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you
see I will give to you and your descendants for ever. I will make your
descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the
dust ofthe earth, your descendants also can be counted". (Genesis
13.14-16).
Abraham must have marvelled at these awesome promises. He must have
wondered very deeply about the future generations and have pondered at
great length as to why he should be the father of somany descendants
and why they should be blessed through him. Presently, however, he was
concerned about thefact that he had no offspring of his own. His
nephew Lot had parted from him and his only heir at the time was a
slave named Eliezer of Damascus. Therefore, when God spoke to him
again, Abraham said:
"'0 Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and
the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Behold, thou hast given
me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir. "
(Genesis15.2-3).
Immediately, however, God answered him and spoke these comforting words to him:
"This man shall not be your heir, your own son shall be your heir".
(Genesis 15.4).
After giving him the tidings that he would have a son, God made him
come out of his house and said:
"Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number
them". (Genesis 15.5).
As Abraham stared in awe at the myriads of stars above him on a clear
night, God said to him: "So shall your descendants be". (Genesis
15.5).
God had promised him that he would give him a son-even in his old age
- and that through this sonhe would give him offspring as many as the
stars he could see in the sky. Now Abraham knew that it was not
naturally possible for him to have a son because his wife was barren
and "it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women"
(Genesis 18.11). Furthermore he himself was to all intents and
purposes too old to bear offspring through her.
Abraham knew, therefore, that God's promise could only be fulfilled if
God himself supernaturally brought about the conception and birth of
the son by the power of his Spirit. Abraham nevertheless trusted him
whom he considered faithful to bring this about in his own wonderful
way.
"And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as
righteousness". (Genesis 15.6).
Why did Abraham believeGod? Was he the kind of man who did not reason
about difficult matters and preferred just to leave them to God to
achieve though he could neither understand nor comprehend them in any
way? Was fatalistic resignation Abraham's concept of surrendering to
the will of God? No - this man Abraham is set forth in the Bible as
the great figurehead of faith in a human creature whose example should
be followed by all men (Galatians 3.9). He considered the promise,
reasoned about it, came to a conclusion it was true, and then
believed. We have a fine summary of his thoughts in this passage:
"Abraham is the father ofus all, as it is written, 'I have made you
the father of many nations' - in the presence of the God in whom he
believed, who gives life to the dead and calls intoexistence the
things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he
should become the father of many nations; as he had been told 'So
shall your descendants be'. He did not weaken in faith when he
considered his own body, which was as good as dead because hewas about
a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's
womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he
grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that
God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was
'reckoned to him as righteousness'." (Romans 4.16-22).
He reasoned carefully about the promise. He questioned whether it
could be fulfilled. He could not naturally have a son but he knew that
God was faithful and if God had promised to give him a son, then
because of the faithfulness of God to his own word, the promise must
come true. Abrahambegan with this precept firmly fixed in his mind:
"Every word of God proves true". (Proverbs 30.5).
Knowing this he believedthat God would fulfil his promise. But he did
not stop there - he reasoned further as to how God could bring this
about. God would have to intervene in the natural order. He would have
to cause something to happen which otherwise could not naturally take
place. He believed, as Paul put it to the Roman Christians, that God
"calls into existence things thatdo not exist" (Romans 4.17). Because
of this exercise of faith, becausehe reasoned carefully about the
matter and didnot just accept the promise fatalistically, he came to
understand how the son would be conceived and in so doing gained a
greater understanding of the mind and will of God as well. God highly
commended him for this exercise of faith. Abraham did not believe, as
some men foolishly do,that God can just do anything he pleases
according to his arbitrarywill and that no one can question his acts -
even when what purports to be an act of God is altogether morally
questionable. Abraham did not have such a low concept of God.
He believed that God is absolutely righteous and that he would never
do something which human conscience would con-firm to be unrighteous.
He knew that God, whatever he did, would always act within the bounds
of his own absolute moral holiness and perfection. Some consider that
this attitude limits the power of God to do as he chooses - not so
Abraham. He believed in a God of eternal righteousness who was all the
more exalted and glorified by his own refusal to choose to do anything
that would go against his own love of righteousness and holiness. As
he said on another occasion, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right?" (Genesis 18.25). He knew that God's will is always good and
acceptable and perfect.
He knew that it was within the moral holinessof God, coupled with his
omnipotence, to bring about the son he had promised. So, as Paul said,
after he had reasoned about this, "no distrust made him waver
concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he
gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had
promised". (Romans 4.20). This process of reasoning strengthened his
faith so that he did not just believe the promise through blind,
uncomprehending acceptance of God's word, but rather saw by his faith
what was behind that word - God's ability to bring "into existence
things that do not exist" and when he saw this, he understood the
promise, he gained knowledge of the ways of God, and because he
obtained this better comprehension of the nature of God and his works,
he was able to believe with sound reason (and not blind resignation)
the promise he received. He was justifiably "fully convinced that God
was able to do as he had promised".
God commended him for this process of faith - andbecause he displayed
his faith by carefully reasoning about the promise in the light of
God's own righteous character, God "reckonedit to him as
righteousness". Such is the faith God requires from us. Such was the
faith of Abraham - and therefore he is set beforeus as the ideal
example of a man who had true faith in God.
2. THE REJECTION OF ISHMAEL.
Ten years after God had first given his great promises to Abraham, his
wife Sarah complained tohim of her barrenness. Soshe suggested to him
that he should bear offspring through her maid Hagar. (Genesis 16.2).
When Hagar had conceived a child, however, instead of remembering the
circumstances in which she was able to bear it, she looked on Sarah
withcontempt and Sarah, grieved by this betrayal of trust, drove Hagar
away into the wilderness.(Genesis 16.6). Nevertheless the Lord, in his
perfect justice and mercy, commanded her to return to Sarah and at the
same time promised that her descendants would be multiplied into a
great nation as well. Then the Lord said to her:
"Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his
name Ishmael; because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He
shallbe a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every
man's hand against him; and heshall dwell over against all his
kinsmen". (Genesis 16.11-12). When the childwas born, Abraham did as
the Lord had commanded and called the son Ishmael (meaning "God
hears") and as far as he was concerned, this was the fulfilment of the
promise God had given him. Accordingly he temporarily abandoned his
belief that the promised son would be born of his wife Sarah. He
looked on Ishmael with extreme favour, persuaded that he was the child
of the promise.
For thirteen years Abraham looked on as Ishmael grew up. Ishmaelhad by
this time almost reached adulthood and Abraham looked forwardto seeing
the beginning of the offspring he longed for who would herald the
fulfilment of God's promise that he would give him descendants as many
as the stars in the sky. But the first of a number of shocks, designed
to reallytest his faith in the faithfulness of God, was about to
confront him.
After thirteen silent yearsduring which Ishmael grew to the threshold
of manhood, God again spoke to Abraham and said these words:
"I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make
my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly".
(Genesis 17.1-2).
Once again God renewed his promise that he was to be the father of
kings and nations (Genesis 17.6). With Ishmael now approaching
adulthood, Abraham no doubt eagerly anticipated what God still had to
say to him. But he was in for a surprise. God said to him of Sarah his
wife:
"I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will
bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples
shall come from her". (Genesis 17.16). At first Abraham marvelled at
this promise. Both he and his wife were now twenty three years older
than they were when God firstpromised him that he would have a son.
Was Sarah now to become themother of nations? Was God to make his
covenant with the son of his wife rather than the son of her maid
after all? Abraham took surprise now that he should bear a son through
Sarah his wife and said to the Lord:
"Shall a child be born to aman who is a hundred years old? Shall
Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" (Genesis 17.17).
But then, overwhelmed by his long expectancy ofthe fulfilment of God's
covenant through Ishmael and struck by God's word that the son he had
promised was to come from his wife Sarah, Abraham said to the Lord:
"0 that Ishmael might livein thy sight.'" (Genesis 17.8).
0 that Ishmael may be theapple of your eye, the child of your favours,
he pleaded. But God said to him:
"No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his
name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting
covenant for his descendants after him". (Genesis 17.19).
This must have been a bitter pill for Abraham to swallow. His hopes
for Ishmael vanished like a mist. God promised that he would make
Ishmael the father of a great nation after the flesh (Genesis 17.20),
but his covenant - a richly spiritual one - was to be made through
Isaac afterthe Spirit.
However deeply this might have affected Abraham, he was a deeply
spiritual man and he was, as a man of true faith, concerned only about
spiritual matters. Maintaining his faith without wavering, he again
believed the Lord and began to look forward to the child who was to be
born of the Spirit by the will of God. Accordingly he dismissed from
his hopes the child who was born of the flesh through the will of
himself, his wife and his mistress. From now on heanticipated the day
whenIsaac would be born to him.
God was so determined that his promise should be properly fulfilled
that he ensured that Ishmael should not appear to be the child of his
spiritual covenant. He had said to Hagar:
"He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every
man's hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his
kinsmen". (Genesis 16.12).
He shall be a "wild ass of a man", God said, meaning that he would be
a thoroughly unspiritual man, a man offlesh and blood alone and born
of the flesh alone. In every way he would be sharply contrasted with
Isaac who was to be a deeply spiritual man, born of theSpirit by the
special will of God.
3. THE BIRTH OF ISAAC.
God had not promised the birth of Ishmael to Abraham -he spoke of
Isaac when he first promised that he would give Abraham a son through
whom all the nations of the earth in the coming ages would bless
themselves.
The Quran confirms that no tidings of the birth of Ishmael were given
to Abraham but that Isaac alone was the son who was promised to him.
Thepromise of the birth of Isaac is recorded in the Quran in these
words:"And we gave him tidingsof the birth of Isaac, a Prophet of the
righteous". (Surah 37.112).
The Quran says nothing of any tidings being given about the birth of
Ishmael but whenever it does speak of such tidings it always refers
toIsaac or specifically names him as the son who was promised (See
also Surah 11.71 as well where Isaac is again named as the promised
son). It is wise at this stage to note that the Quran takes no issue
withthe Bible on the chain of events we have thus far considered and
that, when it does refer to them, it plainly endorses them as we have
seen.
God fulfilled his promise and Isaac was duly born when Abraham was a
hundred years old. (Genesis 21.1-3). Nevertheless Ishmael took
exception to Isaac and the favour of God upon him and began to trouble
him while he played, envious of the blessings that had been promised
to his offspring. (Genesis 21.9). The Bible says of Ishmael's
treatment of Isaac:
"He who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born
according to the Spirit". (Galatians 4.29).
God's warning that Ishmael's hand would be against every man was
coming true. He was seeking for his offspring after the flesh the
blessings promised to Isaac's offspring after theSpirit. Sarah
perceived this and said to Abraham:
"Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave
woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac". (Genesis 21.10).
Because Ishmael was born of the flesh and only of a slave woman at
that, whereas Isaac was born of the Spirit according to the promise of
a free woman, God commanded Abraham to hearken to the voice of his
wife and to part from Hagar for Ishmael was not his true son, being
born only of a slave woman (Genesis 21.12). Isaac, however, was the
only son of his wife Sarah, the free woman, and God had
promised"through Isaac shall your descendants be named". (Genesis
21.12). So from that day Abraham bid Hagar and Ishmael farewell and
remained with Sarah and his only son by her, Isaac. The years went by
and Abraham lived in the landof the Philistines. (Genesis 21. 34).
Gradually, however, the intense anticipation of the fulfilment of
God's promise began to possessAbraham again as he sawhis son approach
adulthood. Presently he expected to see some of those descendants God
had promised him. As he had done many years before, Abraham eagerly
awaited the fulfilment of his promise.
But if the rejection of Ishmael came as a shock to him, far worse was
to follow now. God was nowhere near finished with testing and proving
the intensity and degree of his faith. The final and great test was
about to confront him.
4. THE COMMAND TO SACRIFICE.
After living for some timein the land of the Philistines, Abraham
heard again the voice of God calling him by name"Abraham.'" (Genesis
22.1). Immediately he responded "Here am I". Filled with excitement at
the prospect of knowing more of the effective realisation of God's
promises to him, he eagerly awaited the message God was to give him.
Was his son now to become the forefather ofmany nations?
With keen anticipation he expected some indication of the fulfilment
of God's promise that he was to have descendants as many as the stars
in the sky. But a sword was about to pierce his soul. For God
immediately saidto him: "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you
love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you".
(Genesis 22.2).
What a command this was: Ishmael had left himand Isaac alone was with
him. With great awe and wonder Abraham received this command to
sacrifice Isaac his son.
The Quran confirms the Biblical account of the sacrifice and also
plainly supports the clear statement in the Bible that it was Isaac
who wasto be sacrificed. We read of Abraham:
"My Lord! Vouchsafe me of the righteous. So We gave him tidings of a
gentle son. And when his son was old enough to walk with him, Abraham
said: 0 my dear son, I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice
thee". (Surah 37.100-102).
It is quite obvious that the son who was to be sacrificed was the same
son whose birth was foretold. We have seen from other passages in the
Quran that the birth of Isaac alone was foretold to Abraham and it is
clearly this son who was to be offered up.
Secondly in the same Surah (37), we find a lengthy account of various
significant incidents in the lives of the prophets of old who are all
mentioned by name. In the case of Abraham, after the narration of the
tidings of the birth of the son and the vision to sacrificethe same
son, we read:
"And We gave him tidings of the birth of Isaac, a Prophet of the
righteous. And We blessed him and Isaac". (Surah 37.112-113).
These verses are clearly a summary of the narrativeabout the sacrifice
of Isaac by his father Abraham as a test of theirmutual faithfulness
to God throughout the whole ordeal until God provided a ram in Isaac's
place. Clearly the Quran here agrees with the Bible in making Isaac
the son who was to be sacrificed. Ishmael is mentioned elsewhere in
the Quran by name (particularly in the passage about the construction
of the Ka'aba where he is named as Abraham's helper - Surah 2.125) but
is nowhere mentioned inthis passage about the sacrifice wherein Isaac
is expressly mentioned twice by name.
Accordingly it must be concluded that the Quransupports the Bible in
making Isaac the object of the sacrifice. Certainly no fair and
impartial exposition of Surah 37. 100-113 can produce the conclusion
that it was Ishmael who was to be sacrificed in the vision that
Abraham saw.
Abraham must have beenstruck with bewilderment when he first heard
this command to sacrifice his son Isaac. If we suggested that he
received this order without any emotional shock or immediate repulsion
in his heart at what he was commandedto do, we would dishonour Abraham
as a real man of God. We cannot believe that such a father who loved
his son so much could automatically respond to the command with
unaffected resignation toit or with a straightforward complacency with
the divine will.
The very wording of the command shows that God did not expect it to be
received without heart-rending astonishment but rather that he
intended that Abraham should be shocked to the core of hisgreat human
soul. God deliberately placed emphasis on the nature of the price
Abraham wasto pay to fulfil this demand and quite clearlydetermined to
test him tothe extreme of his affections and love for his son and for
God:"Take your son, your onlyson Isaac, whom you love, and go to the
land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering". (Genesis
22.2).
What a tremendous trial of faith this was for Abraham. God put him to
a severe threefold test - firstly to show his overriding love for God
by giving that which was dearest to his heart and which could not be
replaced, even his only son; secondly to maintainhis trust in the
absolute moral holiness and trustworthiness of God who he had hitherto
believed would never will something that was evil or morally
questionable; and thirdly to persevere in his faith in the steadfast
faithfulness of God to his own promise that he would yet give him
descendants through thisson as many as the stars in the sky.
For some real faith implies an unquestioningresignation to what
appears to be the will of God, no matter how improbable or morally
suspect the exercise of that will may appear to be. Abraham was not
such a man. He could not summarily abandon himself to the command to
sacrifice his son without considerable reflection on its implications
and circumstances. God confronted him with this awful test of his
faith because God knew that this man would never go through with the
command unless, as in the case of the birth of Isaac, he was fully
convinced both of the moral excellence of the order and its thorough
consistency with the promise that God would give him descendants as
many as the stars in the sky.
The greatness of this man's faith is found in hisrefusal to believe
anything unless it was credible - no matter who commanded it - and his
determination to understand and recognise the credibility of that
which appeared to be overpoweringly incredible - when the One who gave
the command was the God inwhose absolute holiness and faithfulness he
had always trusted, the "Holy God who shows himself holy in
righteousness". (Isaiah 5.16).

--


- - - - -

And Allah Knows the Best!

- - - - -

Published by :->
M NajimudeeN Bsc- INDIA

- - - - - - -