(THREAD)
A vegan interpretation of Eid al-Adha

This is Muslim holiday that honors Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, to show his obedience to God. As Abraham was getting ready to take his son’s life, God interfered and an animal was sacrificed instead.

This story is believed in all 3 of the Abrahamic religions, but Muslims are the only ones who celebrate it. Today, many Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha by sacrificing an animal and distributing the meat in 3 ways: to the poor, close ones, and the rest for your fam.

However, there are a few differences between the Quranic version of the story and the Biblical version. First, the Biblical version explains that the boy that was about to be sacrificed was replaced with an animal, whereas the Quran does not mention any animal.

Instead, the Quran states that the boy was replaced with a “great sacrifice.” Although we can assume that the “great sacrifice” was indeed an animal, it is important to understand the context. A great sacrifice today is not the same as it was during the time of Abraham.

In other words, a “great sacrifice” is not synonymous with “animal.”

The other difference is that in the Bible, God directly commands Abraham to sacrifice his son. But in the Quran, God doesnt tell Abraham to kill his son. Instead, the Quran states that Abraham had a dream where he was slaughtering his son and he believed the dream to be from God.

The Quran never says that the dream was from God because it would go against its own teachings. In the Quran, God does not advocate evil and would never ask a father to kill his own son.

Ibn Arabi, a Sufi master from medieval Spain, argued that Abraham misinterpreted his own dream to be from God and that God sent a sacrificial lamb to save Ishmael from his father’s misinterpretation.

The purpose of the sacrifice is not to kill an animal, but to show your thanksgiving to God by sharing with people in need. People should sacrifice something that they value to show their appreciation for what they have been given.

Unless your survival depends on the killing of animals, then it is un-Islamic to cause unnecessary harm to God’s creatures, who are also Muslims.

I will end with this hadith:

"A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as an act of cruelty to a human being" (Mishkat al-Masabih; Book 6; Chapter 7, 8:178).