The Feast of Sacrifice

We just celebrated the Feast of Sacrifice - one of the two big feasts in the Muslim world. The feast commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his beloved (and long-awaited) son, out of obedience to God’s command - and how He rewarded Abraham’s faithfulness by providing a ram to sacrifice instead. It also is done as a way to seek forgiveness for wrongs.

Traditions for the feast include sacrificing an animal (usually ram, goat, or sheep) and feasting with the meat, as well as giving it to those in need. For three days, everyone travels around to visit family and friends. This year, it was Friday - Sunday, and we had Thursday and Monday off school as well!

Typically people are supposed to sacrifice the animals themselves, but as you can imagine, that causes lots of problems - injuries to inexperienced “butchers” as well as lots of mess and smells. It’s now illegal in my city to do it yourself - instead, they have markets where you can go and purchase the animal and have it prepared for you. In the villages though, it’s definitely all do it yourself!

As the feast has now ended, please lift up Muslims all over the world who celebrated the feast – those who believe that the sacrifice will take away their guilt, as well as those for whom this is nothing more than a chance to enjoy time with family and friends. Ask that they would come to know that there is One who came to sacrifice Himself once for all, in order that those who believe would gain salvation.