The days of Eid arrive and the great Ibaadat of Qurbani is carried out.

We need to understand that Qurbani is not a Gujerati word. It is in fact an Arabic word. Allah Ta’ala has used this word ‘Qurbaan’ at various different places in the Holy Quraan. What is this Qurbaan?

It is that sacrifice we give that takes us to Allah Ta’ala, by leaps and bounds. It is closeness to Allah Ta’ala.

There are two things, they may seem very similar and are often regarded as the same thing, but in actual fact there is a world of difference between the two; one is to slaughter an animal, and the other is to do Qurbani.

There difference can very easily be understood as the difference between when a person stays hungry and another keeps Roza (fasts). In Ramadaan, many people only stay hungry. Sometimes a person thinks he is keeping a fast but he speaks lies, he backbites, he does not control his gaze, and passes the time in ghaflat (negligence). The fast is just in form, not in spirit. Rasulullah ﷺ said in this regard: “Many people who fast get nothing from their fast except hunger and thirst, and many people who pray at night get nothing from it except wakefulness.” … In other words, that kind of fast is not really a fast. It is mentioned in another Hadith that Allah Ta’ala is not in need of a person staying hungry.

Rasulullah ﷺ said:

مَنْ لَمْ يَدَعْ قَوْلَ الزُّورِ وَالْعَمَلَ بِهِ فَلَيْسَ لِلَّهِ حَاجَةٌ بِأَنْ يَدَعَ طَعَامَهُ وَشَرَابَهُ

“If a person does not avoid false talk and false conduct during Siyam (fasting), then Allah does not care if he abstains from food and drink.”

Similarly, there is a great difference in performing Salaah and doing some kind of exercise.

And there is a great difference in Qurbani and just slaughtering an animal.

Throughout the year and on a daily basis, hundreds of thousands of animals are slaughtered. Even non-Muslims slaughter animals. If you look at Muslim abattoirs and butchers there are many animals that are slaughtered every day, do we call this Qurbani?

We don’t! Why? Because in abattoirs etc. the purpose of slaughtering is to have meat to eat. In Qurbani the purpose and objective is not to eat, rather it is for a much more noble cause.

Many of us slaughter and then weigh the animal to see how much we will get from it. We store it in our deep freezers for a whole year. We actually slaughtered an animal for our own use.

This year, let us endeavour to bring back the spirit of Qurbani, the spirit of Ibrahim AS and his son Ismaeel AS.