HAJ and Eid Al-Adha take us back in history to the time of a
97-year-old man being asked to take the life of a 13-year-old boy. Who is
that man? And who is that boy? And who is the one who is making this
request? If we know who the three points in this equation are, we would have
a better perspective on life and on what life is all about.
The man who was asked at 97 to take the life of a 13-year-old boy is none
other than the close Friend of Allah, the Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon
him), the father of the prophets and messengers. And the 13-year-old boy
whose life Prophet Ibrahim was asked to take is none other than his own son,
Ismail.
But when the boy reached the age when he was able to run and play around his
father, Ibrahim went to him and said, My darling son, I saw in my dream that
I was sacrificing you. We all know that the dreams of prophets and
messengers are forms of revelation from Allah Almighty. So it was the truth.
Now, who was the one who made that request? It was none other than Allah.
The One Who created life had asked Ibrahim to take away the life of his son.
And we know that His decree was that Ismail s life would not be taken away,
but it was a lesson for humanity to understand what life is all about.
Allah wanted Ibrahim to teach humanity a lesson. Thus, brothers and sisters,
we have to understand this lesson and reflect upon it. There are two things
in life that Allah Almighty made beautiful in this life. These two things
are mentioned in the Qur an more than once:
Wealth and children are the ornament of the life of this world. (Al-Kahf
18:46)
That is it! Wealth and children make life beautiful. Look what happened!
Allah Almighty chose one individual to sacrifice one of these two things,
and He did not ask any other human being to do the same.
One individual became an Ummah. Why? Because Ibrahim passed the test of a
whole Ummah. He was asked to sacrifice one of the two things that are
ornaments of life, and all of us have been asked to sacrifice the second. So
because of that, he indeed, is an Ummah in the same way that we are an
Ummah. He truly deserves that title:
Verily, Ibrahim (Abraham) was an Ummah, obedient to Allah, (Hanif). (An-Nahl
16:120)
This is the spirit of Eid Al-Adha. We have to sacrifice, brothers and
sisters, when we are called upon to sacrifice what we really like to keep:
By no means shall you attain Al-Birr (piety and righteousness, here it means
Allah s reward, i.e. Paradise ), unless you spend (in Allah s cause) of that
which you love. (Aal Imran 3:92)
If you have a lot of money and you take a thousand dollars and give it, this
would not be birr. Birr is to have two dollars and to give one of the
dollars away although you need the two dollars and would like to keep them
for essentials. This is a sacrifice. Sacrifice is to do something that is
difficult to do. This is sacrifice. It is not a sacrifice to do an easy
thing and then to appear at the surface as if you did a lot. No, only Allah
Almighty knows what sacrifice is all about.