Sacrificial Day: Dogma v.s. Individual Principles

Is a Muslim automatically a sinner (or even an infidel) if he/she doesn't believe in sacrificial day? That he/she believes the day is only about animals slaughtering, charity for people who're not even in urgent need of meat, and is merely about a tradition without rational reasoning.

I remember when I was a child, once a year my parents told me to see and attend the moment when the animals were to be slaughtered, to be killed as the celebration of Abraham's story. Not enough with the bloody event, I should further see when the dead cows and goats were to be skinned. Sometimes my dad assigned me to get some of the meat for home.

Aside than those, I still vividly remember one of those days when there was a goat which roared deeply and it sounded sadly for me as a small kid when it was herded to the place and got prepared for the slaughtering. When the people started to chant prayers, the voice of the goat sounded deeper and sadder. I then shouted to them "Poor goat. It cries.", and then my little brother said he saw tears falling from one of the goat's eyes. Seeing the slaughtering happened, the other goat not far from where we stood, started to get anxious, but then it stopped moving as if it had surrendered helplessly. As the same fate came upon this other goat, the same deep sad roar came out.

I once went to an Islamic Primary School. I was taught about the meaning of sacrificial day, that it was to remember the Abraham's (or Ibrahim as Muslims called it) story. Abraham got a dream that God talked to him to sacrifice his beloved son, Ismael (or Isaac if you're Christians), as proof of his love to God, that his love to God was a lot bigger than anything. It was difficult for him, not to mention Ismael, his beloved son, had Abraham been waiting for almost 100 years of his life to have. However, after he talked it to, his son agreed as this son of Abraham also loved and obeyed God as much as his father did. Long short, when Abraham was about to slaughter the son, God replaced him by a sheep in a wink of eye without neither Abraham nor his son realized.

Remembering the Abraham's story by celebrating it, means we are reminded that there must be no love bigger than love to God, because anything else but love to God is nothing but worldly attachment. In Islam, we are taught that everything that exists in this world belongs to God, so when God asks them back, we must obey because after all, everything in this world is not eternal.

Let's put aside the controversy about whether this story is valid, that for some people Abraham was merely a delusional father suffering from grandiose delusion (that's the medical name for the psychiatric disorder). Let's assume such story is true. But then the question would be, is the animal sacrificing the right way to commemorate the Abraham's story so that the value will always be passed down from generation to generation?

I know to some extents religious tradition is dogmatic, that it might make no space at all for people to question nor doubt, because they say God knows better than we do. However, belief is always something personal and individual, even when people are bound to same religion, the way how they interpret their faith will always vary in accordance with their thinking.

Quoting from Desi Anwar's post in his journal web:

"If the gesture is symbolic, I suggested we could always make the offerings shaped like a goat. What kind of sacrifice would it be without an animal being killed, my aunt explained patiently. You need to shed blood. Moslems need to make a sacrifice on sacrificial day. What kind of sacrifice would it be with fruits and vegetables?

....First, if the important thing is to shed blood and you could basically sacrifice any animal depending on what you could afford, then why stop at goats and cows? How about sacrificing chickens, ducks and fish as well particularly by those who cannot afford to buy the bigger animals? The cheapest price of a goat these days by the way is around one million rupiah, the equivalent of a monthly minimum wage. That way, all religious faithful could perform some sort of animal sacrifice and shed blood. Otherwise, the sacrificial act is a religious ritual that is a privilege of only those who could afford it, changing the meaning of the sacrifice to alms (or in this case, meat) for the poor.

The second point is, where is the real element of sacrifice if what you’re doing is not a big deal? I argued that I thought the whole point of Abraham’s sacrifice is to show a love for the almighty that is far greater than the love he has for his son: Thus his willingness to sacrifice his son, his most precious thing in his life. What sort of sacrifice is it in buying a cow or goat you could readily afford and distributing the meat in plastic bags to people who are not really in desperate need for animal protein?

The way I see it, the only sacrifice here is made by the poor cow that has to have its throat slit open and blood drained while still very much alive and scared out of its wits."

Moreover, Islam teaches that we must leave any good-intended action when it brings more harm than good. I see how when the charity of the meat caused victims when the poor people jostle in the queue. Some faint, some fall and then stepped on, and even some pretend to be poor just to get the free giveaway meat. In addition, only God and Medical Doctors know how many people must be hospitalized (or at least see the doctors to be medicated) every year right after the sacrificial day because of the amount of cholesterol they redundantly intake in the celebration.

I am not saying this because I'm a vegetarian, although yes I do send my condolences for those animals sacrificing themselves for human (or perhaps for God), not to mention I'm not a full vegetarian (which sometimes I still eat meat under special circumstances I cannot avoid). I am saying this because I've been contemplating for some years, and I come to a belief that to some extents, humankind may be just psychologically sick, if some argue they're not irrational but religious. Last time I checked, only archaic humanity that would feel jubilant when they had blood shed in their religious ritual (and in this modern era it's called as paganism). Worse, because they tell their children to watch the blood-shedding moment and to be happy & grateful about it.

Another acquaintance of mine said on his facebook status that if humans don't acknowledge the probability of the cattle's gathering in establishing Universal Declaration of Animal Right, then it is indeed justifiable for Lion (or perhaps other animals too) to kill and eat humans because they don't recognize our Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR) either.

A couple of days ago my little brother told me that he wanted to practice skinning the sacrificed animals and he was so excited about it. I then told him not to, reasoning to feel sorry for the animals. He replied that indeed he felt sorry, but it's obligation as Muslim, and none could escape. Then I remembered one of Quraish Shihab's sermon in last Ramadhan Fasting month (or possibly two last Ramadhan Fasting month) about patience:

"If you're angry, don't scold. If you scold, don't hit. If you hit, don't kill. If you kill, don't mutilate. If you mutilate, don't burn the body."

I thought the preaching could be analogue to my little brother's situation. After I told him the words above, I went on by adding:

"If you feel ritually obligated, then go sacrifice the animals as the offerings as it is taught, but don't skin them." hoping would he still keep and uphold his humane side (which non-judgmentally according to my principles).

As yesterday I kept on with my mind wandering around, again from Desi Anwar's:

"By this time my aunt was beginning to lose her patience. Well, are you going to get a goat or not? She asked. All right, I said, but only because I’m sacrificing my principles. Which I suppose are most precious to me."

On this sacrificial day, some people may live up and reason to remember the value of Abraham's sacrifice, his son, because of his love towards the almighty one, and thus, willing to sacrifice his son is a form of detachment of worldly love. Some people go on by saying it is a form of charity for the poor who's in need of animal protein, or the taste of meat.

But most of all, the most relevant to our age are these two sacrifices:

1. The sacrifice done by the animals by being slaughtered, either for human or for God by letting  their own blood shed. 
2. And also the sacrifice of some people who don't want to but must follow the tradition of animals sacrifice because they're bound to religious obligation, by sacrificing their rational yet non-based-dogma principles.

After all, to let go of our terrestrial attachment of whatever it may be, is the real sacrifice we must perform in our daily. This way, we might truly re-perform of what Abraham did. Not the object, but the value.

Today, I told a friend in campus about my yesterday's reflection upon the sacrificial day. This friend is Christian. He didn't agree with me. For him, religiousity is not to be argued nor compromised whatever the reason is and no matter how logical we reason it. He said he didn't judge such to be wrong, but he said such individual and personal principles were not right. I don't really get what he meant though. But I bet that's mostly the stance and statement of people who side with religious tradition and unexplainable teaching.

Back again to the first question of this post, are people like me who don't believe in sacrificial day considered to be sinners? I suppose only God knows better (put aside whether I believe in God or not), not to mention it is said that sin, hell, and heaven are God's prerogative right.

Well, last but not least, Happy Eid al-Adha to all of us. May the blessings of heaven always be poured upon our fate.