Eid al-Adha and Sacrifices

By: Farhah Nadhirah

In Malaysia (pre-Covid times), Eid al-Adha is celebrated by going back to our hometown, spend time with our cousins, going to the mosque on the 10th of Zulhijjah, doing the Eid prayer together and helping to slaughter the animals (usually cows and goats) with the community. Eid al-Adha is usually a very merry event for my family in the previous years- helping the adults to cook humongous amounts of food while overseeing the younger cousins was one of my favourite activities when the whole family get together at my grandparents' house. Just reminiscing all these memories makes me feel warmth in my heart.

For this year, however, my family and I (as every other Malaysian) are stuck at home with just our small family of seven, trying our best to make this year's Eid al-Adha, despite the sullen atmosphere, another memorable one. As we were not able to go back to grandparents' house or pray at the nearby mosque due to the lockdown restrictions, we did the Eid prayer as a family at home, with my younger brother leading as Imam and gave the sermons (the ones that was given by JAKIM) that brought light upon our current situation- the sacrifices that has been made during this Covid-19 problem.

The text started off with Prophet Ibrahim A.S's steadfastness in his devotion to Allah S.W.T and his willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail A.S despite his long wait for a child. How does the Prophet's willingness to sacrifice his long-awaited son ties to our current Covid-19 condition? It is their understanding of life is temporary and everything in this world belongs to Allah is what allowed them to commit to His Will. During this pandemic, all of us had to sacrifice many things- our old norm, the luxury of going out, work, education and the list goes on. But we need to remember that these sacrifices need to be made in order for the situation to get better.

However, this does not mean we should be neglectful of our surrounding community. As reminded in the sermon, we, as a society, should be aware of the predicaments that our family members, neighbours and the general public and try our best to lend them a helping hand. In this time of need, it is important for us as a community to stand together to fight this pandemic. Religion, race and status- once a reason for us to be split- should not be the barrier for our good deeds- in other words, help everyone, no matter who they are without bias. I believe that even a small prayer- if there is no way for you to help- for the well-being of all is already a step to creating a better world.

As the sermon ends, I realised that, if not for our current situation, I would have taken all those memories of celebrating Eid at my grandparents' house with all my aunts, uncles and cousins for granted. It is true as they say, "You don't know what you have until it's gone", and I would never have realised how much it meant to me to celebrate Eid al-Adha together and I hope that this Eid would be the last time we would spend Eid separately- and hopefully would be together again in the next.

**This article is personal opinion of the writer and does not represent Sekolah Islamiyah as a whole.