Is Animal Sacrifice Hardwired Condition of Mankind from Ancient Times
By
Rashid Samnakay, New Age Islam
12 July
2022
Sacrifice,
Animal or Human Has Been Practiced By Mankind from Ancient Times and Seems That
It Is Imbedded In Its Genes
Main
Points:
1- So called
higher civilisations of the past from Aztecs to Zion had no qualm for slitting
young men’s or young virgin’s throat at the altar of gods and goddesses.
2- The festival,
Ghadimai, takes place every five years in Nepal where thousands of animals, are
brutally killed with their throats cut with kukri.
3- In some
cases the method of slaughtering for Qurbani leaves a lot to be desired.
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Sacrifice,
animal or human has been practiced by mankind from ancient times and seems that
it is imbedded in its genes. Even the so called higher civilisations of the
past from Aztecs to Zion had no qualm for slitting young men’s or young
virgin’s throat at the altar of gods and goddesses.
This month
thousands of animals, of all sorts, but particularly cattle would be brutally
killed with their throats cut with kukri, a curved knife, in the name of the
Goddess Ghadimai. This festival takes place every five years in Nepal just
across the border of India and Nepal, where throngs of devotees march with
their animals.
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This
happens in spite of legal and religious ban on the practice over the years.
Decades ago the number of animals slaughtered numbered in hundreds of
thousands, but now it seems the numbers are down to thousands.
The cruelty
is particularly appalling as the other young and baby bleating animals, calves
and kids are not separated to shield them from the blood and gore that they see
their mothers and other animals going through!
Alas; It is
the biggest animal waste, unlike that of Muslim Ritual of Qurbani—Sacrifice in
the month of Hajj, where the meat is consumed or distributed and hides sold for
profit; the meat in Ghadimai festival is not consumed. However in some cases
the method of slaughtering for Qurbani leaves a lot to be desired, in term of
the cruel and primitive method adopted, particularly with large animals.
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Also Read: Animal Sacrifice vs. Compassionate Eid: An Open
Letter To Our Muslim Brothers and Sisters
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Psychologists
have reported that there is an evidence of increased crime rate comparatively
among workers in abattoir. This is said to be the result of being immune and
desensitised to the sight and smell of rivers of blood and bleating of animals,
which once may even have been their pet animal.
Thankfully
the slaughtering season of Qurbani is over and apart from the normal
requirement for meat, that in many cases comes from abattoirs, the large scale
worldwide slaughter of animals has come to an end till next year.
In view of
the increasing awareness, today, on many aspects of this ritual of sacrifice of
animal resource, some pertinent questions come to mind, based on the Scripture
Quran’s statements and the interpretation of the story related to the Messenger
Ibrahim / Abraham and his alleged attempt to slaughter one of his sons,
Ismail/Ishmael and or Ishaq/Isaac. Quran states that It was The former and the
Bible states the later!
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It is such
a well-known story, particularly for Muslims, one supposes, that references
from the Book are not necessary here. Suffice it to give a gist for general
readership.
The story
goes, that Ibrahim Khalillullah, the “friend Of Allah” once dreamt that
Allah/God asked him to “sacrifice” Ismail in God’s way; which Ibrahim proceeded
to accomplish. When Ibrahim laid his son down on the ground to slit open
Ismail’s throat, the Devine voice called, stating that he, Ibrahim has fully
demonstrated his loyalty to God and so should sacrifice a goat/sheep instead of
the son Ismail. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This then
has become the ritual that Muslims the world over perform to commemorate
Ibrahim’s loyalty to God, by slaughtering a cattle, such as goat, sheep, cow,
bull and camel. The later large animals are supposed to be enough to cover for
up to seven people to go to heaven, whereas the former is only good for an
individual.
Based on
the above simplistic story, the following questions are asked:
1- It is a
personal story of Ibrahim Khalillullah. And NOT a divine Message to him as a
Messenger to be propagated to Humanity as a whole to adopt the sacrifice
Ritual.
2- It was to
sacrifice/dream initially. To sacrifice Ibrahim’s son, replaced in action by a
goat/sheep. Therefore, even considering that it was a “commandment”, it should
not apply to those who have no son.
3- The
sacrifice was particularly of goat/sheep. NOT large animals. Hence the ritual
slaughter of large animals is a Biddah/ Biddat! It is therefore a case
of “they want to be seen” as holier than thou or richer than thou! It is
therefore an alteration of scriptures text.
4- Ibrahim’s
sacrifice was at Mina/Makkah… if the ritual is to be followed to the letter,
only the Hajjis should perform the sacrifice there!
5- The Quran
asks for a Hadiya/gift to be sent to the place of hajj to feed the lean,
hungry and weary travellers there; NOT to perform in ones back yard for a BBQ!
6- This gift
can be of any form, not necessarily an animal.
All in all, it seems that this Muslim world Biddah
is exactly that, not to forget a huge waste and loss of animal resource. Half
the world today hardly gets a square meal a day. This ritual adds enormously to
climate change by encouraging graziers to herd more and more animals, degrading
arable land and forests and the pollution of production of methane from animal
breath.
The cruelty
subjected to these animals through “live animal trade” is a special case where
no major exporting country of animals is immune from, including India, largely
a vegetarian country!
To sum it
therefore, animal sacrifice for Muslims is a Religious innovation and should be
discarded promptly, even if the Muslim Churches come out on streets because of
their loss of “sustenance” from the sale of hides and skins that runs into
millions of dollars for them.
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A regular contributor to New Age Islam, Rashid
Samnakay is an Indian-origin Engineer (Retd.) based in Australia for over forty
years.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/animal-sacrifice-mankind-nepal-ghadimai/d/127466
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