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HARLINGEN — It’s a time of remembrance.
A time of reflection, a time of focus, a time of charity and generosity.
Muslims everywhere observed the Festival of Sacrifice on Sunday in honor of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son in obedience to God. The Old Testament in the Bible reveals that when God realized that Abraham was indeed willing to sacrifice his son, God stopped him and gave him a ram to sacrifice instead.
In this observance of Abraham’s unwavering obedience, Muslims sacrifice an animal — typically a sheep or a goat — and then distribute some of the meat to their neighbors and to the poor.
“The Festival of Sacrifice is important because a Muslim’s life should not be intended for his own desires but instead he or she should live to serve others,” said Dr. Usman Sherriff, attending cardiologist at Valley Baptist Medical Center.
“Service to humanity is the nucleus of one’s existence,” said Sherriff, a native of India who has practiced in the Valley for 23 years.
Muslims trace the origin of their faith to the year 610 AD when the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelation from God. The Arabic word for God is Allah. They believe that God dictated his revelations directly to Muhammad and his followers wrote them down in the Quran.
“Muslims believe that previous religious texts, such as those of the Jews and Christians, were altered over time,” said Dr. Ameer Hassan, head of the neuroscience department at Valley Baptist.
Hassan was born and raised in New Jersey but his family hails from Egypt. He and his Palestinian wife are raising their two children in a Muslim household just as they were raised. Islam is a quickly spreading faith in many parts of the world with adherents of more than one billion people.
“Specifically, Muslims believe that Jewish scriptures were modified and that the Christian scriptures were selectively chosen and altered, particularly under the influence of Constantine, who picked and chose the gospels and scriptures that suited his agenda,” Hassan said.
In contrast, he said, Muslims believe the Quran was dictated directly by God to the Prophet Mohammad. He shared these revelations with his followers who first preserved them through oral tradition and then compiled them into written form in the Quran. This ensured that the Quran remained unchanged and purely reflective of divine instruction, Hassan said.
He and Sherriff both shared that the basic tenet of Islam is service and charity to others, to the poor and the hungry and the homeless, to anyone in need at any time. The Festival of Sacrifice is an important observance that Muslims must give unwavering obedience to God, that everyone should be treated equally in a spirit of benevolence and love.
“This festival is to remind us that we have to strengthen our faith,” Sherriff said. “When God ordains something, you don’t play around it, you don’t shift it according to what may please or displease the masses.”
The Festival of Sacrifice — known in Arabic as Eid-al-Adha — is one of many religious observances in Islam. In the Islamic faith, Muslims also observe Ramadan during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar which is in March or April, according to the Gregorian calendar. During this time Muslims fast from dawn until dusk. The end of Ramadan is observed as Eid-ul-Fitre and lasts for three days.
Muslims are expected to make at least one pilgrimage in their lifetimes to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This city is important because it is the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed and the Muslim faith.
This pilgrimage is called the Hajj, Sherriff said.
“Every Muslim if he is physically and financially capable should do this in his lifetime,” Sherriff said. “I had the good fortune of going to this place three times. When you go there you will find that you cannot not distinguish who is a homeless person and who is a multi-millionaire. Everyone is dressed the same, in two pieces of white cloth.”
This equality of people whether rich or poor is a basic truth which unites all people. The necessary extension of that truth is action, and Muslims practice this truth and its action during the Feast of Sacrifice.
“We carry out the sacrifice of the lamb,” Sherriff said. “And the symbolic meaning of that is basically to distribute the meat to the poor. We are supposed to give one-third of it to our neighbors, and one-third of it to the poor. We are only to keep one-third of it to ourselves. This festival reminds us to knock on somebody’s door and say, ‘Hey, do you have food?’ Because hunger is everywhere.”
