Malaysia Insider | Eid al-Adha, The Festive of Animal Sacrifice

Subscribe to RSS

Eid al-Adha, The Festive of Animal Sacrifice

Its that time of the year again, actually its the seconds’ for the year. On coming Friday, November 27 Muslims and many other Malaysian will celebrate another festive day, Aidil-adha (Eid al-Adha) or as the Malay said it, Hari Raya Korban. The simple meaning for it would very much be as this article’s title goes; The Festive of Animal Sacrifice.

For the Muslims worldwide, the true significance of Aidil-adha is to commemorate the historical event when God had asked Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son Ismael to test his obedience and thanks to his unquestionable willingness to carry out His command, God had later changed the sacrifice for a cow. Since then cow have been very popular in Muslim’s diet, and for the next few days after coming Friday, it would means excessive intake of red meat, usually cooked and eaten with rice, barbequed or made into Satays or other local delicacies.

Family members, relatives, neighbors, friends and complete strangers would gather, sometimes through a middle man to jointly sacrifice an animal. In Islam, an animal sacrifice is allowed to be divided into 7 parts (currently one part cost around RM360-400) as to cater for the financially disable. Those with lot of money can sometimes sacrifice a whole cow, if not 2 or 3.

Animal to be sacrificed must first be selected from a good and healthy breed with no deformity and be slaughtered in the name of Allah. One of the interesting Malay’s myth during Hari Raya Korban is that the person slaughtering the animal somehow decide whether it will be meatier or fattier depending on his skill.

Usually it would take a joint effort of 7-15 persons to process the slaughtered animal and is carried out voluntarily based on communal spirit . It is not a secret however that volunteers do have certain priveleges, access to rare parts for special delicacies like the head, testicles, tail, digestion system and other internal organs. The sacrificial meats are then distributed to neighbors and relatives or prepared for feasting.

There are also politicians using the government money for a larger scale of sacrifice, not uncommon to have between 20 to 30 animal at one go, sometimes with 2-3 exclusive sacrifices with imported camels from Australia or the Middle East. In Islam, it is said that the ‘accepted’ animal sacrifice would help individuals in their far and long journey in the Day After, but since the politicians have their sacrifice at the expense of goverment money, it would be uncertain who would really benefit from the sacrifice, except maybe to fill in empty stomachs.

Only animal that can be eaten can be sacrificed, but not all of them. Apart from cows and camels, other domestic animals such as goats and sheeps can also be sacrificed. Chicken for one is not a sacrificial animal. Horse sacrifice is unheard of. In Malaysia, it is commonly cows.

Sometimes a small function is organized, to gather relatives and friends for a quick congregation. Foods (using the sacrifed animals as main ingredient) and drinks are served to those invited. Animal sacrifice is strict muslims affair only, but Aidil-adha is widely celebrated through-out Malaysia. Ironic? This would simply means that in particular to the sacrificial meat, where it can only be consumed by Muslims, another non-sacrificial meat would have to be prepared separately to serve for the non-muslims. (For a Muslim, a sacrificed animals are supposedly to be treated with respect, even their bones and other wastages are not allowed to be thrown away or eaten by scavengers and have to be buried in the ground afterward, and oh yes, not to be eaten by the infidels, sorry!).

It is more ironic that to the other 3-5% of Malaysia population (the Indian Hindus), cow are a revered and sacred animal. But Aidil-adha is not about being offensive to other religion. The Muslims too believed cows and other domestic animals as sacred, and these are the only animals that can assist in easing the burden of the far and long journey in the Judgement Day. In Malaysia, diversity and religious tolerance have faced the test of time and have proven that different cultures can co-exist with peace and harmony. On the other hand, it would be rather hard and unpractical to ask for a sacrificed animal should Islam being selective and had specified for exotic animals like Pandas, Orangutans, Bengal White Tigers or Alaskan penguins.

Religion aside, Aidiladha would mean another holiday to include into the country’s long list of holidays and breaks.