Animal Sacrifice on Eid
Eid-al-Adha or Id-ul-Zuha or "Festival of Sacrifice" is an important day to celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to Allah. People around the world sacrifice millions of animals during the month of Eid-ul-Adha to please God.
Sacrifice literally means “enduring the loss of something/somebody”. The act of Abraham can be seen as a spirit of true sacrifice as Ishmael was very dear and close to Abraham and there was certain degree of pain Abraham went through in this act.
Pleasing God by giving up something, which we are not attached to, is merely a joke. Slitting the throat of an animal, bought for few bucks, cannot be a sacrifice, as there is no love and attachment to that animal. It was bought/raised for slaughtering only!
How can Allah, whom we regard as compassionate and merciful, finds pleasure watching a helpless animal being slit with jaws and all four legs tied? Prophet has stated “La taqtolu bil-la iza’a” - if you must kill, kill without torture. He has also said: "There is no man who kills [even] a sparrow or anything smaller, without its deserving it, but Allah will question him about it [on the judgment day]," and "Whoever is kind to the creatures of God, is kind to himself".
Holy scriptures mention love and kindness to animals at numerous places:
Quran 22:37 – "Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you…"
Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani (4:40) – "For each creature which has a wet heart there is a reward (for showing charity)."
Al-'Ajluni 1:458 - "All creatures are God's dependents and the best among them is the one who is most useful to God's dependents."
Even if people interpret the holy books and cherry pick the words for their self enjoyment, one of the main consideration of Halal meat is that the animal should be laid on the ground with ease and should not be mercilessly dragged to the place of slaughter.Representatives from PETA have observed the loading, unloading, transport, and slaughter of cows and buffaloes used for meat in India and they found that most meat produced under current standards isHaram and is against the Islamic teachings of kindness to animals. All conscientious Muslims must avoid this because proper adherence to halal methods is blatantly ignored.
Animal slaughter must be prohibited and meat eating should not be practiced in the name of religion. Let's celebrate this holy festival in the true spirit of peace and kindness.
We pray for mercy from God by showing no mercy to others..!