Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of the Muslims to be celebrated tomorrow (Monday) across the country, is all about sacrifice, both spiritual and worldly. As the Holy Quran mentions, Prophet Ibrahim did offer, at the behest of the Almighty, to sacrifice his most beloved son, Hazrat Ismail, nearly 4000 years back. He had thus set a unique example of spiritual love for the Almighty Allah. The Prophet had showed his readiness to make any sacrifice and prove his unalloyed allegiance to Allah. But the Almighty recognising the Prophets true intention spared Ismail and sent a lamb to be sacrificed. The followers of the religion of Islam do draw inspiration from this significant event and slaughter sacrificial animals during the Eid-ul- Azha every year recalling the submission the Prophet Ibrahim had made to the Creator. Muslims all over the world get imbibed with the spirit of selflessness and sacrifice to a greater cause. In keeping with that spirit, the greater part of the meat of the animals sacrificed on the holy occasion of the Eid-ul- Azha, which marks the completion of the pilgrimage (Hajj) to the holy city of Mecca, is distributed among the poor, relatives, neighbours and friends. However, a small section of people failing to understand the true spirit intertwined with the observance of the festival tend to engage themselves in a vulgar display of their worldly wealth. They get into a sort of competition in their bid to buy the most expensive sacrificial animals. The great religion of Islam is not opposed to acquiring wealth in just and fair ways but it certainly does not encourage any public demonstration of anyones wealth. The core essence of the celebration is that people should strengthen their mental resolve to avoid what is bad for them, their families, relatives, neighbours and the mankind as a whole and make sacrifices for any good cause not just for once in a year but for the year round. In doing so they should concentrate more on serving the humanity selflessly, particularly those who are in distress, financial or otherwise. As the world is getting more complicated, the people belonging to all faiths have become more self-centred. But the spirit of the Eid-ul-Azha teaches them not to be so and asks them to be sympathetic to the poor and needy. The celebration of the Eid-ul- Azha in this country, as is the case with the Eid-ul-Fitr, involves some unsavoury elements that are usually experienced by the home- bound people. As reported in the media, the people this time, too, have been suffering much for failing to secure tickets of buses, trains and launches, disruption in schedules of buses and trains and poor road conditions. Their sufferings peak when they get stuck up in long tailbacks on major highways. These are the plights recurring in the case of homebound people on the festive occasions of two Eids as all modes of transports and communication network are not capable of withstanding the mad rush of passengers that are witnessed on the eve of two festivals. Celebration apart, the festival of the Eid-ul-Azha has economic and environmental factors. Sacrificial animals and their hides and skins, worth billions of taka, are transacted on this holy occasion. The countrys leather goods manufacturing and export earnings by this industry are largely dependent on the rawhide and skins received from animals sacrificed in millions. As far as the environment is concerned, the wastes created through the sacrifice of animals pose a big health threat to people living in cities and towns unless those are collected and disposed of promptly and hygienically. And this year, there has been an additional fear about prior use of steroids for fattening cows etc., in order to go for a higher ask-price for sales of sacrificial animals on this occasion. This has some severe adverse implications for human health. The city corporations and municipalities need to be truly alive to their duties and responsibilities on this particular occasion. But the residents of cities and towns can hardly ignore their own responsibility in keeping their own premises, roads, pavements and surface drains clean following the slaughter of sacrificial animals.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 17:40:04 +0000
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