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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Eid al Adha

Eid al Adha or "Festival of the Sacrifice" is coming up on Friday.  The cause for the celebration is the remembrance of Ibrahim's near sacrifice of his son in obedience to Allah.  I heard some local MBBs in our country consider this Eid to be their "Easter" and the Eid at the end of Ramadaan to be their "Christmas." Ramadaan celebrates the giving of the Word or Qur'an- the local MBBs celebrate the giving of the Word of God who is Jesus (An Nissa 4:171; Al Imran 3:45). 

This Eid is a special time for followers of Jesus to witness.  Here are two simple points I generally make during Eid al Adha:

1. The Qur'an tells the story of the sacrifice by ending with "we redeemed him with a great sacrifice" (As Saffat 37:107).  (Arabic: وَفَدَيْنَاهُ بِذِبْحٍ عَظِيمٍ)  During this time I often tell the shaddah from the Injeel: "There is no God except God and no mediator between him and between the people except the man Christ Jesus who sacrificed himself to redeem all people" (1 Tim. 2:5-6).  I ask them "How can the ram be considered "great"?  Who is great except God alone?  The Messiah is our rescuer who sacrificed himself in our place for our redemption.
2. As you may know, the Qur'an calls Mohammed the "seal of the prophets" (Al Izhab 33:40). (Arabic: خَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّينَ)  Muslims take this to mean that Mohammed is the last, superseding, and ultimate prophet of God (who in effect makes all previous prophets irrelevant).  Taking this phrase, I call Jesus the "seal of the sacrifices" (Arabic: خاتم التضحيات).

Generally, using this phraseology from the Qur'an has been helpful for me.  I am interested to hear if it is helpful for you or even what you think about it.

3 comments:

  1. Tim HeraldNovember 23, 2009 at 2:09 AM

    Great post!! I really appreciate the tidbit you included about comparing the giving of the Generous Qur'an (Ramadan) to the giving of the Messiah... one of my pet peeves is the comparison of the Generous Qur'an to the Holy Bible instead of the Messiah Himself. Great way to celebrate تجسم كلمة الله

    Out of curiosity, why do you use:

    خاتم التضحيات

    and not

    خاتم الاضاحي

    Peace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Warrick FarahNovember 23, 2009 at 8:54 AM

    Good suggestion Timothy, I will try that phrase too. Is that the better plural?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tim HeraldNovember 24, 2009 at 5:16 AM

    Warrick,

    Okay, since you asked for my opinion...

    I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that تضحيات is the plural for تضحية which is مصدر and it can be used in that way. At the same time, اضاحي is the plural of أُضحية which, I think, is the object that is being or has been sacrificed. Again, I could be wrong, but I think the act itself is normally referred to as تضحية while that which is being sacrificed is referred to as أُضحية .... and, of course, I'm sure this varies depending on who is speaking and I'm sure they are used interchangeably all the time.

    My question was more to ask you if, where you are at, native speakers tend to primarily use تضحية for something that was sacrificed or for the act itself?

    Language is soooo relative!!

    Peace.

    ReplyDelete