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!

Barbarous killing in the name of Sacrifice

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."

Ruthless Transport for Slaughtering

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 is Haram 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...Disgusting!

Non-Hindu References on Cows & Bulls

Cows and bulls are not only glorified by Hindus but are also respected in various believes/religions making them an emblem of inter-religion harmony. Its worth having a look.

In Islam:

Islam is the most MIS-understood religion especially when it comes to cows. Many quotes in Islamic scriptures favor cow and glorify her. In Islam, Hadiths are regarded as important tools for understanding the Qur'an and in matters of jurisprudence.

Zad al-Ma'ad (زاد المعاد)‎ is a book written by Islamic scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (1292-1350 CE) and is one of the best books written on the subject of seerat of prophet Mohammed. One of the hadith in that book says:

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "You should use cows' milk, because it is good for health, and cows' ghee is good for health, but beef is bad for health."

Actually, the literal meaning of the words the Prophet used is much stronger than that. He said that milk is "healing," ghee is "medicine," and beef is "disease."

In the Book of Medicine of the Mustadrak al-Hakîm (a classical hadith commentary by al-Hakîm al-Nîsaburî), the first hadith is:

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings upon him, said: "Allah did not create any disease without creating its cure; and in cows' milk is a cure for every disease."

It would be noteworthy the Hikmat which dictates every Muslim that milk of the cow is greatly useful for health and beef is harmful for health as it causes various diseases.

In Christianity/Judaism: (New International Version)

Deuteronomy 33:17 - In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox….

Numbers 23:22 - God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox.

Proverbs 14:4 - Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests.

Psalm 22:12 - Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

Revelation 4:7 – The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, …

In Zoroastrianism (Mazdaism):

The term "geush urva" means the spirit of the cow and is interpreted as the soul of the earth. In the Ahunavaiti Gatha, Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) accuses some of his co-religionists of abusing the cow. Ahura Mazda tells Zarathustra to protect the cow.

According to the Zoroastrian story of creation, Ahura Mazda created the floating, egg-shaped universe in two parts: first the spiritual and 3,000 years later, the physical. Ahura Mazda then created the archetypical perfect man, and the first bull. Later when Angra Mainyu (the evil) invaded universe and killed them, bull's seed grew in all beneficial plants and animals of the world.

The 9^th chapter of the Vendidad of the Avesta expounds the purificatory power of cow urine. It is declared to be a panacea for all bodily and moral evils.

In Jainism:

The name of the first Tirthankara in Jainism is Rishabh (ऋषभ which means the "Bull"). King Nabhiraja (the father) invited his friends and relatives on the next day to a feast and announced that the child be named as ‘Rishabh Kumar’ since there is a sign of a bull on the thigh of the new born, and Marudeva (the mother) first of all saw a bull in her great dreams. 

There are numerous other references which can be quoted here but the list is kept concise to help reader get a quick overview. Please feel free to share!