Eid Al Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice, is a worldwide annual festival for Muslims that marks the end of Hajj. Its origins and the history behind the festival is truly as beautiful as it is inspiring. It is a story that began with hardships, darkness, and doubt.
The story begins when Abraham left his wife Hajar and his son Ismael in Mecca, a desolate city with no resources to live with. Upon God's commands, Abraham left an abundance of food and water for his wife and child and went to the city of Canaan. However, the supplies quickly ran out, leaving Hajar and Ismael in a dire situation.
After a few days of being left alone in the desert with no water nor food, Hajar became desperate and started running up and down the Al Safa and Al Marwah hills in search of supplies. To her dismay, there was none. Exhausted, she fell on her knees by her son and cried out to God for help.
God obliged and a well of water appeared at Ismael's feet. That well, is now known as the Zamzam well.
Many years later, while the family was reunited in Canaan, God ordered Abraham and Ismael to build a holy site in Mecca. The family picked up and headed to Mecca. The father and son built the Kaaba, adjacent to the Zamzam well. Nevertheless, their journey did not end there. God wanted to test their faith and ordered Abraham to do one last thing: Sacrifice his only son.
Abraham decided to follow the Lord's orders. Before that however, he wanted Ismael's consent. To his surprise, the 13 year old prophet did not blink an eye and told his father to follow God's orders. Upon attempting the sacrifice and while Abraham was attempting to behead his son, Ismael's neck was left unharmed and the boy survived. Instead, a sacrificial sheep appeared to Abraham and Ismael.
God was simply testing their faith.
But that story has now been tainted with modern practices. With the majority of Muslims in Egypt seeing Eid Al Adha as just another excuse to party and get out of work, many have seemingly forgotten the meaning behind the annual festival.
Contrary to popular belief, Eid was never about getting new clothes, taunting women, getting more money, partying like its 1999 and torturing animals.
Unfortunately, women in Egypt know better then to leave their houses during Eid. It's not because the streets tend to be overly crowded, it is because Eid, once a holy time of the year, has now been reduced to sexual assault, harassment and humiliation. Predators take advantage of the fact that the small amount of activists and police officers will not be able to keep an eye on every woman. Therefore, gang rapes and sexual assaults tend to rise.
Egyptians have successfully reduced a holy festival to a forced sexual orgy.
In earlier years, the festival was all about simplicity, faith, and charity. People would often provide food, money, water among other needed necessities to the poor. In this day and age, however, it has become about who is wearing what brand and where to party. Thousands of pounds are spent on clothes, parties, alcohol, drugs and trips abroad.
Meanwhile, the majority of Egyptians, the 40 percent living below the poverty line, are celebrating Eid by looking through garbage for clothes and food.
Lastly, Islam's instructions on how to properly slaughter an animal are as clear as day. The religion prohibits abuse of animals, animals being slaughtered in front of one another, mistreatment throughout the ordeal or the use of weaponry - mainly knives - that will not slaughter the animal in one swift move.
For some reason however, Egyptians do not follow the strict rules of the religion they claim they believe in. Instead, these animals are subjected to horrendous torture and abuse while in captivity and during the actual slaughter. People watch and scream "Allahu Akbar" instead of pointing out the wrongs in the rituals - wrongs that were deemed unforgivable by God and Islam.
How did the Egyptian society become so far astray? Why have we, as a society, got so comfortable with staying quiet instead of voicing out the rights and the wrong? Lastly, why have we become so immune and so disconnected from religion, from faith and from humanity?