Muslim Holidays
When my secretary told me last week that Oct.
15 had been declared a holiday, I asked why
and she answered she didn’t quite know except
that it was an “aid something.†I thought I’d do
an instant survey of non-Muslims and indeed,
of the more than 10 people I asked, no one
knew.
I will admit that I wasn’t sure myself. I had an
inkling that it had something to do with the
Haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, but I
didn’t know what the name of the feast day
was. I was obliged to do some research before
I found out it was Eid al Adha (sometimes
spelled Eid ul Adha and Eidul Adha and, in
Malaysia and Indonesia, Idul Adha).
I think it’s well and good that our government
has, in recent years, been recognizing two
major Muslim Eid (solemn festivals), but wish
there were more efforts to explain these
holidays as a way of encouraging an
understanding of different cultures and to do
this without oversimplification. Some years
back, on Eid al Fitr, I asked some high school
students if they knew what the holiday was
about, and they answered, “Muslim Christmas.â€
To help bridge the gap (maybe “chasm†is a
better term) between Muslims and Christians,
I’m going to describe what yesterday’s holiday
was, and then move on to the bigger picture of
the Islamic calendar and Islam itself.
Abrahamic faiths
Eid al Adha means Feast of the Sacrifice and
extends for four days. It commemorates
Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his first-born
son Ismael (or Ishmail), with God intervening
at the last minute and allowing a lamb instead
to be slaughtered.
Christians are always surprised when they hear
of familiar Old Testament names being
mentioned by Muslims. Eid al Adha should be
an occasion to talk about how three global
religions—Islam, Judaism and Christianity—are
“people of the book,†meaning sharing
scriptures which Christians call the Old
Testament and Jews call the Torah. Muslims see
the Quran as a completion of God’s (or Allah’s)
revealed word. Muslims in fact recognize Jesus
Christ, not as the son of God but as one of
several great prophets. Mary, incidentally, is
also recognized, and loved, by Muslims.
The sad reality is that religions can be divisive,
and more orthodox Christians, Jews and
Muslims dislike the term “people of the book,â€
preferring to deny not just shared aspects of
faith and common origins. In fact, another
term, “Abrahamic faiths,†refers to the
monotheistic religions that emerged in the
Middle East, supposedly all tracing back to
Abraham. These include the three global
religions, and Bahai.
Note how central Abraham is. Eid al Adha is
also called the “greater Eid,†more important
than Eid al Fitr, which is marked by gift-giving
(and which gave rise to the comparison to
Christmas). Eid al Adha is the greater festival
because it marks complete obedience or
submission to one God. Today, Eid al Adha is
celebrated through communal prayers and
rituals, as well as by feasting and a repetition
of Abraham’s animal sacrifice. On these
occasions, one third of the meat is kept for
the family, another third for relatives and
friends, and the last portion for the poor, in
accordance with the Muslim precept of “zakatâ€
or alms-giving.
Eid al Adha is also used to mark the end of the
Haj or pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
This is why in Malaysia and Indonesia, where I
first learned about this holiday, the term used
was Hari Raya Haj (literally the “feast of the
Hajâ€). Muslims are obligated to make this
pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.
Islamic science
All these feasts vary each year on the
Gregorian calendar because they are based on
an Islamic calendar which is lunar-based, but
not the same either as the Chinese lunar
calendar. Like other global religions, Islam
marks each year with many observances to
remind people about the central points of their
faith. Islam, in particular, emphasized the
crafting of a calendar that was integral to
religion.
It is fascinating how this religious orientation
spurred Islamic science, which had its golden
period from the 9th to the 12th centuries,
with Muslims seeing the quest for knowledge
as part of a glorification of Allah. Their work
around astronomy was particularly impressive,
and was related to the creation of their
calendar for religious observances, as well as
to the determination of the times for each
day’s obligatory five prayers.
There is an interesting twist to the calendar:
Although calculations can be made in advance,
many Muslims prefer an actual observance of
skies and the moon to establish when a
new month begins, and when a solemn feast
starts. Muslim countries usually have an
official “sighting committee†that takes care of
declaring when a new month starts. This is
why even in the Philippines, the official
declaration of Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha is
usually done only two or three weeks before
the feast day, only after official Muslim
sighting committees have declared when they
fall on our Gregorian calendar.
Eid al Adha’s relationship to the Haj should
remind us, too, of how Islam situates followers
not just in time, but also in space. The
commemoration of the Haj unites all Muslims,
whether they are doing the pilgrimage or not.
And this unity is achieved geographically,
oriented toward Mecca, or, more specifically,
the Kaaba, a shrine which you see in
photographs looking like a black box and is
considered by Muslims to be the most sacred
place on earth. Muslims must pray in the
direction of Mecca. The dead are also buried in
that direction.
Again, Islamic science figures in all this;
calculations are made so that a Muslim,
wherever he or she might be in the world, will
be able to “find†Mecca. To guide Muslims, you
will find in many places—in mosques and
prayer rooms, as well as in hotel rooms, even
airplane seats—an arrow called the “qibla,â€
which points to Mecca. For Muslims, it is a
reminder that prayers should be offered facing
Mecca—so important that there are now even
apps, Android and iPhone, with a “qiblaâ€
compass as well as prayer times.
Muslim or not, there is much that can be
learned from Islam, including our human
needs for community solidarity, brought
together at particular times each year and,
even when geographically separated, a
common point of reference to a sacred place.
