How AidilAdha came to be

Getting ready for prayers

Aidiladha or Feast of Sacrifice is the most important feast of the Muslim calendar. It concludes the pilgrimage to Mekah. Hari Raya AidilAdha lasts for three days and commemorates Ibraham's (Abraham) willingness to obey God, by sacrificing his son.

Muslims believe the son to be Ismail rather than Ishak (Issac) as told in the Old Testament.

Ismail is considered the forefather of the Arabs. According to the noble Quran, Ibrahim was about to sacrifice his son when a voice from heaven stopped him and allowed him to sacrifice a ram instead.

The feast re-enacts Ibrahim's obedience by sacrificing a cow or ram. The family eats about a third of the meal and donates the rest to the poor.

Modern historians estimate that between the period 2000 BC and 4000 BC there lived a man known to Muslims as Ibraham and to Christians and Jews as Abraham.

To Muslims he was a Prophet, to the Christians and Jews he was a patriarch from whom the two religions took their present forms gradually over the centuries.

Ibrahim was born in a place called Urr in Iraq and later moved to what is known today as Syria. He had two wives, Sarah and Hajar, but no children until he was quite old. Then, it was revealed to him by Allah that he will have a child from his second wife Hajar.

When they had a son named Ismail, by Allah's command, Ibrahim moved Hajar and the infant to what is today known as Mekah in Arabia. He stayed with them for a while in Arabia.

One night, when his son had already reached puberty and was strong enough to run around with him and do the chores in the house, Ibrahim dreamt that he was slaying his own son.

According to the Quran, Ibrahim had this dream more than once and he was convinced that it was Allah's command to him. He discussed this with his son, who replied that Ibrahim should follow the creator's command and that he will find Ismail amongst the Sabireen or those who patiently persevere.

With this, Ibrahim prepared to sacrifice his son as he had seen in his dream. But at the last moment when Ibrahim had the knife to his son's throat, he was told to replace Ismail with a sheep instead, and by Allah Almighty's command Ismail was saved from slaughter.

It is in the commemoration of Ibrahim's sacrifice that Muslims today, all over the world sacrifice animals every year on the 10th of Dzul Hijjah, which is also the day of Haj or Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.