happy yawm al-arafat y'all

Wow, so Thursday is the Day of Arafat and Friday is Eid.

It was reported from Abu Qutadah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was asked about fasting on the Day of Arafah. He said, ‘It expiates for the sins of the previous year and of the coming year.’ Narrated by Muslim.

Most years there seems to be at least one or two interesting coincidences between Islamic holy days and Christian/Jewish/secular/Gregorian ones... this year it is how the Day of Arafat and Eid al-Adha synch-up with Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Interesting. Fasting and sacrifice contrasted with pigging-out and conspicuous consumption.

catching up

I've had the seeds of a lot of different posts rattling around in my head but I'm short on time so I think I'm "forced" to just do a link dump instead of a more thoughtful consideration

Over at Umar Lee's blog, “Ugly Black Women”, Perfect Arab Wives, and Matters of Race starts to discuss some of the less idealized aspects of race relations in the Arab world. This piece was originally inspired by Not Sure What To Make of this “Discussion” over at Soliloquies of a Stranger (The life of an African American, Muslim, Muhaajirah (Expat), from the hood, in an Inter-Racial Marriage. It Doesn’t get any stranger than that!).

Abdur Rahman Muhammad finally concluded his series with Why Blackamerican Muslims Don’t Stand For Justice Pt. 5

Ever since my post i and i and thou I've been meaning to find and share information about Baye Fall, an African-based, dreadlock-wearing Sufi order who are sometimes called "Muslim Rastas". Recently I saw a pretty 'Grenada-esque' entry over at Pa' Africa Muchacho tu ta loco?, written by Dominican blogger Francisco Perez who is currently travelling in Senegal. He has a brief entry on Cheikh Lo an African musician who is a member of the Baye Fall. I wish I had a more detailed understanding of the group, but I suspect that they could be a very strong example in my favor with respect to the ongoing discussions with Sondjata (see islam and afrocentrism, afrocentricity and islam ii) on whether Islam is consistent with being African.

Francisco also has another entry on the upcoming Eid al-Adha entitled What Would Jesus Buy? I'm not sure what else to say about the holiday. This year I feel like the holiday has surprised me. I'm not totally certain which city I'll be in for Eid. I have a couple of old posts about Eid al-Adha but I don't have any genuinely new comments for now.

belated holiday post...

another holiday issue I had wanted to mention:
For a couple of years now, some Bay Area Muslims have been organizing "Muslim Christmas" gatherings. It is one thing for me as an individual to enjoy time with my non-Muslim relatives during the holidays. But given the proximity of Eid al-Adha this year (December 30th or 31 depending on your community) it seemed totally unnecessary for a group of organized Muslims to piggyback (so to speak) onto Christmas. Between the two Eids, Ramadan and Ashurah [2] there are plenty of Islamic holidays. If you want more we could celebrate Mawlid (which some think of as controversial). And if you want even more than that you can include Laylat ul Isra' wa-l-Miraaj and also Laylat ul Bara'ah. At least, that route makes more sense than "Muslim Christmas".

All this from a Muslim who writes incessantly about Kwanzaa every year...

qurbani

Yakoub over at Anarcho Akbar recently started a discussion on the sacrifices of Eid al-Adha. For the past few days I've been mulling over the subject myself trying to think of something "deep" to share on the subject... we'll see how it goes...lol...

One of the things which appeals to me most about Islam is that it has a certain eternal and ancient quality. If I wanted to sound all fancy I might say Islam is "transparent to its own particularity". It isn't just some Arab religion which started 1400 or so years ago. As Schuon puts it, Islam is about the meeting between God as such, and man as such. In some sense which is hard to explain to non-Muslims, Islam really is the first religion, the natural religion, din al-fitra, the religion of Adam, Noah, Moses and all the prophets.

In another sense, Islam is also the religion of Abraham especially. There are many examples of elements which appear in the story of Abraham found in the Bible (and are confirmed by the Quran and hadith) which are a part of Islamic practice today; for example circumcision, pilgrimage and sacrifice.

The idea of sacrifice is something which seems foreign to our modern secular sanitized pre-conceived notions of religion, but at the same time it is hits on something raw and primal which really forces us to vividly confront life and death. And it wasn't just limited to a few peoples here and there, but is widespread among many different religious groups in human history, the ancient Hebrews, the Aztecs, the Yoruba, the Greeks and Romans, and Hindus among others.

But in Islam, it is not claimed that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." God is not like some Cosmic Shylock who demands His pound of flesh before he will allow Himself to forgive you.

The Quran says about the sacrifices:

It is not their meat nor their blood, that reaches Allah: it is your piety that reaches Him: He has thus made them subject to you, that ye may glorify Allah for His Guidance to you and proclaim the good news to all who do right. [22.37]

And at once this very concrete and basic human ritual is not just seen in a superficially literal or superstitious way but is a symbol for something more which lies beneath the surface.

For more information:
The Fiqh of Qurbani by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Distributing Udhiya/Qurbani Meat to Needy Non-Muslims by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Philosophy of Qurbaani by Mufti Taqi Usmani
Zulhijjah: Eidul-Adha, Hajj, Sacrifice, etc. by Mufti Taqi Usmani

more on dhull hijjah

From Sunni Path:
The First Ten Days of Dhull Hijjah
The Day of Arafah: The 9th of Dhul Hijjah
The Fiqh of Eid al-Adha: The 10th of Dhul Hijjah

dhul-hijjah and eid al-adha

According to ISNA, the first day of Dhul-Hijjah is expected January 1. That would mean the Day of Arafah will be the 9th of January, and Eid begins on the 10th.
Zawaj.com: Some Sunnahs of Dhul-Hijjah and the Eid
Central Mosque: Ten Days of Zul Hijjah