What are the interesting facts about Eidul Al-adha ?

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent and most Merciful.

May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and all his house hold members and companions, Amin.

Welcome to Utilitarian blog, I hope you are doing well today?
With out wasting much of your time, let's take a look at the interesting facts about Eidul Adha celebration in Islam. Below are the 10 interested facts about Eidul-Adha.

1. Eidul Adha - the feast of sacrifices

It is a four-day holiday where muslims come together to celebrate their faith by honoring and commemorating the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim or Abraham in English to sacrifice his son ismail or ishmael in english based on God's order.

2. It take place every 10th day of Dhul Hijja.

Eid al-adha takes place on the 10th day of the last month of the islamic lunar calendar, Dhul Hijjah. It's also related to pilgrimage in islam, which takes place at the end of hajj and that is the annual pilgrimage to mecca (one of the five pillars of islam). Approximately, every single year, around three million muslims travel to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj and Eidul al-adha is the latter of the two Eid celebrations in Islam, the first being Al-eidul fitr and that one comes at the end of the month of Ramadan.

3. Stoning the Iblees(Satan) in Medinah.

Muslims who are performing hajj when Eidul Adha begins they throw pebbles at three pillars in the city of medina and this is where muslims believe Prophet Ibrahim or Abraham threw pebbles at the devil to make him leave.

4. The day of Arafat.

Sometimes Arafat is spelled with an "h" at the end, pronounced as "Arafah" but, the day of Arafat is on the ninth(9th) day of the month - Dhul hijja which means, the possessor of the pilgrimage on the month of the pilgrimage.

This is also about the 70th day after the end of the month of ramadan and this pilgrimage is made towards mount Arafat, which is believed to be where the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave his final sermon before he passed away, on this special day that's the second day of hajj (Yaomul Arafah), muslims who are not performing the pilgrimage fast from dawn till dusk and look forward to the four days celebration.

5. No Fasting on the day of Eidul-adha

Muslims who are making the pilgrimage are prohibited from fasting on that day, that's an important thing to note as well there's also prayers related to Eidul al-adha(salatul Eid) or known as the eid prayers they hold great significance and they take place during the first day of Eid, and during this Eidul adha, men, women and children dresses in their finest clothing as a matter of fact, see this article, on Eidul Adha and why Muslims sacrifice during that day.

Giving of Special Zakat For Eidul al fitr called zakatul fitr where muslims are especially reminded of their obligations to help out the poor and those who are less fortunate.

6. Muslims make Sacrifice on Eidul Adha

A little about the sacrifice, for those who can afford to sacrifice an entire halal animal usually a sheep or a cow and donate the meat to neighbors and to those who can't afford much. The meat is divided into three parts, the family keeps one third and the other third is to be given to relatives, friends and neighbors and then the last part is to be given to those in need. The idea is that, nobody is left hungry during Eidul al-adha and I think that's a very beautiful tradition to follow.

The Test of Prophet Ibrahim - Full Story

7. It Is the practice of Prophet Ibrahim

This festival celebrates a story about the Prophet Ibrahim or Abraham when he was told by God that he needs to sacrifice his son Ismail to prove his faith to God and Prophet Ibrahim decided to follow God's command without question, but the devil tried to convince him to disobey the command but Prophet Irahim (A. S) moved forward and he threw pebbles at the devil, this was actually to make him leave, So God ended up providing Prophet Ibrahim with an animal to sacrifice at the last moment instead and every single year, we muslims celebrate to remember Prophet Ibrahim's loyalty and obedience to God, above all others and because of this is also known as Eidul Adha (the festival of sacrifice)

8. The rules governing the Eidel-adha

There's some rules to the sacrificing animals, the sacrificed animal is referred to as Adha meaning the sacrifice and it has to meet some certain requirements which include:

The animal must be a certain age and also being of the best quality other rules are:

Sacrifices can only be made after the Eid prayer. Sacrifices made before those prayers do not count.
The animal should be slaughtered with a sharp knife and this is done to avoid any sort of unnecessary suffering for the animal.
The knife should not be sharpened in front of the animal that you're going to be sacrificing nor should an animal be slaughtered in the presence of another animal.
It is very necessary that the animal is slaughtered with the intention of offering a sacrifice and this must come from the heart. However the muslim making the sacrifice should say Bismillah (in the name of Allah) and this is to invoke the name of God and they should also say Allahu Akbar which means God is the greatest.

Below are some of the other criteria for the types of animal that can be used for the sacrifice (Adha):

Cow: must be at least 2 years.
Camel: must be at least 5 years.
Ram: must be at least 1 year.
Goat:must be at least 1 year.

The animals must be free from fractured horn, blindness, excessive thin and lameness etc.

9. The Part of the sacrificed animal can not be sold

Regarding selling and payment, no part of the slaughtered animal can be sold or given as payment and it's recorded that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had said these words,

whoever sells the skin of his udheya there is no udheya for him

so it is not counted as a sacrifice. Islam teaches that and I quoted, that the messenger of Allah commanded to take care of the sacrifice and to give its meat, skin and raiment in charity and not to give anything of it to the butcher as a compensation.

10. The Eid and Breakfast

Finally we end up with a fun fact regarding Eid and breakfast oftentimes, fried liver is served for breakfast while the rest of the animal is eaten for lunch and dinner. In the Arab world, one of the basic ways to cook mutton which is the flesh of sheep is to fry it lightly and then cook it slowly in a stew with garlic cumin and onion round over it. In the southeast Asia you'll find that there's a lot of marian that are very popular and in places like turkey kebabs are prepared and eaten, so wherever you go in different parts of the world where muslims gather based on their traditions you're going to find that breakfast meals, as well as other meals during Eidul al-adha, which are prepared in a different ways.

This was a look at 10 surprising and interesting facts about Eidul al-adha, I really hope you enjoyed this very fascinating article, I love learning about the different traditions like this as always, if you have any thoughts and comments or any other facts about Eidul al-adha that I missed, let me know down below in the comments section, sharing is caring and that's why it really helps to promote giving and sharing.

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Image credit: Adha vector created by starline - www.freepik.com

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The 10 Interesting Facts about Eidul Adha in Islam.