Once again the qurbaani fever is in the air. Those exotic gardens where even a few dry leaves are normally intolerable will have sheep droppings lying all over. Those moms who cannot stand a single stain on their children’s clothes will have their darlings returning to their spotless homes all smelly and dirty. Those cars in which placing a sack of onions often becomes a problem, will have buckets and boxes of freshly cut meat stacked in them.

Ever wondered how all of this happens?

The answer is simple… It is the result of the great spirit of Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam).

This spirit of his has been encapsulated in this verse of the Quraan Majeed: “Indeed my prayer, my offering, my life and my death are for Allah, the Rabb of all the worlds.” (Surah Al-An‘aam, v162)

It was this very spirit that prompted him to forsake his disbelieving family and folks in his young age and enabled him to leave his wife and innocent child in a barren land in his old age. This spirit further motivated him to readily accept the command of slaughtering his beloved son, when he needed him most… in his advanced age.

All this and much more, he did merely because… it was the command of his beloved Allah. No relationship, desire or emotion was important or dear to him if it became an obstacle in carrying out the command of Allah Ta‘ala.

Thus, the great lesson of qurbaani which we ought to learn is that every impermissible desire, pleasure or emotion needs to be ‘placed under the blade’ for the sake of our beloved Allah.

These desires would appear in different shapes and forms. For some it would be the desire to ‘fall for the bait’ of a charming young man, or the urge to dress in a figure revealing skinny jeans, or to apply the latest designer perfume and make-up to ‘raise eyebrows’ as she walks down the ‘catwalk’ of the outside world. For others it may be the urge to silence a nagging mother-in-law, to give a ‘nosey’ sister-in-law a piece of her mind, or to listen to the latest ‘number’ or to watch the hottest movie.

All these impermissible desires and emotions need to be ‘placed under the blade’ in order for us to achieve the true spirit of qurbaani (sacrifice). If we fail in this then we have lost out terribly, although we may have stocked up our freezers with meat to last for an entire year or even more.