Eid Al Adha Part 4: Stoning and Sacrifice

You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

This is the second day of the Hajj.  To recap, the day before Hajj is the ritual cleansing.  The first day of Hajj itself is the praying for forgiveness.  Today is the second day of Hajj – the stoning and sacrifice.

1.  What People are Doing on Hajj:  The night before, those on Hajj spent the night at a place called Muzdalifa where some slept and some stayed awake all night.  When they wake up, they will head to Mina where there are three pillars.  Before I talk about the rituals, it would be good to describe the Quranic version of events. 

Christians will recall that Abraham had been promised a son.  Impatient that God had not provided a son through Sarah, Abraham takes a concubine to bear him a son – Ishmael.  Later on, God asks Abraham to show his devotion to God by sacrificing his son.  Muslims believe that the son to be sacrificed was Ishmael. 

While on his way to perform the sacrifice, Satan appears three times tempting Abraham to ignore God’s instructions concerning the sacrifice of Ishmael.  Muslims believe that Abraham threw stones at Satan.  As Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael, God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead, satisfied that Abraham was totally committed to Him.

Now back to those on Hajj.  They have arrived at Mina where there are three large pillars.  They will throw stones (collected as they walk from one location to the next) at the three pillars, which represent Satan, and the three times he tempted Abraham.  While stoning the pillars, people renounce evil and declare their willingness to sacrifice all they have to God. Once they have finished the stoning, they will kill a sheep or a goat in memorial of God’s provision for a substitute for Ishmael. 

2.   What people are doing in Bahrain:  again, I’m not sure.  I’ve not done enough research for this.  Many, though, are probably killing a sheep, goal or a camel (or some other animal) as a way to remember God providing a sheep in place of Abraham’s son.

3.  Beliefs: 

• Satan tries to thwart one’s obedience to God.
• Evil must be resisted and one must be willing to sacrifice all they have to God
• Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past

4.  Similarities and Differences

• Difference: The Story of Abraham’s Sacrifice – there is a lot to be said about the differences between the stories in the Quran and the Bible.  I’ll highlight two things.  First, the Bible does not mention Satan tempting Abraham (though I imagine there were a lot of serious misgivings as Abraham approached the sacrifice).  Second, the Bible identifies Isaac as the son to be sacrificed, as opposed to Ishmael.
• Similarity:  Like Muslims, followers of Jesus acknowledge that there is a spiritual battle.  Satan tries to tempt followers of Jesus and thwart God’s plans – the plan which is ultimately to poor out His love on His people. Romans 8:35-39 might be an appropriate verse to put here:
  ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

                                “For your sake we face death all day long;
                                 we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Similarity:  We must resist evil.  Followers of Jesus understand that God has prepared us as vessels of righteousness.  We also understand that everything that we have is a gift from God.  And as such, we are to use all things we have for the Glory of God.
• Similarity:  Like Muslims, we also remember God’s faithfulness in the past, albeit in different ways.  We have Christmas – the remembering of the birth of Jesus.  We also have Easter (which in some ways is the equivalent of Eid Al Adha), which remembers Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins.