The Immolation of Gaza
Fathers are not expected to actually offer their immolated children so that some and others may be closer to God! But in Gaza there seems to be no alternative
A father screams "sacrifice, oh Arabs!…" His hands are dirty, with earth and blood. With them he desperately pulls at the collar of his own shirt as if to tear it off. Then, with the same hands he makes the gestures of someone cutting something, his right hand going back and forth over his left wrist, and says "slaughter! slaughter sheep and calves! and eat meat, oh Arabs!" Pulling the bloodstained blanket that covers his dead son's body, he says "we sacrifice our children!" He drops the blanket and leans over the body, and repeats "Sufficient for me is God, and most worthy is He of trust.!", "Sufficient for me is God, and most worthy is He of trust.!"... The camera then shows us five other blankets that roughly take the shape of the bodies they cover, they are multicolored, of poor quality, and the lighter ones more clearly reveal the blood they have absorbed.
These children were slaughtered while taking refuge in a hospital, on the day when Muslims began the first day of their greatest religious festival, "Eid Al-Adha," normally translated as "Festival of Sacrifice," whose Arabic name refers to the notion of a festival that returns (every year) and in which an immolation is made in sacrifice and offering.
For those who make the pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the obligations of all Muslims, sacrifice is part of the roster of Hajj (pilgrimage) rituals. And, on the same day, in every corner of the world, Muslims sacrifice animals, celebrate and distribute gifts and food. It is said that the meat should be distributed thus: one third for the family, one third for close people and one third for those in need. Many substitute the slaughter of animals with donations of money or food.
Children are normally the most excited; they wear their best clothes and expect from adults gifts, toys or money or sweets.
As happens at Christmas and New Year, people exchange messages, cards, videos and memes containing wishes for a Blessed Eid, wishing that it may be repeated for many more years, that we may be healthy when it returns...
This year I received fewer messages of this kind; most came from institutions that, certainly, send automatic broadcasts. I myself sent none, until now, when the time has already passed. I feel I have nothing to say, to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, in celebration or commemoration.
The festival refers to an Islamic version of Abraham's sacrifice; for Muslims, the son who should be sacrificed was Ishmael, the firstborn, and he, in his early adolescence, is consulted by his father about the dream he had had in which he received the command to sacrifice him. Ishmael says that his father should do what he was ordered. He gladly accepts to serve as an offering. The faith of father and son having been proven, both are saved by divine will.
An Arabic word that designates both the act of sacrificing and the being or thing sacrificed is Qurban (it has its almost identical equivalents in Hebrew and Aramaic). Its root refers to the idea of proximity, of being close to...
It is understood that sacrifice is made to bring us closer to God. The joyful celebration commemorates this proximity, but proximity stems from the generosity with which one looks at others and attends to their needs. It is this generosity, this solidarity, that saves everyone.
Fathers are not expected to actually offer their immolated children so that some and others may be closer to God! But in Gaza there seems to be no alternative: fathers and mothers offer their children, by the thousands; children offer their fathers and mothers...
The father who incited the Arabs to slaughter sheep and calves and eat meat (his name is Rami...) tells us that he has just sacrificed what he had and reminds us, especially Arabs and Muslims, that neither he nor we have anything to celebrate, and that we have failed to draw close to God because we did not help those who were hungry and the thousands of human lambs immolated in Gaza.
He, Rami, does not forget God and repeats “Sufficient for me is God, and most worthy is He of trust.!” This is a verse from the Quran, always remembered when tragedy befalls Muslims, in moments of greatest despair. In the third Surah of the Quran, called "'Imran or The Family of 'Imran" (meaning the family of the Virgin Mary's father), one reads:
And for those who answered the call of God and the Messenger, after the wounds that afflicted them, and those among them who did good and feared God, their reward shall be glorious. These are the men to whom people had said: 'A mighty host has been marshalled against you; so ought you to fear them.' But this only increased them in faith and they replied: 'Sufficient for us is god, and most worthy is He of trust.'