Daily Times

He is white, with shocks of
reddish-brown ‘hair’. Well-groomed, well dressed and certainly well-fed, he weighs in at an astounding 160 kilograms, which for most of us, ordinarily, would be a fit case for gastric banding, but not so for ‘him’! ‘He’ gets to feast on five litres of milk, two kilograms of fruit, almonds, desi ghee and an entire truckload of gourmet delights every single day! Yes, ‘he’ is the bakra (goat), ready for sacrifice, in Allah’s way!

Already valued at Rs 300,000 and climbing, this bakra and many more special ones like him are the talk of town. The owners/sellers proudly explain on camera how ‘especial’ their bakra is for those desirous of obtaining this quicker route to Allah’s acceptance of their sacrifice. I am really bad at math, but it seems that by rough estimates, the meat to be yielded by this particular animal, and others fed and raised like him, would cost well over Rs 1,875 per kilogram as opposed to the Rs 600 rate prevalent in the market. As I have admitted many a times, sometimes my general understanding of things is lacking and leaves a lot to be desired, but what does ‘qurbaani’ or ‘sacrifice’ entail? Is it eating and distributing an almond-fed bakra, with succulent and aromatic yield, three times the price of a normal animal, or is it a pledge in Allah’s path? Does not the Quran tell the story of Hazrat Ibrahim (PBUH), who narrates his dream to his son? Does he not say that he dreamt that he was sacrificing him (his son)? And, does not his son reply: “O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast.” So, is not the concept of sacrifice in Islam to actually raise an animal, feed it, nurse it, care for it, like one does for one’s children, develop an emotional bond with it and then remaining steadfast, sacrifice it for Allah?

Our religion has already been hijacked by the many of an ignorant clergy whose incessant bellows overpower the enlightened ulema, but to have the ignorance spill over into a rancid display of wealth and ‘jahalat’ (ignorance) combined needs to be checked. If one was itching to spend this much on a single animal, would not it be better if 20 bakras were bought and then gifted to the poor, who could then perhaps partake in what has predominantly remained a rich man’s domain? Instead of giving them meat, let them sacrifice the animal, or maybe they only deserve 200 grams of the almond-fed bakra, from the parts that one would never send to the high and mighty in one’s elitist social circle?

I have been, after wrestling with the almond-fed bakra, trying to figure out where exactly to perform hajj in Pakistan. Having missed my chance this year to go to Mecca with the faithful, I am overwhelmed at being given this golden opportunity, yet again, except like in the past I still have not located the Kaaba or Safaa and Marva here. Maybe I am wrong but does not Allah say in the Quran that the Kaaba is the focal point for the people? Is not circumambulation around the Kaaba an obligatory part of the hajj? How about running between Safaa and Marva, or going to Arafaat or pelting the devil? Have the Saudis outsourced all this to us? If not how can we have hajj on a different day when there is only one place in the entire world it can be performed? Perhaps 50 years ago it would have made sense to follow the lunar sighting, but now when we have live television channels, 24 hours a day, showing Mecca and Madina, we know for certain that hajj is being performed on a particular day. How can we not follow that?

In continuation of my ‘logic-less’ week, a heart-wrenching incident in Lahore, just short of Eid, has prompted me to question parental negligence. It was reported in the news, both visual and print, that allegedly the 10-year-old son of an Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) accidentally shot his mother who succumbed to her wounds three hours later at a hospital in Lahore. The police allegedly recovered a 12-bore gun and an empty cartridge. The clips that were on television show a child who looked older than 10 but that is neither here nor there in this case. The law, however, stipulates: “Nothing is an offence that is done by a child under seven years of age” and “Nothing is an offence that is done by a child above seven years of age and under 12, who has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge of the nature and consequences of his conduct on that occasion.” Regardless of what this child’s age is, the important question here is how he got hold of a gun, and a loaded one at that? Is one to assume that a learned ASJ, who one presumes to have ‘sufficient maturity’ and who in the course of his daily business, adjudicates and presides over criminal trials, left an unlocked and loaded weapon within the reach of anyone, including his children? Why was the child cleaning the weapon, as claimed? And, should such people be allowed to determine the fate of others while they disregard the law themselves? A national newspaper reported: “Sources in the police said that the judge and his wife had developed clashes over some domestic matter and used to exchange harsh words. Asia had accused her son of favouring his father. On Monday she snubbed her son as the judge had left for office. The child pulled out the gun and shot her, they stated.” It is claimed that the learned ASJ refused his wife’s post-mortem.

A couple of days ago a polio eradication team was the target of a bomb explosion and two people died. According to the unofficial data available, around 1,500 people have been killed and over 3,500 injured in bomb blasts this year alone in Pakistan. Celebrating Eid in this context should bring to light what ‘sacrifice’ Pakistanis already make on a daily basis. None is spared, no church, no mosque, nothing. When we step out of our homes, it is with the knowledge that this may be the last time we will see our children, but yet a hope lingers, a faith in God that maybe we will get another day to live. While I have no cavil with the fact that the exact day and time of our death is preordained, I do have questions on the role of the state. Is it not the duty of the state to protect its citizens and those who reside within its territories? Is it not the policies of the state that have landed us in this one holy mess? While the Honourable Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court may order the mobile companies to pay diyat, arsh, daman or whatever it is to the victims of bomb blasts in which their unregistered SIMs were used, the governments, across all provinces, typically announce a compensation of Rs 300,000-500,000 for the dead and Rs 200,000 for the injured. The rate of diyat announced for the current fiscal year is Rs. 2,174,577, equal to the value of 30,630 grams of silver.

In a maddening and heart-wrenching continuation of my ‘logic-less’ week, I cannot help but weep: the price of a human life in Pakistan is equal to that of an almond-fed bakra?

The writer is an advocate of the High Court