Eid al-Adha and its interfaith meaning

Students and workers are just too happy that today is a holiday. A few bother to understand why it is so, beyond the happy fact that there is no school and no work. The few who do dismiss it simply as a “Muslim holiday,” which in fact it is.

Our illiteracy on Eid al-Adha is perhaps understandable. For we in the Christian majority were actually programmed historically by colonialism to reject Islamic brethren. It is a whole narrative, not just a footnote of history, that we are all too familiar with.

At the same time, having a Muslim holiday is still a novelty in the Philippines. For many years, Christian holidays were imposed on everyone regardless of religious culture. The Catholic Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were holidays throughout the nation for decades (it is not so in Western countries). That is not to mention that Christmas Day, no matter the attempt to secularize it in Western countries, and which will always be the commemoration of Christ’s birth, is a major holiday. Even New Year’s Day is a holiday—not because it is “hangover day” but because its commemoration is actually rooted in Catholic Christianity and is officially known as the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

But the times we live in now are no longer times when the majority simply expects the minority to assimilate into the majority culture without question. We now live in times of inclusion, not exclusion. Time was when the majority expected those in the minority to respect its culture but did not accord the same to the minority culture. Those times of hegemony—and certainly of bigotry—are over.

In the academe, where young people converge to be educated, evident are signs of inclusion that one would not have seen 40 or 50 years ago. Christian and Muslim students hang out and become lifelong circles of friends without any qualms about their religious differences. The time for religious tolerance has come.

The two Islamic holidays therefore—Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha—are in fact holidays waiting to happen in these times of cultural openness.

The Administrative Code of 1987 during the Cory Aquino presidency introduced the practice of declaring the two Islamic feasts as regular holidays. It was further instituted into law by Republic Act No. 9849 during the Arroyo presidency. Both presidents therefore were very politically correct in including these two feasts in the list of national regular holidays—“regular” as a “nonworking holiday.” In doing so, the Philippines has categorized, in terms of cultural significance, Eid al-Fitr (the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha in the league of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

In doing so, it is akin to saying that the state recognizes the reality of the existence of Muslims as it has recognized the existence of Christians in the national demography. Come to think of it, the years when we had no Muslim holidays were like saying that the state ignored their very existence.

What will probably color our very scarce knowledge of Eid al-Adha today is the news from elsewhere on the threat of Muslim militants that the West has called Isis (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria). The Emir of Qatar has already spoken: He refuses to use this name for the simple reason that he deems the group to be non-Islamic. While Isis may be a real threat to other Muslim peoples elsewhere (for it is Muslims who are being killed by this group), mainstream Islam has categorically rejected to support this militancy. On the local front, Eid al-Adha should be an opportunity for the Christian majority to reflect on the forthcoming Bangsamoro agreement that many of us will be ratifying in a plebiscite next year. How can we vote in that plebiscite motivated by a true sense of justice for our Muslim Filipinos?

The bottom line for now is that few are aware that Eid al-Adha in fact is so rich in interfaith significance. Known as the Feast of Sacrifice, this great Muslim festival commemorates the sacrifice of Abraham (Ibrahim) of his son Ishmael as commanded by God through the Angel Gabriel. Albeit it differs with the Christian Bible only in that it was Isaac who was sacrificed, the essence remains entirely similar: It honors Abraham’s submission to the will of God.

All religious denominations agree—the call to sacrifice the son was an unimaginable act. Abraham was in his twilight years (believed to have been 99 years of age at the time) and the son was in fact his first-born, his greatest possession. God rewarded Abraham’s great act of submission by providing a lamb to be slaughtered. He had passed the test.

That test is what Muslims commemorate as the “Greater Eid,” the major festival. In this festival, Muslims recall to heart the great importance of one’s intention for God. The slaughter of meat on Eid al-Adha not only reenacts the sacrificial lamb Abraham found just as he was about to cut his son’s throat. It is a reverential act that reminds the men and women of Islam that sacrifice is greater than killing; that in sacrifice, we share. Hence, the meat slaughtered today (actually beginning Saturday evening last) is distributed to the poor.

Christians have much to learn about Eid al-Adha. Let it not be just a day where we could not care less for our Muslim brethren. Let it be a day when we share in the celebration. During our Christian holidays, we expect them to acquiesce to us (because many of us are silly Christians). Let us do the unimaginable thing. If we expect them to understand us, why can’t we do the same to them? In generating Muslim-Christian dialogue, can we who say we are Christians not simply follow the biblical Golden Rule admonition? It only takes humility to do an act of charity that will promote peace.

Eid Saeed! (Happy Eid!). Eid Adha Mubarak!

(Blessed Eid!).