The Philosophy Of Sacrifice

itself is not the ultimate goal; rather, it is a symbol or sign. The true purpose of this act is to foster taqwa. The intention behind the sacrifice is to cultivate the spirit of taqwa (righteousness) in a person through a meaningful symbolic act. This can also be said in another way: the philosophy or real meaning of sacrifice is psychological sacrifice. The slaughter of an animal is training for the slaughter of one’s emotions and desires. The message of the Quran is: crush the bad desires that rise inside you, defeat your inner evils. A human being is a creature who is born with nafs-e-ammara (the commanding self or ego). While living among people, again and again, this nafs-e-ammara flares up. Feelings like anger, hatred, revenge, jealousy, spite, selfishness rise inside him. This is the test of a person. To pass this test, it is necessary that a person tries to control these emotions. He must be ready to suppress every such feeling. This is called psychological sacrifice, and for the practical training of this inner sacrifice, the method of sacrificing animals has been prescribed. In the above verse, it is said that neither the meat nor the blood of animals reaches God—what reaches Him is your taqwa. This means that if the sacrifice of an animal does not become the sacrifice of inner self, then such a sacrifice is not acceptable to God.