Eid El Adha: Abraham’s sacrifice
According to Islam, the Koran is the terminal point of revelation for this humanity. It presents itself as the summary and synthesis of previous messages, and many biblical stories are reported in a condensed and allusive way. The sibyllin character of the “book”, we will realize it, appears clearly in the episode of the sacrifice of Abraham.
This episode, mentioned in Sura 37, comes out in the Koranic theme of the test (Balâ ‘), which acts as a real spiritual pedagogy to the address of the believers and a fortiori of the prophets: the election and the inauguration have for the obligatory purification. Abraham (ibrâhîm in Arabic) was chosen as “intimate friend of God” (Khalîl Allâh) because he has successfully suffered many tests1. One of the most intense was undoubtedly this dream during which the patriarch saw his son immolate:
– ” O my son, I see in dreams that I get lost. What do you think? »»
– ” Father, replied the son, do what is ordered to you. You will find me, if God wants, among those who support (the test) (Cor. 37: 102).
All translators make this passage to the past time (” O my son, I saw in dreams that … ), But it is important to restore this employee in the Arabic text, because it has the function of arouse the instantaneity of the vision of Abraham. If we are allowed the image, it saw the live vision, not delayed.
The commentators insist on the dreamlike dimension of the scene -absent from the biblical story -, and Ibn ‘Arabî, the great master of Sufism underlines that it is in fact a ram who appeared in Abraham during his sleep, but under the features of his son. However, Abraham did not interpret, “transposed” says Arabic, this vision because, according to the opinion of the commentators, the dream or the vision of the prophets is revelation (wahyme), and is perceived by them as an immediate reality.
Indeed : ” When they both abandoned themselves to the divine will (aslamâ) and that Abraham had slept his son on the front on the ground, we called him: “O Abraham, you added faith to the vision!” This is how we remote the beings endowed with excellence (103-105) ». In reality, the vision that Abraham received did not initiate him to materially immolate his Son, but to devote him to God. Here we join the Judaic tradition2.
– ” Here is certainly the obvious test »(106): Supreme test of submission to God to believe himself forced to slaughter his son! According to some Sufis, the test consisted in giving its true meaning to vision. They point out that the child is the symbol of the soul. It is therefore his “self” that God asks Abraham to immolate, this high prophetic soul, certainly, but still capable of love for another than God. However, in order to be fully invested in divine intimacy, Abraham must empty his heart of any attachment to creatures. Moreover, the episode of the sacrifice immediately follows a passage where we see Abraham destroy the idols adored by his people (84-98). In his case, the ultimate realization of uniqueness (tawhîd) supposed the destruction of any natural inclination, of any egotic residue, a subtle form of idolatry.
– ” We bought it by a solemn sacrifice (107), because the stake is immense. A ram coming, according to tradition, from paradise, and led to earth by the angel Gabriel for sacrifice, replaces the son: thanks to this transfer, God bought his descendants, prophetic and other, to better preserve it and bless it. Thus, “we perpetuated (the memory of Abraham) among the later generations (108). Peace on Abraham! »(109): After submission (Islam) comes peace (salâm). The animal, being pure because it knows by direct intuition its creator, like the mineral and vegetable kingdoms (ibn ‘arabî), can indeed take the place of a pure human, prophet and son of prophet. By its consented sacrifice, it allows ” Adam’s son – and not just Abraham – to regenerate their vital and spiritual energies.
In no place in this story, the Koran not mentions if the son offered in oblation is Ismaël, father of the Arabs, son of the servant agar jealous by Sara, or Isaac, her younger brother, father of the Jews. This imprecision shared the Muslim authors, each drawing argument opposite the same Koranic passages in favor of Isaac or Ismaël. From an Islamic perspective, it was tempting to identify the victim of the sacrifice in Ismael.
Indeed, he helped Abraham build the Kaaba of Mecca (Cor. 2: 125-127), and certain current rites of the pilgrimage (Hajj), such as the stoning of Satan, find their foundation in the sacrifice which would have taken place in Mina, one of the sites of the Hajj. However, most commentators do not give in to this temptation, and spread the differences of opinion. Here is a fine example of reigning pluralism within medieval Muslim thought.
Nevertheless, the commemoration of the sacrifice of Abraham, updated each year by the sacrifice of animals, has become the ” big party “(al-‘îd al-kabîr) Muslims, celebrated on the 10th of Dhû l-hijjamonth of the pilgrimage. THE Hajjthose who did it know this well, is an ordeal: repetition of the Last Judgment, he died in this world and resurrection.
Like the beast, the pilgrim is the sacrificial offering whose ritual journey allows the Muslim community, and beyond humanity, to regenerate. If animal sacrifice keeps all its relevance today, and if the sharing and donation of meat perpetuate ” Sacred hospitality Abraham, it is important not to lose sight of the primary sense of sacrifice: inner purification.
For those who know the Koran, the ambiguity of divine speech about Isaac and Ismaël is deliberate. It recalls the one that hovers on the Koranic story of the crucifixion or the non-crucifixion of Christ3which, according to Christians, sacrificed itself on the cross for the acquisition of humanity. Finally, the Koranic silence on the identity of the sacrificed son -or sanctified -, with regard to the current context, can be perceived as a sometimes source of rivalry and enmity, sometimes of proximity or even intimacy between Jews and Muslims. Is it not in the overtaking of the ego, the true sense of the Abrahamic sacrifice, that each will manage to restore secular harmony undermined by recent political developments?
Notes:
1. See Cor. 2: 124.
2. See for example Exodus 13: 2.
3. Cf. Cor. 4: 157.
