Author: Harris Abdullah
1. Why was sacrifice or redemption necessary in the first place?
This was covered in ‘Those who disbelieve (Part 3) – Sin, Hypocrisy and Sacrifice?’ wherein I had written about the institution of sacrifice during the time of Moses for the sons of Israel as recorded in the Hebrew Bible. Why was it necessary? It was necessary for the people of God at that time to show the seriousness of sin and that Allah/Yahweh was called the Most Holy. However, the sacrificial system was not perfect because it simply could not deal with the matter of sin as power that grips the heart of man. As a matter of fact the law given to the people of Israel only brings about a more heightened consciousness of sin in their lives. Hence, the sacrificial system instituted as part of the law was more for the sake of man than for Allah.
2. Couldn’t there be simply forgiveness without all the trouble of offering sacrifices?
Quote from an internet site: “….. let us start with the situation as it was in pre-Islamic Arabia with regard to animal sacrifice. Not only did the pagan Arabs sacrifice to a variety of gods in hopes of attaining protection or some favor or material gain, but so, too, did the Jews of that day seek to appease the One True God by blood sacrifice and burnt offerings.” Someone who wrote that sounded as though they knew how Allah felt, where they themselves may not have experienced the reality of Allah in their lives. The likening of the Jews offering blood sacrifice and burnt offerings to the pagans Arabs offering animal sacrifice to their idols shows that the writer knows next to nothing about the holiness of Allah. To try to downplay the subject of sacrificial offering in few sentences with total ignorance of its importance as divine institution displays an attitude of insolence towards Allah Himself. Perhaps fellow Muslims should study and do more proper research on this topic of sacrificial system which had been instituted by Allah for the people of Israel long before Islam and Christianity came into existence. Simply relegating the topic to “longstanding tradition of appeasing an “angry God” and that Islam broke away from this tradition (in the words of the writer) is tantamount to saying that Allah’s law is merely a tradition that man can shed whenever they feel like it. The law on animal sacrifice for the atonement of sin may not apply to Christians, Muslims and Jews nowadays but important matters that contributed to the institution of the law will not change mainly, the holiness of Allah, how seriously Allah looks at sin and to let man knows how serious and costly sin is to their lives.
Concerning the matter about the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin, fellow Muslims would think that it is total absurdity that one person’s blood can atone for the sin of another in particular in accordance to the Christians’ belief that the death of Jesus (Isa) could atone for the sin of the world. The Christians have no problem understanding this because they have the benefit of reading the Torah where the law of sacrifice as INSTRUCTED by Allah was given and carried out by the Israelites. How we as Muslims view about the validity of atonement of sin through sacrifice is not important and whether the practice is not gaining favor (in the word of the writer) is not important either because Allah does not need His believers/creatures to tell Him what is valid and what is favorable. The practice of sacrificial offering had been carried out with every detail of the law given by Allah to Moses whether we find it favorable or not. We can simply trace the validity of all these in the Torah which we had shared at length. Did Allah need the counsel of man as to what to do, how to implement and which agent to choose to carry out His law? NO! Basically Allah does not need our counsel to do anything.
A more sensible question to ask is, “Why is the practice of animal sacrifice for atonement of sin no longer required for the Christians and Muslims and even for the Jews? One possible explanation is that the purpose of Allah has been achieved for the alamin so that there is no longer any need for animal sacrifice to atone for sin to gain the forgiveness of Allah.
The writer of this site further mentioned, “In Islam, all that is demanded as a sacrifice is one’s personal willingness to submit one’s ego and individual will to Allah.” Praise be to Allah! If not mistaken, this is also a central teaching of Christianity amongst others. However, this statement barely applies to the writer of this site himself. He definitely does not understand the utter Holiness of Allah that there would be consequences whereby God would not listen to your prayers when you sin. Stated very clearly from the Hebrew Scripture:
Isaiah 1:15 “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you, Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
Psalm 66:18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;
In general, Muslims’ understanding from the words of the Quran is that God would forgive you as long as you ask for forgiveness or repent. Why? Because Allah is the Most Merciful, Oft-Forgiving. This is true but the understanding of this matter of forgiveness from Allah has been taken too much for granted. The above verses tell us that as a result of sin, you would lose the nearness of Allah at the spiritual level that a lot of believers do not even have to begin with.
Below was quoted by another site concerning the readiness of Allah to pardon sinners:
Quote: “In Islam, all sins can be forgiven except associating others with God. Whatever sins a Muslim commits, will be pardoned if he offers sincere repentance and does a lot of good deeds. The good deeds wipe out the bad ones. The door of repentance is always open and Allah will accept the repentance until the Muslim dies.”
This explains why certain Muslims live the way they live due to this low view of sin. ‘Whatever sins’ committed means any Muslim could rape, kill, steal, commit adultery, fornication and any other grossly imaginable sin; are all these sins so negligible? You could just ask forgiveness that’s all? And you thought that associating partners with Allah has to do with a physical idol or a person. In fact, you could find many Muslims hanging plates with the Arabic name of beloved Prophet Muhammed on the equal level with the name of Allah in their homes. What do you call this? The thing is, if you know that Allah is above all else, then whether you are Muslims or Christians, you would not put the prophets on the same level as Allah.
Have any Muslims scholars or Ustaz read the Quran carefully that the battles between idolatry and complete submission to Allah S.W.T appear in almost all surahs in the Quran? These battles had also been constant struggles historically of the Israelites written almost in all the books of the Hebrew Bible. The outcome of the history of the Israelites was that that they had been defeated and the great temple of Jerusalem was destroyed. It was precisely because in the Temple of Yahweh, there were found other idolatrous relics and items that had been stashed in there. (Reminder in Surah 39:29 A slave with many masters and one slave belonging to only one Master. Surah 39:56 – How do you neglect فَرَّطتُ Allah? The person is double minded and has no focus in his life such that Allah is no longer the main priority of his/her life. Something else has replaced Allah and that is what idolatry in the heart is; an idolatrous heart or double minded heart.).
All sins can be forgiven but if you repent and sin and repent, what is the meaning of this kind of life? If this is your life, then you should be aware that you have got a serious problem; that you are definitely not even aware that you are bound powerfully to sin. There is a teaching by Isa Al Masih –
Matthew 7:18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Luke 6:43 “For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit; nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.
Sin is a matter of power. If you continually commit sin(s), it is a symptom that you have problems. Then it is rightly said that no matter how many sacrificial offerings you made would not help you and no matter how many sincere repentance you do would not help you either because you will go back to square one. Furthermore, how would you know how many good deeds you need to do that will wipe out the bad ones? Before you have even completed the number of good deeds to offset the bad deeds you did, you may have committed another bad deed because you have no power to fight against the power of sin. Does Allah want you to live in a life of utter uncertainties and defeat?
3. Could there be simply no sacrifices needed at all for forgiveness?
Yes, we do not need it anymore because Allah has provided a Great/Momentous Sacrifice once and for all. This was also covered in our writing on ‘The true meaning of Aidiladha’. Allah has concretely shown His mercies and forgiveness from the revelation through the story of Abraham in Surah 37:100-107. The message from this account is indeed very intriguing and revelatory to those who seek the truth but not to those who have their understanding brained-washed by tradition and also putting their own interpretations into this passage.
Our Muslim friends were trying so hard to eradicate the concept of sacrifice and completely misinterpreted the passage of Abraham’s dream of sacrificing the son to such an extent of saying that the dream was not from Allah. How could Muslim who talked about submitting one’s ego and individual will to Allah read the Quran with so much blindness and prejudices by putting his own ideas into the passage rather than drawing the meaning/truth out of it? But unfortunately that is the case. If only they had known the true Quranic revelations, they would not be in the state as they were in now.
Some Muslims even said that the Quran never says that Allah told Abraham to kill or sacrifice the son. I wonder what Quran these people had been reading. It is so clearly stated in the passage As-Saffat 37: 102-107. In Surah 37:102, it was mentioned the son said to his father, “Do, as thou art commanded”. Now who commanded Abraham to do such a thing in the vision? And later on in Surah 37:105, it was stated: “Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!” – thus indeed do We reward those who do right. So, who said these words? It was Allah Himself – Allah confirmed the fulfillment of the vision by Abraham because of their (Abraham and his son) willingness to submit to Allah completely. Of course we know the outcome was that Abraham did not kill or sacrifice the son physically because it was a trial for him from Allah, as stated on Surah 37:106.
To be a true Muslim, Christian or a Jew is not just difficult but it is impossible by your own effort. All scriptures show that righteous men who completely submitted their will and lives to Allah were not many but few and how they had come to a complete submission of their will to Allah was only by Allah’s mercies. And if you truly examine these righteous men’s lives, you would find that there were some nearer to Allah than others, each of their stature is different from one another. Even in the Quran’s naming of the prophets, there were only quite a handful but there was one particularly that stood out from the rest. This again is a revelation for those who are seeking a higher faith that is neither bound by traditions nor prejudices, but are seeking nearness to Allah.
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Note:
- All Al-Quran verses are sourced from English Translation of Al-Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, with thanks.
- All Injil and Torah verses are sourced from New American Standard Bible with Codes (1995), with thanks.