All of us at Dust and Tribe pray that your Eid holiday be filled with joy and that it is further imbued with lasting memories that restore and rejuvenate now and upon future reflection, God willing.

The Eid al-Adha celebration marks the conclusion of the Hajj pilgrimage, itself a commemoration of the legacy of Abraham, may God’s peace be upon him. Abraham is the spiritual patriarch of the three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Even so, we are not aware of any ritual honoring of him through a tradition apart from Islam.

The Islamic story is all-encompassing. We live in accordance with the mandates of God Most High, as taught and modeled by the Prophet Muhammed, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him. In addition, we honor our spiritual forefather, Abraham, who’s sons Ishmael and Isaac went on to promulgate the monotheism taught by their father, may God’s peace be upon them all.

We won’t forget where we came from. Muslims do not pretend that what is past is without value.

Our personal and collective history are the best metrics for understanding how far we’ve come, or how much further we need to go. It is a miraculous thing that just before the Eid holiday, we are invited to the fast of ‘Arafah, the completion of which purges from us the sins of the year prior and protects us from the accumulation of sins in the year ahead, setting the psychological and emotional stage for both hope and renewal. Our burden is lightened and the path forward is made easier, two factors that are certain to improve the morale of any traveler.

Eid al-Adha is the Festival of Sacrifice, and this is a practice and principle that cannot be ignored. Abraham was asked to sacrifice Ishmael, and we are taught that both went to the slaughter without hesitation. We suggest that neither were likely happy about this. No father can kill his son with a glad heart, and no child would acquiesce without fear. All of this we assume to have happened: the sorrow, the horror, the gut-wrenching turmoil, the existential confusion, and the recognition that God’s Command is to be honored regardless.

We all have an Ishmael, something that we love that must be sacrificed if we are to be instruments in God’s Plan. This will almost certainly be frightening, a cause for grief and eventual, perhaps begrudging recalibration.

But recall that God stayed Abraham’s hand, and offered the ram in his son’s stead. God takes nothing of value from His servants. Rather, everything is a test, and staying true to our covenant is the harbinger of relief and better things to come, insha Allah.

Eid Mubarak indeed!

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