21. Id-ul-Zoha
The Idu-l-Azha or Id-ul-Zoha, the feast of sacrifice, also called the Bakr-Id or cow-festival, is held on the tenth day of the last month, Zu’l Hijjah. It is the principal day of the Muhammadan year, and pilgrims going to Mecca keep it there.[24] At this time also the Arabs were accustomed to go to Mecca and offer animal sacrifices there to the local deities. According to tradition, when Abraham (Ibrahim) founded Mecca the Lord desired him to prepare a feast and to offer his son Ishmael (Ismail). But when he had drawn the knife across his son’s throat the angel Gabriel substituted a ram and Ishmael was saved, and the festival commemorates this. As already stated, the Arabs believe themselves to be descended from Ishmael or Ismail. According to a remarkable Hadīs or tradition, related by Ayesha, Muhammad said: “Man hath not done anything on the Id-ul-Zoha more pleasing to God than spilling blood in sacrifice; for, verily, its blood reacheth the acceptance of God before it falleth upon the ground, therefore be joyful in it.”[25] On this day, as on the other Id, the people assemble for prayers at the Id-Gāh. On returning home the head of a family takes a sheep, cow or camel to the entrance of his house and sacrifices it, repeating the formula, ‘In the name of God, God is great,’ as he cuts its throat. The flesh is divided, two-thirds being kept by the family and one-third given to the poor in the name of God. This is the occasion on which Muhammadans offend Hindu feeling by their desire to sacrifice cows, as camels are unobtainable or too valuable, and the sacrifice of a cow has probably more religious merit than that of a sheep or goat. But in many cases they abandon their right to kill a cow in order to avoid stirring up enmity.