SHAS­TRI BOODAN

The Is­lam­ic com­mu­ni­ty in To­ba­go is call­ing for Eid-ul-Ad­ha to be de­clared a pub­lic hol­i­day. The call came from Imam Shayam Yatali, head of the To­ba­go Masjid, fol­low­ing Eid-ul-Ad­ha cel­e­bra­tions at the Low­lands Mosque yes­ter­day. Yatali said for sev­er­al years Mus­lims in T&T have been call­ing for the de­c­la­ra­tion of both Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Ad­ha as pub­lic hol­i­days. Eid-ul-Fitr rep­re­sents the cel­e­bra­tion at the end of the holy month of Ra­mad­han, while Eid-ul-Ad­ha cel­e­brates the will­ing­ness of Ibrahim to sac­ri­fice his son Is­mail to Al­lah and the will­ing­ness of Is­mail to be sac­ri­fice at the hands of his fa­ther.

Ac­cord­ing to Is­lam­ic the­ol­o­gy, Al­lah asked Ibrahim to sac­ri­fice his 13-year-old son. How­ev­er, af­ter Ibrahim ex­pressed his will­ing­ness to do so, Al­lah asked that a sheep be sac­ri­ficed in­stead of the child. The Is­lam­ic prophet Mo­hammed, who found­ed Is­lam, is a di­rect de­scen­dant of Ibrahim. Yatali said obe­di­ence is an im­por­tant les­son to be learned from Eid-ul-Ad­ha.