SHAS­TRI BOODAN

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Imam Rasheed Karim of Masjid-ul-Faaraquan in Fe­lic­i­ty de­liv­ered a stir­ring Eid-ul-Ad­ha ser­mon on Sat­ur­day, warn­ing the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty about the dan­gers of “men­tal idol­a­try”.

Speak­ing at the Greenidge Street Mosque, Imam Karim said that while phys­i­cal idols may no longer dom­i­nate the land­scape, mod­ern so­ci­ety has em­braced new forms of idol­a­try root­ed in ma­te­ri­al­ism.

“The phys­i­cal idols have been de­stroyed but the men­tal idol is re­sid­ing in our hearts,” he said. “We are feed­ing it; we are groom­ing it; we are main­tain­ing it.”

He ex­plained that con­tem­po­rary life of­ten el­e­vates wealth, sta­tus, and pos­ses­sions above spir­i­tu­al du­ties.

“To­day we pri­ori­tise our fam­i­ly above Al­lah, we pri­ori­tise our busi­ness above Al­lah, we put every­thing above Al­lah Sub­hanahu Wa Ta’ala. I am telling you… You could be the most ed­u­cat­ed man, you could have the most amount of de­grees, you could have the most amount of wealth, you could have the most amount of sta­tus but when you lie down in that grave, my dear broth­ers and my dear sis­ters, noth­ing is go­ing with you,” he said.

Imam Karim urged Mus­lims to re­flect on the fleet­ing na­ture of world­ly goods.

“If the an­swer is no, then why is it that you are mak­ing so much sac­ri­fice up­on some­thing that is tem­po­rary that you can­not car­ry with you?” he asked.

He al­so ad­dressed the suf­fer­ing of Mus­lims world­wide and con­demned those who re­main silent in the face of in­jus­tice.

“When we see our Mus­lim broth­ers and sis­ters are suf­fer­ing un­der the atroc­i­ties per­pe­trat­ed by the evil do­ers of this world and you re­main silent, my dear broth­ers and sis­ters, we are part and par­cel of it. If you can­not stand up and say some­thing, or if you can­not go and fight be­cause you study your Amer­i­can visa or you’re study­ing ‘I can’t trav­el abroad’, ‘I can’t go there be­cause I’m stand­ing up against this’, my dear broth­ers and my dear sis­ters, then your idol is that,” he de­clared.

Eid al-Ad­ha, al­so known as the Fes­ti­val of Sac­ri­fice, is one of Is­lam’s most sa­cred ob­ser­vances. It com­mem­o­rates Prophet Ibrahim’s de­vo­tion and will­ing­ness to sac­ri­fice his son Is­mail in obe­di­ence to God.

Ac­cord­ing to Is­lam­ic tra­di­tion, God in­ter­vened and pro­vid­ed a ram to sac­ri­fice in­stead. Mus­lims ho­n­our this act of faith with Qur­bani, the rit­u­al slaugh­ter of a sheep, goat, or cow, with the meat shared among fam­i­ly, friends, and those in need.