Sacrifice
Growing up I always was fascinated by the ongoings of Eid ul Azha, Bakra Eid as we call it in Pakistan. I was very young when I last saw the Sacrifice Fest that goes on in Karachi. Now, at age 30 it was my first experience after 17 or so years to be witnessing it again.
The moment ppl arrive in Makkah to perform Hajj, people in Pakistan begin the process of preparing for the "Barhi Eid". Shops, malls and markets are full of people buying clothes, jewelry and shoes for the happy occasion. But the biggest change that appears is that of suzuki high roof pickups with cages on their backs, transporting cows from Sohrab Goth to all over Karachi. People start talking about who is it in their area that usually has the best cow. Kids all over the city somehow, via telepathy or whatever, know that a cow has just arrived at certain house in the area. They all flock to the house and stand there admiring the height, weight and most importantly the level of ferociousness of the animal. Its quite a sight, I must add. My ten year old cousins informed me more about the cows then I have ever wanted to know.
So anyway, like every year, this year too, my family decided to sacrifice a cow. My cousins were really excited and my khala and my mamu's son specifically made sure that I went and picked them up before I went to go get the cow. So a day before we were going to go get the cow, I had my Khala's 18 yr old son Sulaiman (who is here from Riyadh and is studying in Hamdard and is currently living with us), go pick up my mamu's 14 yr old son Bilal and my other khala's 12 yr old son Saad. So we had Bilal, Saad and Hamza (the 10 yr old son of my mamu who lives with us too) all ready to go get the cow. Sulaiman was the least interested. Anyway, my mamu woke up at 6 am and got ready and Bilal, Saad and Hamza went with him to get the cow. I missed out on the party since I was stuck at work (Yes, I work the night shift and get off at 7am). By the time I got home the cow had arrived on one of those Suzuki trucks I mentioned earlier. The Suzuki owner and his guys had a little problem getting it down, since according to my cousins "Bohat khurrath gaye hai yeh wali" (This is a very ferocious cow). Everybody in the neighbourhood were all of a sudden in front of our house. My mamu tied it up in the Verandah that we have in front of our house and after peeing a gallon, it settled down.
It was a very nice and healthy cow costing around 24000 rupees. Everyone in the neighbourhood was like, this one is not going to fall easy (yeh ithnee asani say nahi giray gi). It had a nice colourful cloth tied on its forehead and had brown and white patchy skin. By all standards, it was an "Acha Janwar" (Good animal).
So I go with Bilal, Hamza and Saad to get the fodder for the cow and brought it home and started feeding it and pretty much spent the whole day around her, giving her water and what not. At the same time, people would walk by in groups taking their cows out for a walk. It seemed like a very festive mood all around. Someone yelled that a camel just got dropped off in the neighbourhood behind ours, so everybody went over to see it. I stayed back with the cow. Petting it and feeding it (She ate a lot!!!!).
The two days went by taking care of the cow and making sure that all of her needs were met. An old carpet was provided for it to sit down on and a same old type of carpet was put on top of her as it was Cold as hell in the nights. We would take turns waking up at night to make sure that she was ok. Pretty soon we realized, contrary to the "expert" opinion about its ferociousness, that, she was a shareef guye as she never really caused any problems and sat around down nothing except eating.
On Eid day we all got ready to go for the Eid prayers and came back and my mamu asked me that I change out of my "Humayun Saeed" Kameez Shalwar since it would definitely get dirty. I had no idea what was in store. I changed into my lowers and a T Shirt, since the sun had taken away the chill from the weather and it was a beautiful day.
My mamu cut the rope and handed it to me so I could take the cow around the neighbourhood for a walk. Everywhere I went, people came up and started petting the cow and saying "Wah, acha janwar hai", "kithnay ka hai?" and what not. Anyone that came close to her she made a gesture of moving her head away. But everytime i petted her, she was calm and walked in any direction I took her. It felt nice to have a pet after such a long time, since when I was a kid I always had some sort of a pet in our house and in the US I never even thought of having a pet. After 15 minutes of walking around, I brought her back home. It kept close to me all the time. My mamu gave her a bucket of water to drink, which she managed to gulp down in less then a minute.
As I stood there petting its forehead, I saw my cousin Umair in the background walking towards our house with the "Kasayee" (butcher). Kasayee came up and told my mamu that we would have to help him drop the cow since all his men were busy finishing up cows in other neighbourhoods. My mamu said ok. My cousin Umair told me to hold the reins that are tied around the head as he and the Kasayee started to put loops around its feet. Pretty soon the cow realized that something wasnt right and started to kick. My mamu said to hold tight to the reins and dont let them go. In less then 10 seconds the loops were all tight on its feet. The cow began to kick the loops open and stood up on its back legs. The Kasayee told me to pull on the reins and turn the head sideways as he was going to pull the roop and take the cow off its feet. My mamu and cousin pushed the body, as I turned the head and down she came on its side. Our butcher is well known to be an expert in the art of cutting cows, and his expertise showed as he quickly tied its legs up really tight and turned the cow around with the cow facing the Kabah. My mom handed me a duaa to read and a knife. I looked at her in disbelief. I asked her "You want me to slit the throat?" She said "Yes hurry up". I turned around and read the duaa and sat down by its head, looking at the knife in my hand. My cousin and mamu had put all the weight on her so she wouldnt try to stand up. It was making loud mooing sounds. I looked up and everybody in the area had formed a circle around me. The Kasayee asked me to put one hand on the chin and hold the neck flap and to push down hard on the neck with the knife when I cut. I put the knife on the neck and looked straight into her eyes. She was looking straight back at me, as if asking me "What are you doing?". For a moment I went numb and pressed down really hard as I cut through the brown skin and blood gushed out of the neck and sprayed itself all over my arm and face. The kasaye kept saying to keeping pushing down as I slit the neck all the way down to where the jugular vein cut open and blood started to flow like a mini river out of the neck. The whole time, my eyes were looking straight into its eyes, that slowly started to loose that glitter it would have when I would put food or water in front of it. I turned around and saw Hamza crying in a way that I have never seen him cry before. He was telling his mom "Is ko paal laytay, yeh wali achi thi" (We should have kept it as a pet, She was nice). My grandma yelled at him in the background "Issee ko qurbani kehtay hain. Allah ka shukar karo kay hazrat ibrahim kay samnay dumba agaya thaa, warna is waqt hum tumhain kaat rahay hotay" (This is what we call sacrifice. Thank Allah that he put a lamb in front of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) otherwise it would have been you we would have been sacrificing).
I turned around with blood dripping from my face and arms and I looked at the cow and realized what it means to "SACRIFICE" in the name of Allah.
The moment ppl arrive in Makkah to perform Hajj, people in Pakistan begin the process of preparing for the "Barhi Eid". Shops, malls and markets are full of people buying clothes, jewelry and shoes for the happy occasion. But the biggest change that appears is that of suzuki high roof pickups with cages on their backs, transporting cows from Sohrab Goth to all over Karachi. People start talking about who is it in their area that usually has the best cow. Kids all over the city somehow, via telepathy or whatever, know that a cow has just arrived at certain house in the area. They all flock to the house and stand there admiring the height, weight and most importantly the level of ferociousness of the animal. Its quite a sight, I must add. My ten year old cousins informed me more about the cows then I have ever wanted to know.
So anyway, like every year, this year too, my family decided to sacrifice a cow. My cousins were really excited and my khala and my mamu's son specifically made sure that I went and picked them up before I went to go get the cow. So a day before we were going to go get the cow, I had my Khala's 18 yr old son Sulaiman (who is here from Riyadh and is studying in Hamdard and is currently living with us), go pick up my mamu's 14 yr old son Bilal and my other khala's 12 yr old son Saad. So we had Bilal, Saad and Hamza (the 10 yr old son of my mamu who lives with us too) all ready to go get the cow. Sulaiman was the least interested. Anyway, my mamu woke up at 6 am and got ready and Bilal, Saad and Hamza went with him to get the cow. I missed out on the party since I was stuck at work (Yes, I work the night shift and get off at 7am). By the time I got home the cow had arrived on one of those Suzuki trucks I mentioned earlier. The Suzuki owner and his guys had a little problem getting it down, since according to my cousins "Bohat khurrath gaye hai yeh wali" (This is a very ferocious cow). Everybody in the neighbourhood were all of a sudden in front of our house. My mamu tied it up in the Verandah that we have in front of our house and after peeing a gallon, it settled down.
It was a very nice and healthy cow costing around 24000 rupees. Everyone in the neighbourhood was like, this one is not going to fall easy (yeh ithnee asani say nahi giray gi). It had a nice colourful cloth tied on its forehead and had brown and white patchy skin. By all standards, it was an "Acha Janwar" (Good animal).
So I go with Bilal, Hamza and Saad to get the fodder for the cow and brought it home and started feeding it and pretty much spent the whole day around her, giving her water and what not. At the same time, people would walk by in groups taking their cows out for a walk. It seemed like a very festive mood all around. Someone yelled that a camel just got dropped off in the neighbourhood behind ours, so everybody went over to see it. I stayed back with the cow. Petting it and feeding it (She ate a lot!!!!).
The two days went by taking care of the cow and making sure that all of her needs were met. An old carpet was provided for it to sit down on and a same old type of carpet was put on top of her as it was Cold as hell in the nights. We would take turns waking up at night to make sure that she was ok. Pretty soon we realized, contrary to the "expert" opinion about its ferociousness, that, she was a shareef guye as she never really caused any problems and sat around down nothing except eating.
On Eid day we all got ready to go for the Eid prayers and came back and my mamu asked me that I change out of my "Humayun Saeed" Kameez Shalwar since it would definitely get dirty. I had no idea what was in store. I changed into my lowers and a T Shirt, since the sun had taken away the chill from the weather and it was a beautiful day.
My mamu cut the rope and handed it to me so I could take the cow around the neighbourhood for a walk. Everywhere I went, people came up and started petting the cow and saying "Wah, acha janwar hai", "kithnay ka hai?" and what not. Anyone that came close to her she made a gesture of moving her head away. But everytime i petted her, she was calm and walked in any direction I took her. It felt nice to have a pet after such a long time, since when I was a kid I always had some sort of a pet in our house and in the US I never even thought of having a pet. After 15 minutes of walking around, I brought her back home. It kept close to me all the time. My mamu gave her a bucket of water to drink, which she managed to gulp down in less then a minute.
As I stood there petting its forehead, I saw my cousin Umair in the background walking towards our house with the "Kasayee" (butcher). Kasayee came up and told my mamu that we would have to help him drop the cow since all his men were busy finishing up cows in other neighbourhoods. My mamu said ok. My cousin Umair told me to hold the reins that are tied around the head as he and the Kasayee started to put loops around its feet. Pretty soon the cow realized that something wasnt right and started to kick. My mamu said to hold tight to the reins and dont let them go. In less then 10 seconds the loops were all tight on its feet. The cow began to kick the loops open and stood up on its back legs. The Kasayee told me to pull on the reins and turn the head sideways as he was going to pull the roop and take the cow off its feet. My mamu and cousin pushed the body, as I turned the head and down she came on its side. Our butcher is well known to be an expert in the art of cutting cows, and his expertise showed as he quickly tied its legs up really tight and turned the cow around with the cow facing the Kabah. My mom handed me a duaa to read and a knife. I looked at her in disbelief. I asked her "You want me to slit the throat?" She said "Yes hurry up". I turned around and read the duaa and sat down by its head, looking at the knife in my hand. My cousin and mamu had put all the weight on her so she wouldnt try to stand up. It was making loud mooing sounds. I looked up and everybody in the area had formed a circle around me. The Kasayee asked me to put one hand on the chin and hold the neck flap and to push down hard on the neck with the knife when I cut. I put the knife on the neck and looked straight into her eyes. She was looking straight back at me, as if asking me "What are you doing?". For a moment I went numb and pressed down really hard as I cut through the brown skin and blood gushed out of the neck and sprayed itself all over my arm and face. The kasaye kept saying to keeping pushing down as I slit the neck all the way down to where the jugular vein cut open and blood started to flow like a mini river out of the neck. The whole time, my eyes were looking straight into its eyes, that slowly started to loose that glitter it would have when I would put food or water in front of it. I turned around and saw Hamza crying in a way that I have never seen him cry before. He was telling his mom "Is ko paal laytay, yeh wali achi thi" (We should have kept it as a pet, She was nice). My grandma yelled at him in the background "Issee ko qurbani kehtay hain. Allah ka shukar karo kay hazrat ibrahim kay samnay dumba agaya thaa, warna is waqt hum tumhain kaat rahay hotay" (This is what we call sacrifice. Thank Allah that he put a lamb in front of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) otherwise it would have been you we would have been sacrificing).
I turned around with blood dripping from my face and arms and I looked at the cow and realized what it means to "SACRIFICE" in the name of Allah.
posted by Aali | 5:32 AM
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