Going into this, I hadn’t spent much time around goats since that one died in the backyard under rather mysterious circumstances back when I was a kid. So, as you might imagine, I didn’t know much about choosing a goat to sacrifice.

Islam has some rules about this: the animal must be of a certain age (goats must be a minimum of 1 year old) and in reasonably good health (blind, maimed, sick, or otherwise imperfect animals are unacceptable: we strive to give the best to Allah azza wa jall). But beyond that, it’s kind of an eenie meenie miney moe type affair for many first-timers.

I saw a couple of good looking specimens, but mentioned to Brother Ishaq (one of the organizers) that I didn’t know much about selection criteria, and a couple of minutes later he just handed me one.*

I don’t know much about goats, so if you do maybe have a look at him and let me know what you think.

In case you missed it, this is udhiyah week: yesterday we took a brief look at the farm, today we picked out a goat, and coming up soon we’ll sacrifice it (not pictured), skin & gut it, butcher it (not pictured) and cook some up.

Continue reading “Udhiyah (part 2: selection criteria)”

Today marks the last day of Eid al Adha, the second, and final, holiday in the Islamic calendar, marks the end of the Hajj (for those blessed enough to be able to attend and honors Abraham (alahi salam) and his willingness to sacrifice his son.

A major part of the celebration is the udhiyah (أضحية)—the sacrifice—and I’m interrupting the usual flow this week to share some parts of my experience.

Instead of our usual programming, this week we’ll briefly visit the farm (today), select a goat, sacrifice it (not pictured), skin (& butcher) it, cook it up, and eat it.

So here’s the farm:

I was surprised to find such a large plot of land in this particular part of Texas. It just seemed to go on forever, and much of my time there was spent deep in the wilds of the back part of the property.

This was a wildly interesting experience, and one that I’m still trying to process. Apologies for not having more to share with you today.

May Allah accept the udhiyah from me and all the Muslims throughout the world, Ameen. Continue reading “Udhiyah (part 1: the farm)”