Udhiyah (part 4: dinnertime)

My wife is an amazing cook. MashaAllah. After the skinning and gutting, I took four big pieces to a local halal butcher, where a nice young guy cleaned and butchered the animal. The whole sacrifice, start to finish, took about 4 hours. Alhamdulillah, Allah made it easy for us. Thanks again to brother Suhaib, without …

Udhiyah (part 3: cleaning and gutting)

After selection, the goats and sheep were driven further out into the back part of the farm. Brothers collected their animals, marched them off some ways away, out of sight of the other animals, made the sacrifice, and then some seeming professionals stepped in and did the skinning and gutting for a small fee. I …

Udhiyah (part 2: selection criteria)

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 …

Udhiyah (part 1: the farm)

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 …