Qurban-2009
Thank you for the tremendous support that we received in Ramadan. Now, on the threshold of Qurban-bairam (Eid al-Adha) Solidarity Foundation is getting ready to strike another blow at poverty. In Russia 25 million people live below the poverty line. Many of them for months don’t have meat on their diet.
So what will you sacrifice on this holiday?
Every year during Qurban-bairam Muslims sacrifice a sheep or a cow and distribute most part of the meat among the poor. This year Solidarity Foundation will feed with your help the most vulnerable part of the population – children in an asylum and some hospitals, widows and orphans, old and desolate people.
We believe that personal ability of every one of us to sacrifice will help to overcome global problems of poverty. But the main thing is we will give the destitute hope that some people somewhere think and care about them. Don’ t put off purchasing a sheep. You can do it right now through the system of on-line donations. A sheep costs 3000 rubles (about $100). Don’t forget to make a note “Qurban-2009”! The action is being carried out together with Rossiyanka peasant-farming complex in Satino-Tatarskoye village (Moscow region) and Domodedovsky Meat Yard Ltd.
You may call Solidarity Foundation +7-903-139-2868 and findout how else you can purchase qurban for the needy.
The history of the holiday.
Eid al-Adha (Qurban-bairam) is an Islamic holiday of the end of hajj celebrated on the 10-th day of month Zul-Hijj to commemorate a sacrifice by prophet Ibrahim (Abraham). It is said in the Holy Qur’an that angel Jabrail (Gabriel) came to the prophet in his dream and gave him a command from Allah to sacrifice his firstborn Ismail. Ibrahim went to Mina valley and prepared to submit to Allah’s will. But it all turned out to be a trial from Allah, and He substituted for Ibrahim a sacrifice of his son for a sacrifice of a sheep. The holiday symbolizes the mercy and majesty of God and the idea that faith is the best sacrifice.
A sacrifice can be a ram, a camel or a bull. It is considered that a sheep or a goat can be sacrificed by one person or a family and a cow, a bull or a camel on behalf of seven people. A sheep or a goat to slaughter should be over a year old, a cow or a bull – at least two years old, a camel is usually 5 years old or more.
It is desirable to use a third of the sacrificial meat to treat one’s family, a third to give to the poor from among the neighbors and relations and a third to distribute as alms (sadaka) among those who ask for it. Almighty says in the Holy Qur’an: “…eat from them and feed the needy and the beggar. Thus have We subjected them to you that you may be grateful. Their meat will not reach Allah , nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you” (22:36, 37).
Now this holiday gives us a chance to reveal the magnificence of our souls supporting the needy. This is a holiday of approaching God because it is the heart filled with kindness that shows one the way to one’s Creator.
On the eve of Eid al-Adha Solidarity Foundation also carried out an educational action in Evropeisky shopping centre. We were giving out leaflets, collecting Donations. Volunteers of our Foundation intended to break the bloodthirsty mythical image created by mass-media and tell people about the humanitarian nature of this Holiday of Mercy.
