Muslim community celebrates Eid-ul-Adha |25 September 2015

Muslims in Seychelles celebrated the festival of sacrifice called Eid-ul-Adha yesterday morning by attending the traditional Eid prayer offered by the Islamic Society of Seychelles at Stad Popiler in Victoria.

Eid-ul-Adha, a festival of sacrifice, is also known as the Greater Eid. It is the second most important festival on the Muslim calendar. The festival remembers Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son when God ordered him to.

Eid-ul-Adha celebrates the occasion when Allah appeared to Ibrahim in a dream and asked him to sacrifice his son Isma'il as an act of obedience to God. The devil tempted Ibrahim by saying he should disobey Allah and spare his son. As Ibrahim was about to kill his son, Allah stopped him and gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead.

Eid-ul-Adha is also a day of remembrance as the Muslim makes a fresh start of the day by a session of congregational prayers to Allah.

 “This festival represents the end of the Hajj – the annual pilgrimage to Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia – which annually attracts thousands of Muslims to the Muslim capital. We rejoice that moment together like a family to pray. The prayer will go until Sunday and many sacrifices are made during those three days. The pilgrimage is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most Muslims, one that requires extensive planning, training, and commitment,” Iman Idris Ahmad Yusuf told the media after he had addressed a congregation on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha.

During this festival, Muslims sacrifice animals to please God.

The Muslim’s most important religious feast is Eid-ul-Fitr which follows Ramadan – a lunar month of partial fasting.