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Ibrahim's Sacrifice:
What On Earth Does It Mean To Us?
Sacrifice is an important part of every Muslim's life. Every year during Eid, millions of Muslims slaughter animals in commemoration of Ibrahim's offer of his son's life at the command of God, who was substituted by a ram. It is told that Mohammad was asked about the sacrifice. He answered: "This is commemorative sunnah of your father Ibrahim".
The sacrifice of an animal on the occasion of Eid ul adha is obligatory, and it is seen as a sin if it is not done. Abu Huraira reported that Mohammed said: "He who can afford but does not offer it, should not come near our place of worship"
According to a booklet by Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqi, the sacrifice signifies the sacrifice of the sacrificer himself, and becomes an outward symbol of his readiness to lay down His life, if required, and to sacrifice all his interests and desires in the cause of the truth.
Islam denies, however, the fact that it can serve as atonement for sin.
Important aspects of Ibrahim's sacrifice
· God made a covenant with Ibrahim, that through the offspring of his son Isaac he would be the father of many nations. Because God is perfect, we know that he would keep his covenant!
· God commanded Ibrahim to slaughter his son Isaac.Does this mean that he was about to break his covenant?
· When God, who is the Creator of the universe, commands something, it must be done. Isaac was already as good as dead!!
· When Ibrahim lifted his hand to kill his son, God intervened and substituted the life of a ram for the life of Ibrahim's son.
· It was through the substitution of the life of an animal for the life of the son that God's covenant with Ibrahim was fulfilled. If there was no substitution the covenant would have been broken!!
But why all the noise about the substitution?
The fact is that this is in no way an isolated incident in the Taurat!
Let's take a quick tour of the Taurat, Zabur and Injeel and the concept of substitution.
The Passover lamb
Remember when Musa and Imran (Moses and Aaron) wanted to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and Pharao refused to let them go? God decided to play hardball with this king who only thought about his own pocket, and how he could exploit God's people to fill it.
Exodus 11:4 "And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
8 And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. "
God commanded that every Israelite household should slaughter a lamb without blemish, and that the blood of the lamb should be painted on the doorposts. Where ever there was blood on the door, the angel of death would not kill the firstborn in that house.
Exodus 12:12 " For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever."
· The substitution of the life of the Passover lamb for the lives of God's people was so important to Him that He commanded it to be commemorated as a holiday for ever. The Passover became one of the most important festivals of the Jewish religious calendar.
· It was on the night before God saved them from slavery in Egypt that they sacrificed the first Passover lamb. Through the centuries the Passover has been the symbol of God's salvation of His people.
The sin offering
Musa and his people fled Egypt, but before they could enter into Palestine (the promised land), God wanted them to know how they should live. So while they were camped at the foot of a high mountain, God called Musa up the mountain and gave him the law. God's moral law is known as the "Ten Commandments" and is found in Exodus 20.
The punishment for sin is spiritual death (HELL). God's law demands it. But God provided a way for atonement through the substitution of the life of an animal for the life of the sinner. Although Islam denies this, the doctrine of the sin offering is the best documented cultic law in the history of the Jewish people and it is proven by archaeology that this was the focal point of all the activities that took place in the temple in Jerusalem!
There is no way that this doctrine could have been inserted into the Taurat at a later stage since the whole of the Taurat, the historical books in the Bible and the prophets, as well as archaeology support it.
Leviticus 5:17 "And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.
18 And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him.
19 It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD. "
Please note:
· Because God is Holy, He demands complete sinlessness in His law. That is the only standard that is acceptable to Him. That is why He punishes even those sins we do unintentionally and unknowingly. Poison still kills even if the person who takes it is unaware that it is poison! In the same fashion sin separates us from God even if we are unaware of the sin.
· After Adam's fall in paradise, mankind is separated from God, and therefore unable to attain to the law's standard of complete sinlessness.
· God, in His Love, provides the sin offering as a substitute for the life of the person who sinned, to fulfill the demand of the law.
· The person who brings the offering (if he does so in sincerity) is without doubt forgiven of his sin. He has therefore complete assurance of salvation ("and it shall be forgiven him") , in contrast with what Islam teaches: That one can never know.
·
Leviticus 17:11 "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
Take note when you read the book of Leviticus, that most of the book is concerned with ritual cleansing (a bit like gushl) using blood.
Just as Islam is based on five pillars, one could say that two of the most important pillars of the religion of the all prophets of God up to Jesus were the Passover and the Sin Offering!
Please note that this has nothing to do with "appeasing an angry God with blood" as Muslims so often alleged. God is almighty, self-sufficient, does not need anything from us, and definitely does not derive pleasure from the shedding of blood! The sin offering does emphasize in what extremely severe light God regards sin!!!
Dawud and the Zabur
It is all too obvious to anyone that an animal (or even another person, for that matter) cannot really substitute for the life of a human. The prophet Dawud knew this, and under God's inspiration said the following:
Psalm (Zabur) 49: 7 "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)
9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption…
14 ... Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
The word redeem means to buy back: David says that God would pay the price that is demanded by His law to save him from the grave (hell).
Isiah 53
The prophet Isiah lived about 700 years before Jesus and gave God's people a concrete answer to their question on how God would pay the price of their redemption. When one first reads this chapter, one's first instinct is that this was written by Christians and inserted into the Bible later. Please remember that this chapter is word for word the same in the scriptures of modern Judaism, who deny that Jesus is the Messiah. The oldest available manuscript of this chapter comes from the Qumran scrolls and date from before the time of Jesus.
13 "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astounded at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
For a discussion of the modern Jewish claim that the Servant is the nation of Israel, click here
The following points are important:
· The servant is a person, not an animal as Isiah was used to sacrifice as sin offering.
· The servant is without sin, but took the sin of many on him. (Remember the Passover lamb had to be without blemish?)
· The servant dies (is sacrificed), and rises again from the dead.
·
It is obvious by now, that the substitution of an animal for a person was not enough, but that God would provide the perfect sacrifice. The animal sacrifice was merely a pointer to the real Sacrifice that would come!
Yahyah ibn Zakariyah
Prophet John the Baptist was a contemporary of Messiah Jesus. One day while he was preaching , he saw Jesus coming towards him and said:
John 1: 29 "The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.
30 This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me."
Jesus the Messiah
The night before his crucifixion, Jesus celebrated the passover with his disciples. This is what he told them:
Matthew 26:26 "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
28 For this is my blood of the new testament (or covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins
.
The next day Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose from death on the third day.
Conclusion
Aisha reported that Mohammad said:
"On the day of sacrifice no one does a deed more pleasing to Allah than the shedding of blood; for verily the animal sacrificed will come on the day of resurrection with its horns, its hair, its hooves, and will make the scales of his actions heavy; and verily its blood reacheth the acceptance of Allah before it falleth on the ground: therefore be joyfull in it." (Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah)(emphasis mine)
Decide for yourself: Does the life of an animal really weigh enough to cancel out your sin? No wonder one can never be sure of gaining paradise in Islam!
Is it now time you researched a bit more to find the Truth? Your life depends on it!!
Afterthought
Your first reaction is probably: I don’t believe you since the Bible was corrupted and should not even be quoted!!
Dear friend: I challenge you to prove conclusively that :
· The doctrine of atonement by sin offering was not part of the Taurat in its original form.
· The followers of Musa, and all Jews (except during the Babylonian exile) up to the destruction of the Temple by Titus a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus did not practice the sin offering as one of the most important pillars of their deen.