Eid Mubarak!

"Eid Mubarak!"  This is one of the most common greetings I see and hear at this time of year in Kuwait.  For all the schools and universities there is no school; therefore, teachers and students have the week off, including myself.  All the government offices are closed, and most other employees get either the week or at least three days off during this time.

I am no expert in Islam, but I'll try to give my explanation of what it all means.  'Eid' in Arabic means festival.  There are two festivals in Islam, Eid al-fitr and Eid al-adha.  The Eid that is going on now is Eid al-Adha, which means the festival of the sacrifice.  It moves about 10 days forward each year on the Gregorian calendar because Eid al-adha follows the lunar calendar.  This is similar to the rotation of Easter every year because it is based on the Hebrew calendar. 

During this time of the year thousands of years ago, Abraham offered up his first-born son.  Abraham was given the promise of God that he would be the father of a great and powerful nation with descendents as many as the as the grains of sands on the Earth.

Muslims believe that Ishmael, not Isaac, was the son of the promise, but the story is similar to the Bible in other aspects.  He was the only of son of Abraham, and God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son as a sign of his dependance on God for everything. 

Abraham was willing to sacrifice him, and built an alter to do so.  His son was around a teenager at this point, and the thought must have caused terrible anguish.  However, when he was about to bring the knife down on his son to slit his throat in the ritual way to sacrifice an animal, God did something amazing.  He provided a ram in the place of his son, so that the ram would be sacrificed to God instead of his own son.

Getting ready to make the ultimate sacrifice!

Because of this, Muslims all over the world sacrifice an animal, which is usually a cow or a sheep, but their most valuable livestock is acceptable.  This is the same in Kuwait and most often it's a sheep, and on the day of Eid or the day before, there are pickup trucks taking sheep to various places on the highway, ready to meet their certain doom.  On the day of the sacrifice, many families will slit the throat of the animal, and will celebrate and eat.  Many Kuwaitis also give the meat from the animal to the poor as a sign of their willingness to sacrifice what is theirs for God, and will additionally have a butcher do the work and divide the meat.

This is also the end of the annual pilgrimage, or Hajj, when millions of Muslims go each year to fulfill one of the requirements of the religion.  Muslims believe that Mecca is the site where Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son.   

It is a holy time for Muslims and most of the week is given off.  Many people travel

Most popular mall in Kuwait

during this time, and those that don't are out and about, either with their families, in the malls, or on the road celebrating, lighting fireworks, and other such festivities.  It's an enjoyable time as long you don't get caught in traffic at night, which could cause your commute home or elsewhere to take hours to complete!

As a Christian, this is a good time for me to pray for my Muslim friends and colleagues.  I try to pray specifically that they will understand that God spared Abraham's son only because God Himself would be willing to sacrifice His one and only son for the sins of the world.  I pray that they would see that Jesus was the ram who took the place of Abraham's son, and that through Jesus they can have assurance of God's love and salvation for eternity.