In few days, it will be the Feast, The Great Feast of Islam and Muslims (‘Aid al Adhâ, ‘Aîd al-Kabîr). Millions of the faithful are in Mecca performing the pilgrimage. From the Centre, they convey their blessings to all parts of the world. Days of meditation and prayers. Our Feast.

A jihad for everybody. Some will walk for hours around Mecca; others will fast during these days of light and love. These are the very hours of nearness, with God, with human beings.

Among those who deserve special attention during our feasts are - of course - the poor and needy people, as well as the orphans. Never will a feast be approaching in Islam without carrying with it the remembrance of poverty.

During the greatest feast, there is a sunna, a recommended act of worship, which consists in sacrificing a sheep in remembrance of Abraham’s sacrifice. It is a recommended deed which national and family customs have sometimes transformed into duty. It is not the case. It is but a recommendation. In addition to that, Muslim scholars have, for a long time, reminded Muslims that they could donate the sacrifice’s equivalent in money or food to needy people. In a time when animals are often mistreated and suffering and many people do not show them their due respect, in a time of so much waste of meat... it is imperative not to lose our way by being driven by traditional practices and to come back to the very essence of the Islamic message: to respect the animals and to feed the poor people. It is thus better to refrain from sacrificing a sheep, avoid waste and suffering, and send the equivalent sum of money to the needy people of the world.

The Muslims are invited to pray, to come back to the essential and - beyond anything - not to betray the message of Islam through a narrow literalism and cultural traditions which transform into obligation a recommendation and which do not help us reach the true objective of our spirituality. The poor people have this right on us.

Happy Feast, ‘Aid Mubârak. May God, The One, The Most-Nearer, love you, protect you and go along with you.

Tariq