Today was the biggest holiday in the Muslim world: Aid el Adha. We were invited to the home of a new believer by her dad to spend the day with them. We arrived this morning as soon as they were sacrificing the one year old, male sheep. The oldest man of the house is responsible to say, “Bismi allah. Allahu akbar allahu akbar” (in the name of God. God is the greatest, God is the greatest).
The sacrifice is expected to forgive the sins of the whole house as they are all supposed to be present watching the blood letting. Each married male is supposed to sacrifice one. They wait traditionally until the king has sacrificed his lamb but it’s not the law.
I helped cut skin off but left the de-gutting to them. Probably the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in the while was when the father put his lips to the anus of the animal and blew the resevior of fecal matter from it’s intestines. Yeah, that was gross. The first meal was the kidney and dinner was the stomach and intestines. The head is eaten on the second day with the brains in a couscous plate. The meet is eaten afterward until it is gone. Depending on the size of the family it can take a couple weeks to finish off.
I have tried to witness to the dad of this particular girl before but he has always been so interested in what he had to say that I didn’t get a chance. Since we were at their house almost 12 hours today we had a lot of time to talk. He asked me at one point, “I just don’t understand why you don’t believe in Mohammed.” This oppened up the door for me to explain to him about Christ our sacrificial lamb as profesied by all the prophets. He listened as did the rest of his family. Pray for all of them.
Do you know a Muslim you could talk to about Christ our sacrifice today?