Eid al-adha: Why Muslims call it a festival of sacrifice

Each year Muslims celebrate both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha – but the names often get shortened to just “Eid” and that’s why it can be confusing.

The phrase Eid al-Adha translates as the “festival of the sacrifice” and is also known as the Greater Eid.

According to the Islamic lunar calendar, Bakrid month starts from the 10th day of Dhul-Hajjah and will last for three days.

And as the Muslim world commemorates Eid’l Adha, the military operations in Marawi City were momentarily suspended early in the morning to show respect for the religious event.

The word “Eid” appears in Sura al-Mai’da (The Table Spread, Chapter 5) of the Qur’an, meaning solemn festival, he added.

“I am confident that this year’s Eid al-Adha will also mark a triumph of the national and spiritual solidarity, noble deeds, compassion and mercy in our society”, Ilham Aliyev stressed.

A very similar story of Abraham’s sacrifice exists in Christian and Jewish scripture but it tells of God’s demand that Abraham sacrifices his son Isaac, not Ismail.

The resistance leaders in a statement in Srinagar extended Eid greetings to the entire Muslim Ummah in general and people of Jammu and Kashmir in particular. The celebration Eid ul-Adha is celebrated widely all over the world.

Eid’l Adha is a holy season of sacrifice and giving for Muslims.

It is traditional to sacrificing an animal and give an equal share to the less fortunate, to relatives and for your own family.

As the two don’t align, the Islamic dates move back by 11 days each year.

Eid ul-Adha marked the calendar from 31st August and will end on Monday evening 4th September.