By Jerry Saccoh Kai-Lewis
According to Islamic interpretation of the event, yesterday was Eid-ul-Ahda, traditionally celebrated as the day Abraham (Hebrew name of the Arabic, Ibrahim) bounded his son with the intention of sacrificing him to God (El or Eloah in Hebrew, Allah in Arabic).
Out of respect for the billions of faithful Jews, Christians and Muslims around the world that subscribe to the ethos of the world’s leading monotheistic religions, we will not venture into the contradictions in the narrative of which son, the older Ishmael or younger Isaac, was intended for the sacrifice. Notwithstanding that, this is not the medium for a scholastic take on the how, who, what, where and when questions of the narrations of the Torah, Bible or Quran.
For the Jews who first told the story of Abraham, he intended on sacrificing Isaac, which story is maintained in the Bible. However, to the majority of Muslims and Muslim theologians or scholars, Ishmael was that son. Being under the scriptural instruction of not judging anything before time (so we can wait for God’s judgment), the proving or disproving of the actual facts of the event is left out of this work. We will rather look at three morals of the faith of Abraham, the kind of faith that is desperately needed in this day of “seeing is believing”.
We live in an age where a lot of people cannot conceive or produce children. For many of them, this has presented a serious threat to their relationships, going as far as some couples committing adultery, and worse divorce, in the hope that being with another partner would help them accomplish their primal objective of perpetuating their family line, race or the species. Before the major advancements in medicine, women were mostly blamed for not being able to conceive. Even the story of Abraham, in a way, is an attestation to that way of thinking. According to the Jewish and Christian narratives, Sarah couldn’t conceive, and to assuage her suffering, she convinced Abraham to have Hagar, out of which union Ishmael resulted.
But believing that he would have a child by Sarah, who had long past our modern age for conceiving a child, Abraham, even after Sarah had lost all hope, held on to God’s promise. He held on to that faith, although his own aging body could have been trying to convince him otherwise, thereby presenting the first moral of the story for people here at home, and around the world, finding it hard to or incapable of producing an offspring.
In Sierra Leone, especially in the traditional or rural setting, having a child is such a hot topic a couple that cannot produce children, or is showing signs of not being able to conceive, is soon under the spotlight. Pressured from within the household (by the husband) and without (mainly by the husband’s relatives), the female is mostly questioned as to why she cannot conceive. The extreme end of this harassment is the accusation of her involvement in witchcraft, for which the unfortunate lady is accused of ‘eating’ her children, either before or right after conception. Without proof as to who the infertile partner is, the young lady soon becomes the object of hints, provocations and even being ostracised.
If she is religious, she runs to either church or mosque; if not, she would visit witchdoctors, charlatans and other fraudsters far and wide for succour, while uncaring husbands mostly use the opportunity to justify ‘sowing their royal oats’, with some doing so openly. Today, we now know that medical science can tell couples who cannot conceive and who the infertile partner is. With love and concern, they are given the option of assisted reproduction technology such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
But the faithful turn to the God of Abraham, which leads us to the first moral of the ‘Faith of Abraham’. Despite the advancements in modern reproductive technology, the majority of the world’s population either live in the material poverty Abraham and Sarah found themselves in biblical times or cannot afford the luxury of IVF. In a rich but poor country like Sierra Leone, couples finding it hard to conceive that cannot or would not go to the western or traditional doctor have long been encouraged by Abraham to turn to God for help. This reliance on God surpasses all else. In an era where “we should know and not believe”, where having faith in God in light of all the advancements in modern technology and medicine is a laughing matter, Abraham’s faith still resonates with the many poor folks around the world that rely on God to provide them with even more than a child, even life after death.
The second moral of this great story is that impatient actions produce immediate solutions with deadly and far reaching implications. Sarah’s impatience, livened by doubt and fear, led her to put Hagar in Abraham’s arms. The result was Ishmael, the father of the 12 Arab tribes who ever since that time have been in contention with their uncle, Isaac’s grandkids, the Hebrews of Israel. Apart from their divergent religious beliefs, the offspring of Abraham’s children are still bitter enemies to this day. Imagine what the Middle East would have been like today had Sarah been patient waiting for God to fulfil His promise to Abraham, who is also not guiltless in this matter. Those in the know have long feared the prophecies of the end time battles that will start in that region of the world.
The third and final moral of the ‘Faith of Abraham’ is that God is faithful to His promises and will answer our prayers. Even as they approached the mountain, with his son asking about the sacrificial animal, Abraham told him the Lord will provide one. He spoke out of faith, not sight. God is a tester of men. What tests are you experiencing or going through at present? Has it come to the hilt, such as when Abraham had tied up his son and was about to take a knife to him when the angel of the Lord intervened? Is your situation as perilous as that? Then you are blessed. Yes, you are! With patient faith the Lord will soon provide your ram or lamb as a way out and in answer to your prayers and hope.
Happy Eid-ul-Adha from the management and staff of Nightwatch Newspaper!