Sacrifice · a Light

Neither the meat nor the blood reaches Him

The animals sacrificed at the end of the pilgrimage, and by families across the world on the same days, are the subject of one line in Surah Al-Hajj: it is not their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah, but the God consciousness from you that reaches Him. The verse closes off the older reading of sacrifice as feeding a deity. What is left is a distribution of food. The practice attached to it divides the meat into shares, one for the household, one for relatives and neighbours, one for the poor, which means that the rite ends with several kilograms of protein arriving at doors that do not usually receive any.

Surah Al-Hajj, verse 37

Source · Qur'an 22:37