LUCKNOW: Amid the appeals by Muslim clerics to people to forego Qurbani (sacrifice) this Bakird especially, if their area falls in a containment zone, Asia’s biggest Islamic seminary Darul Uloom of Deoband has issued a fatwa over the issue in which it said that “there can’t be an alternative for Qurbani.”
Bakrid is likely to fall on August 1.
While Lucknow Eidgah Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali offered online Qurbani as the alternative, seminary’s media cell said that as per the fatwa, ‘ibadat (prayer) can’t be replaced by another ‘ibadat’ as an alternative. “Qurbani has its significance and it can’t be replaced with anything else,” said the Fatwa.
Some people opined that as per the fatwa, financial help could be provided to the poor instead of ‘Qurbani’ as many people have lost their jobs. However, if someone wants to help the poor, they can do it with their available resources.
The fatwa also exhorts people to follow the Covid guidelines while doing ‘Qurbani’.
People, especially in western UP, are unhappy over the curbs on goat selling in the market. They said the police were not allowing the villagers to bring their goats to sell in the cities.
However, the administration claimed that the sale of goats was not prohibited.
As per the sources, the sale of goats is likely to go down by 80 per cent this Bakrid leaving the villagers in poorer financial condition as they raise goats for the whole year to earn some money during the festival.
For example, in Meerut alone, over a lakh goats are brought to be sold ahead of Bakrid every year but this year hardly 20,000 would be sold.
Meanwhile, Muslim-dominated localities in containment zones chose for online ‘qurbanis’ over traditional ones. They feel that though Bakrid is a festival of sacrifice, buying goats for the cause is not necessary. Distribution of the flesh among the poor was important and by opting for online Qurbani, animals could be sacrificed without breaching the Covid-19 protocol, they said.
Many believe that the present situation had offered them a chance to feed the poor. Traditionally, one-third of the meat of the sacrificial goat has to be kept for personal use and the rest for the poor, relatives, and friends. “But under the given scenario, all the meat can be distributed among the poor making it more a complete sacrifice,” said Razak, an entrepreneur in old Lucknow.
Many others are also opting online qurbanis through various sites that assure Qurbanis and distribution of the flesh among the poor in the traditional manner.