Tomorrow is Eid (also spell Aid and pronounced Ah-id)The Festival of the Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) is one of two major Islamic celebrations (the other being Ramadan) and takes place on the tenth day of the Islamic month Dhul-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Millions of Muslims from around the world make an annual pilgrimage to Mecca in order to worship Allah and to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) to sacrifice his son in response to a command from God.
The story goes like this:
Abraham had a dream several nights in a row that he was making sacrifice of his son. So he went to his son and explained to him that God had made his wish known and he had to be sacrificed, and they agreed that it had to be done.
At the last minute satisfied with Abraham's devotion, God replaced the son with a sheep who was brought by the angel Gabriel, and the sheep was slaughtered instead.
While pilgrims in Mecca re-enact this scene by slaughtering sheep of their own, Muslims who can afford it in the rest of the world also participate in this rite by slaughtering sheep, camels and cows. One third of the meat is distributed to the poor, one third to neighbors and relatives while one third is kept by the person who offered the sacrifice for use within his or her own family.
One aside: Muslims say that the son in question was Ishmael. The Jews and the Christians believe that the son of the story was Isaac.This difference is in a way critical since the Jews are descendants of Isaac. And Mohammed, the last prophet of the Muslims, is a descendant of Ismael's line.
Both are sons of Abraham (obviously) one -Isaac- is the son of Abraham and his wife Sarah, and one -Ishmael- is the son of Abraham and Hadjar.
Aside to the aside: Hadjar was a servant of the original couple but when Sarah could not bear Abraham any, either sons, or children...I am not sure...she, I am told, begged Abraham to go with Hadjar to have offspring. Abraham and Hadjar lived in Mecca and had a son. Later Sarah did have a son, Issac.
Aside to the aside of the aside: Mecca's sacred site is beleived to be the site of the house Abraham had with this second family (with Hadfjar and Ismael).
Obviously I am not the expert. All this is new to me and I am just passing on what I am told here and what I found on the internet.....both agree with each other, amazingly enough.
