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Eid ul Adha, The Gaza Slaughterhouse, and the Abrahamic Consciousness

By Iqbal Suleman

It’s the day of Eid ul Adha. Muslims around the globe are engaged in the process of slaughtering sheep, camels and goats and distributing the meat amongst the poor. Meanwhile in Gaza, Occupied Palestine, Israeli’s are slaughtering poor and starving Palestinians as they line up waiting to collect food. For three consecutive days, the Israeli dubbed “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” run by Israel and America have lured starving Palestinians to collect food and shot them dead in the dozens.

The United Nations says that Gaza is the hungriest place on earth. The chief of the ICRC says that Gaza is worse than Hell on earth. Despite the public outcry and 14 countries of the 15 member UN Security Council voting for an immediate ceasefire and the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the American Government on the 4th June 2025 shamelessly vetoed the UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire. The U.S Administration continues to provide guns and bombs to Israel. Meanwhile the Gulf Arab states provided Israel’s primary financier America with approximately four trillion dollars

There is much talk about Abraham across the globe. President Trump and other elites and their scholars for dollars preach about the Abraham Accords which is supposed to bring together the Gulf Arab Countries and the Zionist State of Israel in peaceful coexistence.

What does Abraham mean to Muslims?  The day of sacrifice Eid Ul Adha is rooted in Abrahamic consciousness. Prophet Abraham (A.S) was willing to lay down his own life as an expression of being a devout servant of God. Abraham remained defiant as the imperial monarch Nimrod threw him into the fire to kill him for resisting the injustice of Nimrods tyrannical governance.  Abraham (A.S) was fearless and defiant and refused to capitulate.

But what is more sacred to Abraham than his own life? Giving your own life for a cause is considered the ultimate sacrifice. Can there be a greater sacrifice than sacrificing your own life? There is one thing more difficult for Abraham (A.S).  This was to sacrifice the life of his son Ismail because Abraham loved his son Ismail more than he loved his own life. Ismail is what brought light and joy to the heart of Abraham, made him tender and made him look forward to every day. So when God presents him with this ultimate test of sacrificing his son in a dream vision, Abraham (A.S) is shaken to the core but willingly surrenders to God and offers to sacrifice his beloved son Ismail (A.S).

Abraham (A.S) is titled Hanif, the most beloved worshipper of God.  (Abraham A.S) and Ismail (A.S) both surrendered to the will of God. This is the meaning of Islam, surrendering to the will of God. Thus any person who surrenders to the will of God and struggles in pursuit of justice is a Muslim.

Every day, in every obligatory prayer five times a day, Muslims remember and recite the name of Abraham(A.S) and the family of Abraham(A.S) together with the name of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) and the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h). For Muslims, the Muhammadi consciousness is inextricably linked with the Abrahamic consciousness. This link is not merely spiritual and ideological, it is at the core of believing in the oneness of God.

Muhammad (p.b.u.h) sacrificed his sons in emulation of Abraham (p.b.u.h) in the pursuit of justice. The family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) have always been at the forefront in the fight for justice and the first to sacrifice their blood.  After the martyrdom of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) many of the Imams from the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) were also martyred in the struggle for justice, most notably Imam Hussein in the brave resistance he led at Karbala.

The Abrahamic Accords is an alliance among elites whereas on the ground, there is an Abrahamic universalism that unites people of all Abrahamic faiths, Muslims, Christians and Jews who are resisting Zionism and Imperialism by saying no to Genocide, seeking to implement a just world in which all lives matter and Palestinians are considered as equal humans.

Whether the oppressor calls himself a Muslim, Christian or Jew, an Abrahamic consciousness insists he must be confronted and resisted. Whether the oppressor adorns the masks of faith, rituals, fasting, prayer, pilgrimage, democracy and civilisation, the Abrahamic eye rips the mask off.  Isn’t this the reason your beloved Creator wants you to remember the family of Abraham (A.S) and the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) simultaneously in every Salah (prayer)?

Abrahams (A.S) arch enemy Nimrod was a tyrant and war criminal. Netanyahu like Nimrod has systematically pursued a policy of Genocidal infanticide. Nimrod is reported to have pursued the same Genocidal infanticide and killed seven thousand male infants in a period of 40 years. The UNICEF statement on the 27 May 2025 noted “In total, more than 50 000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023”. The Israeli Zionist Netanyahu has slaughtered far more children than Nimrod in a much shorter period of time. Has the world ever seen a more vampiric baby killer than Netanyahu and the state of Israel?

Like Nimrod, Netanyahu believes that he and the Israeli Zionists are a superior people and a law unto themselves.  Netanyahu is blind to scripture and deaf to the words of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. He is behaving as though he is the Lord of the earth, totally oblivious to international law and eternal law (scripture). Instead of stopping the Genocide, the Israeli Zionists are on a killing rampage to demonstrate their earthly arrogance and opposition to God, the Almighty, and the most Just. As an expression of the most vitriolic Islamophobia on earth today, Netanyahu slaughtered Palestinians on this holy day of Eid ul Adha.

The people who see with an Abrahamic eye, ask, how can the U.S government and most European countries who profess freedom, human rights and democracy are so vehemently opposed to the freedom, human rights and democracy for the people of Palestine? How do you claim to care about Palestinian lives but at the same time finance the Genocide and enable the systematic starvation of more than two million Palestinians?  Why have you not at the very least imposed sanctions on the Genocidal state of Israel?

And the Abrahamic tongue asks the Governments in the Arab and Muslim world, on this day of Eid when God choses the oppressed and the refugees, why are you complicit in the Genocide? Surely you cannot be a follower of Abraham (A.S) and not take an active and meaningful stand against Genocide and Occupation?  How will you answer when you return to the God of all Humankind about your complicity in the Genocide?

It behoves us to remember that Imam Hussein and the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) chose not to go to Haj when it was the time of Haj but instead chose to go to Karbala and lead the resistance against injustice where he sacrificed his life. At the time of his martyrdom, there was no one on planet earth that was closer to God than Hussein. Surely his martyrdom is the true expression of Abrahamic consciousness. Does this not mean that those who have a true Abrahamic consciousness today, should strive towards ending the Genocide and liberating Palestine? Or are you content with prayer beads, rituals, pilgrimages, slaughtering sheep and throwing stones at a symbolic Satan while Israel continues to slaughter the children in Gaza?

Iqbal Suleman

Suleman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and Research Associate: Media Review Network

 

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