Dhul Hijjah

Dhul Hijjah is the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar. The first ten days of it carry a weight Allah Himself attached to them. He did not leave it to scholars or to seasons or to local custom. He named these days in the Qur'an and tied them to the oldest covenant.

By the dawn. And by ten nights. (Qur'an 89:1-2)

Ibn Abbas RA, the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ and one of the great commentators of the Qur'an, said the ten nights in this oath are the first ten of Dhul Hijjah. Allah does not swear by ordinary things. When Allah swears by ten nights, those nights are not ordinary.

The call goes back to Ibrahim

These days hold the Hajj. The Hajj began when Allah told Ibrahim AS (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَام) to call.

And proclaim the Hajj to the people. They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every distant mountain pass. (Qur'an 22:27)

Every Hajji is answering a call Ibrahim AS made at the Maqam in Makkah. The plane is new. The cars are new. The visas are new. The call is older than all of it. The Hajji walks into the Haram in a white cloth that looks like a burial shroud. He says Labbayk Allahumma labbayk, here I am at your service. He steps into a season Allah designed for the heart.

The body does the rites. The heart does the work.

Why Allah chose these days

The Prophet ﷺ explained the weight of the days in a hadith that has been the anchor of Dhul Hijjah teaching for fourteen hundred years.

Every righteous deed in these ten days is weighted heavier than the same deed at any other time of the year. Allah did not say for the Hajjis. He marked the days for everyone who breathes them. This weighting is part of the seasons of mercy, and it opens onto the mercy that introduces Allah by name.

The day of Arafah

The ninth of Dhul Hijjah is the day the Hajjis stand on the plain of Arafah. It is also the day Allah opens the door of forgiveness wider than any other day in the year.

The same hadith continues. Allah draws near. He boasts about the people of Arafah to the angels and asks, what do these people want? The angels know the answer. So do the servants.

For those not at Hajj, the Prophet ﷺ taught a fast for that day.

One fast. Two years lifted, in shaa Allah. The Hajji does not fast that day. The Hajji is already on the plain. Everyone else has been given this fast as the door into the same forgiveness.

The slaughter

The tenth of Dhul Hijjah is Eid al-Adha. The Hajji slaughters at Mina. The rest of the Muslims slaughter wherever they are.

The slaughter remembers Ibrahim AS and Ismail AS (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَام). Allah asked Ibrahim AS to slaughter his son. Ibrahim AS submitted. Ismail AS submitted. The knife did not cut. Allah sent down a ram. The ram took the place of the boy.

Allah set the meaning of the slaughter in a single verse.

Their meat will not reach Allah, nor their blood. But what reaches Him is the taqwa from you. (Qur'an 22:37)

The meat reaches the poor. The hide is given away. The blood is poured into the ground. None of it reaches Allah. The taqwa does. The submission does. The willingness to put the dearest thing down because Allah asked does.

That is the rite. That is also the lesson. The animal is the proxy. The thing being slaughtered is the part of you that holds on harder than it should.

The mercy of Eid al-Adha

Some readers come to Eid al-Adha and feel uneasy. They look at the slaughter and read it as harshness. Allah names it as mercy.

The mercy is in three places.

One. Ibrahim AS was tested in the hardest way a father can be tested. Allah did not let the test finish. The hand was held back. The ram came down. Allah was teaching submission. He was not collecting the son.

Two. The meat goes to the poor. A Hajji's qurbani in Mina feeds families who have been hungry. A family's qurbani in Australia, in Pakistan, in Gaza, in Bangladesh, feeds families who would not eat meat that month. The day of slaughter is one of the largest single days of food distribution in the world. For readers giving qurbani this year, sadaqahjariah.au carries the family's verified channels.

Three. The slaughter ends the ten days, but it does not end the lesson. The ten days build the heart. The slaughter releases it. Eid al-Adha is not a holiday after a fast. It is the day the heart that has been working for ten days is allowed to celebrate the work.

Hold the days

Most of the Muslims in this country will spend Dhul Hijjah at work, at school, at home. The Hajjis will be the small fraction who go. Allah marked the days for all of us.

The Hajj is the body's pilgrimage. The ten days are the heart's. Both are doors to the same room.