Festival Of Sacrifice Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

Eid-al-Adha is festival of sacrifice.
Eid-al-Qurbana is its another name.
The kernel of the event is sacrifice,
The sacrifice of one's personal self.

Allah ordered Abraham to sacrifice
His son; likewise, humans must abnegate
Their personal selves, which is a stone wall
That separates the individual from God.

‘To know even one life breathed easier
Because you have lived. This's to have succeeded.',
Said Ralph Waldo Emerson, a sage.
This encapsulates the crux of Eid-al-Adha.

Let someone thrive because of me, Allah!
You bestow upon me that quality
Of self-sacrificing to enable
The destitute to live up in their lives.

The festival disseminates the message
Of egalitarianism in loud voice.
Demolish the ego wall and mingle
With others and help the have-nots to thrive.
19.07,2021