Muslims to feast after holiest time
Two hundred people are to eat at a farm after ritual slaughter for Eid al-Adha.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published December 20, 2007
Today, Shakawat Hossain will slaughter four cows and 45 goats for Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim festival.
Afterward, Hossain and his wife, Sanjeeda "Nutan" Hossain, will cook a portion of the meat for the celebratory meal that will follow.
The Hossains will be among 50 or more families from St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Tampa who will celebrate part of the holiday on a Dover farm.
Eid al-Adha - the Festival of Sacrifice - comes at the end of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the five pillars of Islam, typically a once-in-a-lifetime obligation many Muslims sacrifice to meet.
The festival commemorates Abraham's willingness to obey God, who asked him to sacrifice his son. Muslims trace their ancestry to Ishmael, son of Abraham and Haggar.
Unlike Christians and Jews, they believe it was Ishmael, not Isaac, the son Abraham had with Sarah, who was almost sacrificed. Pleased with Abraham's obedience, God gave him a ram to use as a sacrifice.
Muslims around the world, like the Hossains, will observe Eid al-Adha with sacrifices of their own, slaughtering animals according to Islamic law and sharing the meat with family, friends, neighbors and the poor. In Western countries, many Muslims give the equivalent of the cost of an animal to a charity that delivers the meat to needy around the world, said Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa Chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations.
Eid al-Adha is one of Islam's two main festivals. The other is Eid al-Fitr, which is observed at the end of Ramadan, the holy month of penitence and fasting. Eid-al-Adha comes at the end of the 10 holiest days of the year for Muslims.
For Shakawat Hossain, 46, who immigrated from Bangladesh in 1998, the day will begin with special prayers at a Pinellas Park mosque. After prayers, he and his family will head to the farm in Dover.
Hossain said the animals were bought a week ago at an auction in Lakeland. Each cow cost about $1,500, and the goats were about $200 each. He and St. Petersburg businessman Abul Bashar handled the transaction for about 50 Bangladeshi families, he said. Seven families will share a cow. The goats will go to individual families.
Passages will be read from the Koran before the animals are sacrificed. Imam Hajji Mohamed Ganie, who has made the Hajj, will lead the prayers. The ceremony will include a reading of the names of those who purchased the animals. Some of the meat will be cooked at the farm, Hossain said.
"We will cook half of a cow and most probably three big goats," he said. Hossain said he and his wife are responsible for preparing dishes such as goat kurma, curried goat that is both sweet and hot; dal, which is made of chick peas; and beef buhna, a recipe that calls for 40 spices. About 200 people are expected to eat the meal under a 40-by-40-foot tent, Hossain said.
Hossain is accustomed to organizing gatherings for the local Bangladeshi community. It's common for dozens of people to meet at his house on Sundays for food, fellowship and a game of cricket. His wife and other Bangladeshi women cook food in huge pots. This year, Hossain organized a gathering to raise money to help a Bangladeshi man who was detained by immigration.
Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@sptimes.com or 892-2283.