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Good Morning.

Eid Mubarak – Happy Eid.  Today is the beginning of the three days of celebration of the festival of Eid al-Adha.  At this time, Muslims remember Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his beloved son.  Our tradition is that this was not Isaac, but Ishmael, his first-born, who was replaced with a ram that was sacrificed in his place.  But what was the point and does it have any meaning for us today?

For Sufi Muslims, Abraham and Ishmael’s story is one of intense love of God.  Both had lost themselves in the infinite ocean of Divine Oneness and had obliterated any desire for anything else but God.  For Sufis, one must sacrifice all desire for anything other than the face of God. 

There is also a meaning of Abraham and Ishmael’s story for the world: Nearly half the world’s population live on less than £1.60 a day.  That’s more than 3 billion people, with about half of those living in extreme poverty on half that daily amount.  1 billion of them are children and according to UNICEF, 22,000 under-fives die each day through poverty. 

Materialism and the insatiable appetite to consume more and more also endangers our planet; so Abraham’s challenge to all of us is to ask what are we prepared to sacrifice to feed our fellow human beings and what are we prepared to do to ensure that our world is sustainable for future generations to come.  These are some of the greatest challenges facing humanity.

May God bless our world and our country – and may we always be amongst the nations that support the poor and the needy.  Ameen.