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Malawians may only eat meat again during next Eid
Article
courtesy of The Post (The Voice and Heart of the
Community)
By Fakir Hassen
WHEN
the Saaberie Chishty Youth Society, of Lenasia, undertook
its annual mission to conduct the Eid-ul-Adha Qurbani,
(sacrifice of animals) in Malawi in early January on
behalf of South African donors, they provided meat to
hundreds of destitute families, who are likely to see
such a meal again only when the team returns at the end
of the year to repeat the exercise.
In
recent years, scores of South African Muslims have taken
to making contributions to assist the needy in other
countries across the globe. They are obliged to offer an
animal to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet
Ebrahim to sacrifice his son, Ismail, when Allah tested
him by asking for this, but then provided an animal for
sacrifice instead.
Society representatives Sayed Aboobaker and Sayed
Mohammed Riyaz joined Malawian religious leaders and
community workers to oversee the slaughter of 390
cows at
60 different areas in a number of villages.
The
Qurbani was performed under the strict supervision of the imams of mosques in the
villages, with the majority of the animals being
slaughtered in the town of Mangochi, which has the
largest population of Muslims in Malawi.
During their brief stay in
Malawi,
the two youth were interviewed by Radio Isiam Malawi to
its six million listeners, in a special programme on
the society's regular assistance to the people of
Malawi.
The
society not only undertakes the Qurbani annually, but
has also built a mosque in Chikawa, and a borehole to
ensure fresh water supply for all
in the
region.
"During
our stay, we met some South African holiday makers,
Shaukat Khan and Hussein Khan, as well as Riaz Peerbhai
from Botswana, and we invited them to join us on the
third day of our meat distribution," Aboobaker said.
"The
imams in some areas said the next time people in the
area would eat meat was next year when they did Qurbani
again.
"The
poverty in Malawi is really bad. What was very sad was
to see a small child taking a knife and cutting the
small pieces of meat left on the skin
of the
cow."
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