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Muslim community celebrates Eid in Morgantown

BY ERSHAD KAMOL
Kkhan@DominionPost.com

The Muslim community living in Morgantown celebrated the holy Eid-ul-Azha, the second biggest religious festival of the Muslims, along with the other part of the world Saturday with due festivity and religious fervor.

On this occasion, Muslims across the world offer prayers in congregations and sacrifice animals in the name of Almighty Allah. They offer prayers seeking divine blessings for peace, progress, prosperity and the welfare of humanity.

The Muslim community living in Morgantown gathered at the Hazel & J.W. Ruby Community Center in Mylan Park Saturday morning to say a special prayer organized by the Islamic Center of Morgantown. Followed by the prayer, the community members greeted each other and shared food and sweetmeats.

Most of the participants were students and faculty of West Virginia University from different Asian and African countries. “The Eid festival takes a multi-cultural shape here in Morgantown as people from different countries, colors and cultures gather for the Eid prayer,” Professor M Mahfuz Rahman, WVU Extension specialist, said.

Following the age-old tradition, they also invite friends and neighbors to their homes for lunch or dinner. Some of the community people have been celebrating Eid for many years in Morgantown, while others celebrated Eid for the first time.

“This is a different nature of celebrations here in the town compared to our town in Bangladesh. Animals were not sacrificed here in public places as done in Dhaka. Still, I enjoyed passing time here at the gathering,” said Nuzaira Paloma, whose parent is WVU student.

ICM president Moustafa Meky said that following the Muslim tradition many people slaughtered animals at slaughterhouses in Morgantown to remember the sacrifice that Prophet Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) made. “They also prayed for the welfare of the Muslim community and the peace of the world.”

Today, an Eid picnic will be organized at the East Park in Fairmont. Almost all members of the Muslim community living in Morgantown joined the programs as this year’s Eid celebrations were held on weekly holidays, Meky said.

The Muslim community across the globe celebrates Eid-ul-Azha on the 10th of Zilhaj month of the Hijri calendar as Hazrat Ibrahim (AS), known as Abraham by the Christian community, on this day, some 4,500 years ago, offered to sacrifice his beloved son Hazrat Ismail (AS) who willingly submitted to the will of his father to please Allah.

But the Almighty in His benign mercy spared Hazrat Ismail (AS) and instead sent a ram to be sacrificed.

To commemorate this historic event, Muslims slaughter sacrificial animals and draw inspiration from the unique example of sacrifice to please Allah as shown by two great prophets — Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) and Hazrat Ismail (AS). They share one-third of the meat of the sacrificed animals like cow, camel, lamb or goat among the needy, and one-third to the relatives and friends who cannot do the sacrifice for various reasons.