Philosopher G. Jamal About Eid Al Adha
September 11, 2016
Geydar Jamal on why Eid al-Adha can be considered the main holiday of Islam. Abraham, peace be upon him, accomplished a feat of faith, listening to the voice of the Unknown, which could well turn out to be an illusion, the well-known Muslim philosopher and chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, Geydar Jamal, speaks about the meaning of tomorrow’s Eid al-Adha holiday. In his material for BUSINESS Online, Jamal says that will and faith are synonymous, how the God of the prophets differs from the inhabitants of the Greek Olympus, and why only in Islam do believers raise themselves to Abraham not in words, but in deeds.
“AND THIS UNKNOWN SPEAKS TO ABRAHAM AND SAYS: SACRIFICE YOUR BELOVED SON TO ME”
The metaphysical meaning of Eid al-Adha lies in the principle of sacrifice. Long before the concept of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, formulated by Christianity, another concept was born associated with the name of the ancestor of Christ and Muhammad — Abraham (in the Muslim tradition — Ibrahim). But there is a tragic paradox here, which was first noted by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who wrote a whole story about Ibrahim as a “Knight of faith.” Let us recall that Abraham turned in his prayers to the “Unknown God”, chosen by him on the principle that this Power is hidden, does not manifest itself and cannot be recognized as something of the existing. The main feature of this God is precisely his incomprehensibility, Him being beyond all analogies.
Meanwhile, analogies are the basic foundation of pagan metaphysics. Paganism is built on analogies, it claims that “below” is the same as “above”, and vice versa. According to this worldview, all objects and phenomena that surround us are signs pointing to their archetypes that exist in the invisible aspect. That is, pagan metaphysics are based on the principle of identity — the last great identity. The gods of the Greek Olympus behave like people: they quarrel, envy, fall in love, fight, come to the Earthly women and seduce them. In the Trojan War described by Homer, the gods are divided into two camps: some help the Trojans, while others help the Achaeans. You can meet them face to face on the battlefield. What kind of divine incomprehensibility can we talk about here?
Revelation and the metaphysics of the prophets are built on a completely opposite principle. Abraham, according to history, in his search for truth, went through several symbols of the unconditional and eternal, and found that these symbols are nothing more than glamorous faces behind which vanity is hidden. The star sets, the wind subsides, the flame goes out — everything is finite, and only that which is incomprehensible, beyond feelings and reasoning, beyond experience, is absolutely unconditional.
And this Unknown Unconditional turns to Abraham and says: “Sacrifice your beloved son to me!” The question is colossal. One can believe in something obvious, local, in something that can be touched, felt and experienced. But to submit in such an ultimate act of self-giving to the Unknown, to what, in principle, may be an illusion or even an absurdity that cannot be confirmed by anything, is another.
“BRIGHTNESS” IS NOT A CATEGORY OF TRUTH AT ALL”
Abraham is already very old: according to the Old Testament, at the time of the birth of Ishmael, peace be upon him, he is 86 years old, and when Isaac, peace be upon him, is born, he is very close to the centenary milestone. Killing his son is perhaps even worse for him than committing a suicide. But here action comes into play — will as a faith, because will and faith are, by and large, synonymous. Abraham affirms by an act of will the authenticity and absoluteness of the Unknown God. The act of will confirms the readiness to sacrifice the son. This is the gold that was invested by Abraham and subsequent prophets in the concept of the absolutely paradoxical and absolutely non-identical.
Therefore, Eid al-Adha — the feast of the sacrifice — is the only unique holiday that repeats the feat of Abraham. And this feat is almost 4 thousand years old. Only in Islam believers directly and specifically elevate themselves to Abraham, not in words, but in deeds. Sheep are not killed for the feast table, but as a memory of that ram or goat that was sent by this Unknown God as proof of its authenticity in exchange for the life of a son. If Abraham had raised the knife and nothing would have appeared, if a ram had not appeared twitching in the bushes, then the question would not have been resolved: the unknowingness of the God would be equal to His absence, equal to simple nothingness. But when a ram appears in the bush instead of your son, it means that the Unknown God accepted your sacrifice and replaced it with an animal sacrifice. Accordingly, Abraham’s faith was fully justified. Based on this, Eid al-Adha is the most important holiday of Islam.
Eid al-Adha — the feast of sacrifice — is the only unique holiday that repeats the feat of Abraham.
It is pointless to wonder what would have happened if the God, through his angel, had not stopped Abraham’s hand, already raised with a knife over his own son, is meaningless. Say, would this Unknown God also be good and bright if he allowed the murder of his beloved child? “Brightness” is not a category of truth at all. The unknown God is by definition an imperative of the will. His commands and what pleases Him is the good. Not what people think. Because this God is opposed to being. Platonic being and Platonic good are one thing, but what the Unknown God commands is quite another. Here a person faces a choice and must decide for himself: is he a piece of being or is he a box in which a particle of The Spirit is nested?
Translated from Russian language.