The Devotion of Life — Page 344
344 As in the beginning a few people encamped in Rabwah so that it could be populated, they were in fact fulfilling ‘Ishmaeli’ tradition. They settled here only to see that Rabwah could be populated. Had they not offered the sacrifice and had they not encamped in Rabwah, there would have been no town, no streets, no markets, and no houses built here; and this place would have remained a complete wasteland as it once was. The meaning of Hadrat Ibrahim’s as dream was that he would willingly leave his wife and child in the barren wilderness of Mecca, knowing well that there would be nothing to eat or drink. Thus, he did exactly that. When Hadrat Ishmael as grew up, he gathered a group of settlers around him due to his piety and righteousness, and trained them in Salat, giving of Zakat and charity, and taught them how to perform ‘Umra’ and Hajj, and thus got Mecca to be populated. Due to their sacrifices, Mecca has remained inhabited over the centuries. Almost for three thousand years the Kasbah is populated and people circumambulate it especially during the Hajj. No doubt the sacrifice of ‘Eid-ul-Adhia’ commemorates the sacrifice of Hadrat Ishmael as , but it is not in memory of the sacrifice that Hadrat Ibrahim as actually cut the throat of Hadrat Ishmael as with a knife. ” Message of the ‘Eid of Sacrifices’ “The fact is that the ‘Eid of Sacrifices’ reminds us that we should go to jungles and glorify the name of