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of water. This is the ritual of cleansing in Islam. For someone not following the rule, even a bucket full of water would not suffice for such a wash. The question arises as to how this rule came to be. According to Advocate Salman Arshad, an Islamic thinker, it was with reference to the circumstances of the place and time. The first spread of Islam was in the Arab world. Since water was in shortage there, this rule was essential. We are aware that in the Arab world, the production of food grains was much less than the human requirement and under such circumstances perhaps eating meat may have been allowed. This tradition continues to this day.
In reality, the Arab countries today are prosperous in all terms due to their Oil production. This prosperity gives them the means to fulfill any human need. In today's life-style there is no situation that compels anybody to adopt meat eating as an option to foodgrains or vegetarian food. How proper, in the context of religion, is the concept of wresting the right of another's life, merely to feed the passions of our taste buds or to fulfill our fancies, iş a question that needs to be pondered over.
Recently, an eminent Jain nun was on her journey towards Panvel. On the way, near a Farm House, a Muslim brother came to see the revered nun. His words about Eid and sacrifice are sure to set every Muslim brother thinking. “Allah has asked for a sacrifice of some loved thing on the Eid day. That it should be a sacrifice through the killing of an animal is merely a misunderstanding, which has been carried down the tradition. For the last fifteen years, I have been giving away food, clothes and money among the poor on the
