Students celebrate Eid-al-Adha

About 300 people knelt to the east in prayer Tuesday morning to honor the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Adha, or the “feast of the sacrifice.”

For IU students and faculty who practice Islam, Eid-al-Adha is a day to reflect and celebrate.

Participants gathered at 8 a.m. at the Draper Earles Auditorium at the Monroe County Fairgrounds for the prayer service.

The holiday commemorates the day in which the prophet Ibrahim was asked by Allah to sacrifice his only son in a demonstration of his faith.

Before the blade could strike his son’s neck, he was pardoned, and Allah commended him for his faith.

Children are often excused from school to spend the day celebrating with their families, attending prayer service and sharing a large meal, sophomore Hadi Yousef said.

Yousef, whose parents came to the United States from Syria about 20 years ago, said because the holiday was in the middle of the week, he was unable to celebrate with his family.

“My entire life, I’ve celebrated with my family, but since this year it falls on a Tuesday, my family will be celebrating in Evansville, and I will be celebrating in the Bloomington community,” Yousef said.

Sophomore Dina Dajani, whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, said the holiday is typically celebrated by a community prayer service in the morning followed by large family dinners at night.

At the service, individuals come together to partake in Takbirat, or religious chanting and worship, before prayer and a sermon.

Dajani said the service reflects the camaraderie and fellowship within the community.
“It’s just to bring forth a sense of family and connection with each other,” she said. “Not a lot of people have relatives here, or some people are students that don’t have family members that live with them.”

After the service, families spend time together and prepare a large meal for the evening, Dajani said. In her family, the meal is attended by visiting family members and friends as well as other members of her local Muslim community.

“My mom cooks the biggest meal,” she said. “It’s the biggest meal of the year. She goes all out.”

Dajani and Yousef said the celebration of Eid-al-Adha could be comparable to the Western celebration of Christmas, as children often receive gifts and bags of candy.
“It’s a really exciting time for the kids,” Yousef said.

For IU’s Near Eastern Language and Culture department, several classes were cancelled in honor of the holiday. Department Chair Asma Afsaruddin said about half of the 15 core NELC faculty members are Muslim and made the individual decision to cancel classes.

“Since the prayer services are in the morning, typically morning classes may be cancelled and afternoon classes may proceed as usual,” she said.

She said she also cancelled her class about the Golden Age of Islamic Civilization.
Sophomore Haseeb Mohideen said he appreciated the decision to cancel his Tuesday morning Arabic 200 class. It meant he would only have to miss one class on Tuesday in order to attend the prayer service.

“Would you want to go to class on Christmas?” Mohideen said. “That’s kind of how it feels.”

By canceling class, the department not only catered to its Muslim faculty and students, Mohideen said, but honoring the holiday also helped the department’s non-Muslim students better understand the Arab culture and Islam, he said.

“The majority of people with some interaction with the Arab world would want that day off,” he said.

Unlike some students, Dajani said she would not get the day off because of an afternoon midterm.

Three or four years ago, Dajani said she began to invite non-Muslim friends from school to her family’s dinner in an effort to educate them about the religion.

“Once they found out I was Arab and I was Muslim, they were really interested,” she said.

Dajani and Yousef were both in attendance at Tuesday morning’s prayer service. Kneeling on the ground, Yousef prayed with the rest of the Muslim community.

After the ceremony, Yousef said the high energy in the room contributed to his sentiment about the holiday.

“Everyone’s in a very good mood,” he said. “Overall, it’s a great feeling.”

For Dajani, the morning’s sermon was the most meaningful part of the celebration.

“There’s always that one day where you need that extra boost,” she said. “Every time there’s a lecture or a sermon, my belief in God is greater and greater.

“Allah will stand by you.”

Follow reporter Holly Hays on Twitter @hv_hays.