I was asked by a reader to explain the evolution of the sacrificial system and why it is not found in Islam. I found the question slightly puzzling, because sacrifice is found in Islam; however, sacrifice specifically for the purpose of atoning for sin is not.
There were several types of sacrifice mandated in the Jewish texts:
Burnt Offering:
This class of offering could be brought by anyone, and could be anything from cattle to birds depending on the person who brought the sacrifice's means. It was primarily to represent submission to God's will, but secondarily to expunge sin, because you could not enter the presence of God a sinner.
Peace Offering:
This class of offering was brought to show thankfulness to God for something that had happened in your life. This offering has nothing to do with sin.
Guilt Offering:
Brought by a person who was unsure whether or not they had committed a sin. If it later became known that the person had committed a sin, they brought a sin offering in addition to the guilt offering.
Food and Drink Offerings:
Represented the devotion of the fruits of man's labor to God.
The Red Heifer:
The red heifer was used to expunge ceremonial uncleanliness, such as the uncleanliness caused by being in contact with the dead.
Sin Offering:
This is the kind of offering best known to Christians; however, as I have demonstrated, it was by no means the only kind of offering in Judaism. The sin offering itself did not cleanse sin; instead, repentance, charity and prayer atoned for sin, and the sacrifice was a symbolic token of repentance. In Christianity, Jesus is considered to have been the final sin offering: By his blood, Christians believe, all sin has been cleansed for those who believe. However, this could not be further from Jewish and Islamic views about the nature and purpose of sacrifice. Not only does this approach to the forgiveness of sin ignore prayer, sincere repentance and charity--all of which are essential elements of true repentance--it ignores the simple fact that nowhere in the Bible does God demand human sacrifice to atone for sin. They also ignore the fact that God hates sacrifices that are not accompanied by these three tokens of true repentance, as per Malachi 1-2. Additionally, Christians ignore the fact that the Messiah will offer sacrifices during the Messianic Era, as per Ezekiel 46.
Jews no longer offer sacrifices because the temple is no longer standing. It was destroyed in 70 AD and was replaced by Al Aqsa. Jews can only offer sacrifices at that location, because it says so in Duet. 12:13-14.
In Islam, there is a day of sacrifice, Eid ul Adha. This day marks the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son to God, but God chose that a lamb be sacrificed in his place. This is not a sin offering; in the category of offerings, it fits best into a peace offering. In Islam there is no concept of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.
[In Islam there is no concept of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.]
ReplyDeleteagree.
btw, would u please remove the CAPTCHA as a lil sacrifice to make commenters happy? :D
DeleteI don't see CAPTCHA. I get a whole lot of spam on my blog, I think it only asks for CAPTCHA when posting anonymously or something.
DeleteThanks for the post! That actually clarifies a number of things in my mind.
ReplyDeleteI still have a few questions if I may. The entire sacrificial system as a whole, the temple and its specifications, the priests and their special garments, the ark of the covenant, the altar, bread of the presence, menorah, all the stringent regulations surrounding sacrifices, it was such a complex institution, absolutely none of which remains in Islam today, other than the two sacrifices we do during both eids.
It further strikes me as odd that this whole institution came into being during the Israelites' journey in the desert, even more so given what I've been reading about the Torah here - http://contradictionsinthebible.com/ - and how it's really composed of different sources (Deuteronomist, Elohist, Yahwist, Priestly) and was compiled centuries after Moses' time.
So I guess my question is, did God really ordain this entire system through Moses, for the Israelites specifically, though He was later going to abolish it, or was it more of a human construct, that perhaps built on very simple sacrifices prescribed to Moses, and over the centuries, under a prosperous monarchy, was expanded and embellished, and written back into Moses' time for validity, by those who compiled the Torah we have today?
Thanks!
It's very difficult to tell how much of it is a human construct and how much of it is constructed by God through Moses at Sinai. If we had original Torah manuscripts, it would be much more clear; however, failing that, we are left to wonder. What we as Muslims do know is that Allah (swt) revealed the law to Muhammad (saws) that was a law for all people, for all time.
Delete