Tunisia, North Africa - 11:00 a.m. -Tues. Jul 20, 2021

Eid al-Adha, in Arabic, means the “festival of the sacrifice”.

Eid al-Adha is a holiday celebrated within Islam. It honors the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God’s command. Before Abraham could sacrifice his son, however, God provided a lamb to sacrifice instead. 

Islam believe that God called Abraham to sacrifice Ishmael. 

Christianity and Judaism believes God called Abraham to sacrifice Issac. 

Abraham and his wife Sarah was promised by God a child but struggled to believe God since they were of old age. So they took it upon themselves to produce a child with Abraham’s concubine, Hagar, Ishmael’s mother. Ishmael is Abraham’s 1st son. Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions consider Ishmael to be the ancestor of the Ishmaelites (Muslims). According to Muslim tradition, Ishmael founded a great nation as promised by God in the Old Testament. 

Sarah conceived Isaac later on. Isaac was a miracle child, born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to make his descendants a great nation. Later, to test Abraham’s obedience since Isaac was the promise, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice the boy and Abraham was about to obey then God provided a lamb to sacrifice instead.

 Isaac became Abraham’s sole heir, though God promised that Ishmael would still raise up a great nation of his own.