Friday, December 13, 2019

What It Means - Day 270

"Truly We have bestowed abundant good upon thee. So pray to thy Lord and sacrifice. Truly thing shall be the one without posterity."
Quran 108:1-3

Here is the entire one-hundred eighth surah, al-Kawthar, here rendered as "Abundant Good." Right now I'm mainly interested in the second verse, "So pray to thy Lord and sacrifice."

Nasr opines:

"Most interpret so pray as a command to perform the obligatory prayers. As it is connected to the command to sacrifice, others say it indicates the prayer of the Feast of Sacrifice (id al-adha), which is part of the rites of the hajj and comes at the end. In accordance with this verse and a well-known hadith, most maintain the the prayer must precede the sacrifice in order for the sacrifice to be accepted. And sacrifice translates wa'nhar, which could also mean, 'and raise your hands.' In this interpretation it is taken as a reference to the practice of raising the hands to the ears during prayer. All schools of law agree that this should be done at the opening of the canonical prayer while saying, 'God is greatest' (Allahu akbar), marking the entry into the sacred rite."


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