By Izeth Hussain-October 17, 2014, 8:30 pm
(Continued)
I must insist on the importance of the fact that in Islamic animal sacrifice none of the meat is meant to go waste. This follows from the fact that Islam places a high value on reverence for life, including non-human life, which is why hunting for pleasure is forbidden – something that perhaps had to be expected in a religion that arose in a desert environment where non-human life was very scarce. Consequently even the wealthiest Muslims, in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, have a deep aversion to throwing away food, which is equivalent to throwing away life. That is evidently why – as I have been informed by a reader – the Saudi Government processes the huge amount of excess meat left after the Bairam festival and exports it to other countries, free of charge for distribution to the poor.