Alhamdulillah.  All praise are due to Allah.  Aaliyah’s has successfully completed, for the second year running, this year’s only live korban in Singapore. It would not have been possible without the blood (literally), sweat and tears of all – volunteers at the animal handling, slaughtering, skinning, evisceration, butchering, packing, distribution, and registration areas.  We also thank you – the sohibul korban – for entrusting us with your ibadah.  About 60% of you were from last year.

We also thank Al Wehdah for letting us use their premises; and broadcast media Berita MediaCorp (Hakim) and ChannelNewsAsia (Aslam) for sharing our modest event with the public.  Special thanks goes out to our friend – Michael Patching – who agreed to be our vet at such short notice.

Allow me to share a few nuggets from the korban event.

Prior to transporting the goats from Hay Dairies, Michael did a quick check on the conditions of the animals.  He found one that had a swelling on the leg.  I saw a picture and decided that it was not suitable for korban.  I communicated with the sohibul, and he agreed to get a replacement goat.

The first slaughter took place at around 9.20am.  Almost everything went according to plan.  However, there was a mix-up in one of the sohibul’s meat, which we eventually sorted out.  Also, compared to last year, most of you received your meats within 2 hours of slaughter. A few sohibul gave not insignificant amounts of financial contributions to me to distribute to our volunteers and workers.  I’m sure you do not want me to mention your names; you know who you are.  May Allah, the Best of Providers, reward you.

جزاكم الله خيرا كثيرا

Many of you may have seen a precocious 11-year old in an XS-sized T-shirt walking around with pen and paper.  Rifqi has been with us since last year’s korban.  He knows his animals.  I asked him to identify the animals that need to be prepared next. He knows them intimately. He is also a sohibul this year.  He named his animal Buddy.  On weekends, when he visits the farm, he will play with Buddy, and he developed a strong bond with Buddy.  Buddy was the penultimate goat slaughtered.  After the initial shock of losing Buddy, Rifqi came over to his mother who was a volunteer at registration desk and cried buckets.  I was there too.

My second-in-command came over and consoled Rifqi by saying that his korban was the best amongst all the animals slaughtered that day because he was sacrificing something he loved.

This reminds of that ayat 92 in surah Ali Imran:

لَن تَنَالُوا۟ ٱلْبِرَّ حَتَّىٰ تُنفِقُوا۟ مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ وَمَا تُنفِقُوا۟ مِن شَىْءٍ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِهِۦ عَلِيمٌ

(Meaning: None of you (believers) will attain true piety unless you give out of what you cherish; whatever you give, God knows about it very well).

Once again, I thank everyone for your contribution.  And we wish Rifqi all the best for his upcoming PSLE exams.

Zakaria

11 July 2022