4 - Abraham as the Originator of the Ḥajj Sacrifice

Summary

Why do Muslim scholars claim the biblical Abraham established the Islamic practice of animal sacrifice as part of the Ḥajj rituals? Abraham built the Kaʿbah in Mecca as the earliest temple to God, which survived the destruction of the later post-Moses Solomonic temple in Jerusalem. Muslim scholars portray Abraham as the original Muslim, sacrificing wild animals, living a pastoral life in the desert, and calling on all future Muslims to make pilgrimage to the desert sanctuary at Mecca. By attributing to Abraham the origins of certain pre-Islamic “pagan” practices, such as fertility rites associated with ritual hunting to offer captured prey at the mountain sanctuaries of storm-gods, Muslims imagined a peculiarly “Arab” Abraham. This Abraham, and especially his role in founding the ritual of sacrifice, puts Muslims in direct dialogue with and contradistinction to Jews, Christians, and others who identified themselves with a biblical heritage.