“Eat up well, my dearest friend!” Ahmed said to the ferocious goat, which grumpily munched on the fresh hay. “You need enough energy to beat up my friends’ goats at the race!” Ahmed shrieked in excitement, determined in his intentions. He was beaming proudly as he thought he was about to achieve a milestone.

“Ahmed! I am leaving to buy the groceries,” Ahmed’s mum said.

“Ok mum,” he nodded.

“I want you to be mindful of the goat, because it is the sacrificial animal and we need to show compassion to the animal we want to sacrifice to Allah,” she mentioned.

“Sure mum, I promise!” he said, taking ownership. She then left and Ahmed listened to her fading footsteps, and the faint click of the door. Ahmed jumped in exhilaration.

“Come on buddy, gear up!” he said to the goat before undoing the knot of its rope. He seized the rope and headed towards the playground, which his friends had selected as a venue for the race. Actually, his friends had planned to have a race among the sacrificial goats and the winner would be honoured and praised for his exceptional training and valour.

Ahmed had been preparing for this for a week. He worked assiduously to train his goat. Without thinking twice about what his mother had told him, he made his way through the bustling street. The clip-clop of the hooves of his goat following him made him feel proud.

He reached the ground and met his friends, who were all gearing up for the race with their deranged goats behind them rubbing their hooves nastily on the crumbly earth as if threatening his goat. Seeing the goats hissing made Ahmed feel fidgety and eager. As more and more of his friends joined in, the more anxious he grew and kept on fiddling with the rope.

Now the six friends who were taking part and some others who had come to watch, had gathered. None of them had informed about this at their homes, knowing well that they wouldn’t have been allowed to do such a thing with the sacrificial animal.

It was almost time for the race to start, everybody was enthralled to be the triumphant one. Every goat was trained to make a run once the whistle was blown. And when the whistle was blown, it filled the ground with the echoes of its shrill cry.

“Go for it!” each one cheered.

Ahmed was happy to see his goat lead and aim for the finishing line while the others were groaning.

“Come on! Take him over,” one of them yelled in frustration.

But his goat was unyielding and unstoppable. Ahmed’s goat was really fast, it was about to reach the finishing line when Ahmed’s heart lurched and fell into his boots as he realised that he had trained his goat well to run, but he never trained his goat to stop at the second whistle.

He was wandering about this all when he heard his friends giggle and laugh out loud. He saw that his goat had officially won the race, but kept on sprinting till it vanished from sight. The other goats stopped or slowed down at the sound of the second whistle. His friends, or actually frenemies, almost fainted while laughing.

“Looks like your goat’s brakes failed!” one of them said between his laughter.

“Brother, you should have installed proper brakes,” another teased.

But Ahmed was perplexed. He ignored their comments and scurried after his goat, all bewildered. He told himself how stupid he was to do such a thing. He ran as far as he could, but all he could see were the crowded streets with the same hustle bustle. He kept on searching for the goat, but all his efforts were in vain.

He kept searching for more than an hour, but had no luck. Finally, he dragged his feet home, with his head hanging low in shame and regret. He wondered how he would face his parents and, more importantly, won’t he be answerable to Allah? He thought about how difficult it would have been for his father to gather all of his savings and buy a goat to perform the obligatory Sunnah of Prophet Ibrahim (as), but his son had performed such a humiliating deed. Tears streamed down his plump cheeks as he sobbed.

With trembling hands, he opened the door of the house to find that his mother was already home. On seeing Ahmed weeping, she was perturbed and started questioning him. Ahmed blurted out everything and of course, as a natural reaction to such a happening, her mother felt dismayed and disheartened. She was so astonished that she couldn’t even scold him. She was tight-lipped as Ahmed wept in front of her.

“There’s nothing I could do about it son, you’d be answerable to your dad,” she helplessly said, making Ahmed whimper loudly.

That’s when the doorbell rang. Ahmed wiped his tears and set off to answer it. As soon as he opened the door he was startled. His mouth went wide open. His dad stood there with a slight smile on his face and beside him was their goat, which contentedly dangled his head from side to side.

Ahmed was ecstatic and hugged the goat. Once they were inside and had tied the goat back in the garden, Ahmed’s father questioned him.

“Will I get to hear any apologies?” he asked.

“Oh dad, please forgive me for doing such a stupid thing. I am really sorry,” Ahmed pleaded. His parents then explained to him how crucial it was to take great care of the sacrificial animal and treat it with utmost compassion.

“But dad, how did you come across it?” Ahmed asked.

“I was on my way back when I saw it munching on the grass on the footpath, and the neighbourhood kids told me about the marathon it took part in,” he added sarcastically, to which they all chuckled.

Indeed, all sacrificial animals should be taken care of because they are our guests, to be sacrificed on Eidul Azha. We have to take care of their basic necessities, be kind to them and not make them do anything that can harm them. This festival is not a competition of animals, it is our test of obedience to Allah.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 29th, 2023