Muslims say:
“Criticism of Eid al-Adha is just Islamophobia!”
But then why is Eid al-Fitr never criticized?
Maybe… it's not hate.
Maybe people just find animal slaughter in Eid al-Adha disturbing.
Let’s talk about why — not hide behind “hate.”
It’s about the horror, the blood, the suffering, the mass slaughter of animals in the name of faith.
It’s about the uneasy feeling that grips millions of people every year as they watch the streets run red on Eid al-Adha.
Until 1983, thousands of tons of Hajj meat were burnt due to spoilage and an unpleasant odour
For over 1400 years, Islamic tradition demanded the sacrifice of animals during Hajj — and what happened to that meat? It rotted.
It stank.
It was burned.
Yes, you read that right. Until 1983, when modern Western technology introduced flash-freezing, the people of Mecca had no choice but to burn thousands of tons of spoiled meat every year. The stench would become so unbearable, it would drive people out of the city.
You can read the full story here (link).
This continued to happen until the advent of modern technology in 1983 when Western companies introduced the revolutionary method of flash freezing to preserve these large quantities of meat on a mass scale (link).
Why did a supposedly all-wise Allah allow thousands of tons of meat to spoil every year for the past 1400 years in the name of pleasing Him?
The answer is simple: there is no such entity as an all-wise Allah in the heavens. Instead, it was Muhammad himself who established these regulations, and thus, we see the presence of human errors within Islamic Sharia that contradict the concept of being all-wise.
Muhammad himself wasted the meat by sacrificing one-hundred animals on Eid day. He slaughtered 100 animals on Eid. And it was so much meat that he was able to take only one piece of flesh from each animal for his meal.
... The total number of those sacrificial animals brought by 'Ali from the Yemen and of those brought by the Apostle (ﷺ) was one hundred ... He then went to the place of sacrifice, and sacrificed sixty-three (camels) with his own hand. Then he gave the remaining number to 'All who sacrificed them, and he shared him in his sacrifice. He then commanded that a piece of flesh from each animal sacrificed should be put in a pot, and when it was cooked, both of them (the Prophet and Hadrat 'All) took some meat out of it and drank its soup.
Islamic apologists try to make an excuse that Muhammad fed the rest of the meat to the poor people of Mecca. But this seems impossible while not only Muhammad, but thousands of other people who also did Hajj along with Muhammad, also brought the animals for sacrifice along with them. And there could never be so many poor people in Mecca (along with its surroundings) to finish all that amount of meat before it got spoiled and burnt/buried to avoid the smell and diseases.
Due to this Sunnah of Muhammad, still today rich Arabs (and other rich Muslims) sacrifice dozens of animals on Hajj festival only to show that they are rich.
Every year, thousands of animals died on their way to Mecca, not in sacrifice, but in suffering
Before airplanes and cargo trucks, before paved roads and refrigeration, the pilgrimage to Mecca was a brutal, deadly journey. For humans, and even more so for the animals dragged along for sacrifice.
For thousands of kilometers, across burning deserts and barren lands, countless goats, sheep, and camels collapsed from exhaustion. They died from dehydration, starvation, and relentless heat. Not for any noble cause. Not to feed the poor. But because a religious ritual demanded their presence in a city they’d never reach.
Billions of animals, over 14 centuries, suffered and perished not at the altar, but on the way to it.
It was only with the rise of modern Western technology, refrigeration, transport systems, logistics that Muslims could begin to carry out these mass sacrifices without as much waste or death. Not divine wisdom. Human innovation. And not even Muslim innovation.
So ask yourself: What kind of “all-wise” God designs a system that leads to such horrific waste and suffering for over a thousand years?
What kind of divine plan lets billions of animals die in vain, for no reason but poor logistics, flawed rituals, and outdated human traditions?
This isn’t wisdom.
This isn’t mercy.
This is the legacy of a man-made religion trying to disguise cruelty as piety.
And it’s time we stop calling it sacred, and start calling it what it really is.
Muslim Excuse of Circulation of Wealth
That’s the excuse Muslims often give to defend the mass slaughter of animals on Eid al-Adha. They claim it helps the economy. That butchers get work. That transportation thrives. That the leather industry benefits.
But this Muslim argument is against wisdom and irrational.
If those animals were not slaughtered all at once, they wouldn’t just vanish from the earth. They’d still exist to be used throughout the year, offering sustained employment, continuous food supply, and regular economic activity.
Butchers wouldn’t lose jobs, but they’d have work all year.
The poor wouldn’t have to rely on one day of meat, but they’d receive it steadily.
The leather industry wouldn’t suffer, but it would get raw materials in a manageable, sustained flow.
What we’re seeing instead is a massive spike followed by silence, a brief frenzy that doesn’t build but burns through resources.
And the tragedy doesn’t stop there. Many of the animals killed could’ve been used for milk, for breeding, for manure, for sustainable farming. They could’ve provided long-term benefits to human lives, especially in rural, underdeveloped regions.
And let’s not forget the human cost. Do you know that:
- In countless poor Muslim countries, children go to bed hungry. Millions suffer from malnutrition, lacking essential nutrients like Vitamin B12, not because meat isn’t available, but because it’s concentrated into one single day, then gone.
- No amount of meat in one feast can fix a year’s worth of deficiency. What people need is consistent, moderate, year-round nutrition, and not an overwhelming overdose that fades as quickly as it came.
Muslim Argument: Poor people get meat to eat due to Eid al-Adha
“At least the poor get to eat meat on Eid al-Adha.” ... That’s the proud claim, repeated again and again, by Muslims defending the mass slaughter of animals every year.
But have they ever stopped to question the so-called wisdom of Allah behind this whole system?
Let’s look at the facts.
Millions of livestock are taken from poor Muslim countries like Sudan, Somalia, and Pakistan ... nations where poverty, hunger, and malnutrition are already rampant.
These animals are shipped across borders, through long, punishing journeys, just to be slaughtered in Mecca, and then their frozen meat is sent back to the very countries the animals came from (i.e. Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan etc.).
Just pause for a second. Does that sound like divine logic or a badly written logistical nightmare?
Double transportation.
Skyrocketing costs.
Unnecessary suffering.
Why go through all this drama of sacrificing in Mecca? Why not just distribute the meat directly to the people who need it, in their own lands?
And it gets worse.
Because of this one-day slaughter frenzy, the price of meat shoots up for the rest of the year. In countries like Pakistan, where inflation is crushing families, poor people can’t afford meat at all, not for months. That’s why horrifying scandals emerge, where donkey meat or even dog meat is secretly sold in markets (link).
Is that what this ritual is achieving? Feeding the poor or starving them for the other 364 days?
And let’s talk economics. Transporting livestock is 8 to 10 times more expensive than transporting meat. Add to that the cost of shelter, feeding, healthcare, and losses from animal deaths during the journey. Billions are wasted, not to serve the poor, but to preserve a ritual.
If Allah truly wanted to help the hungry, wouldn’t He have commanded a better system? One where animals are sacrificed monthly, in local communities, with meat distributed consistently and affordably? Where nutrition is spread over time, not dumped in one day and then gone?
Vitamin B12 doesn’t stay in the body all year from one Eid meal. Protein needs can’t be met with a few bites of meat once a year.
So let’s be honest. This is not divine wisdom. This is ritualism dressed as compassion, a system that fails the very people it claims to serve.
And no truly wise God would design something so wasteful, so cruel, and so detached from the real needs of the people.
How much land and water are we sacrificing for the Eid sacrifice?
To raise animals for Eid al-Adha, vast areas of fertile agricultural land are consumed ... land that could otherwise be used to grow fruits, vegetables, and grains to feed the hungry year-round.
Do you know that producing just one kilogram of meat requires 60 times more land than producing one kilogram of vegetables?
And it takes 100 times more water to produce that same one kilogram of meat compared to vegetables? (link).
And 100 times more water is needed for the production of one kg of meat as compared to one kg of vegetables (link).
In a world where people are already suffering from hunger, water shortages, and land degradation, what kind of divine wisdom demands the mass breeding and slaughter of cattle every single year, just for a ritual?
Millions of acres of land and billions of liters of water are drained away to maintain a system that provides meat for one day, while taking away food security for the rest of the year.
Is this the will of an all-wise God?
Over 25,000 people hospitalized in Lahore alone, just from overeating on Eid
Every year, we see the same headlines. People falling sick, hospitals overflowing, stomachs bloated, and emergency rooms filled — all because of overindulgence in meat on Eid al-Adha.
In just one city, Lahore, over 25,000 people were hospitalized due to overeating during Eid celebrations.
Is this the outcome of divine wisdom? Is this what an All-Knowing and All-Wise Allah would design?
According to Islamic law, not only are Muslims told to sacrifice entire animals, but they are also encouraged to eat from it themselves. The result? An annual flood of gluttony and excess, disguised as worship.
This is not a new problem. It has been happening for 1400 years. And it will continue to happen, because this ritual goes against basic human psychology.
Give people an entire animal, tell them it is sacred, tell them they should enjoy it, and expect them to show restraint? That is not how human behavior works.
Religious rules are supposed to guide and uplift. But this one leads to hospital beds, upset stomachs, and sometimes even death. And it all could have been avoided with just a little wisdom, a little foresight, a little care for human health.
But when you strip away the claims of divinity and look at it for what it really is, you don’t see divine wisdom. You see man-made traditions, built without understanding of nutrition, health, or moderation, and repeated blindly in the name of God.
Muslim Excuse: "But McDonald's also kills millions of animals!"
When confronted with the criticism of Eid al-Adha, Muslim apologists often throw out a tired old line: “You’re just hypocrites. You criticize Eid, but you don’t say anything about McDonald's, even though they kill millions of animals too!”
But this comparison is not just weak, but it is dishonest.
We reply with the facts:
- McDonald’s does not slaughter millions of animals in a single day.
- It does so in moderation, spread across the entire year. Because of that, meat is processed, distributed, and consumed at a steady pace. Prices remain stable. There is no panic, no sudden spike in cost, no artificial scarcity.
In contrast, Islamic countries slaughter millions of animals in a single day on Eid. And the result?
- Meat prices skyrocket.
- Poor people cannot afford meat for months.
- And in countries like Pakistan, donkey meat and even dog meat are sold secretly in markets, without people knowing what they’re eating. (Link)
So who’s really hurting the poor here?
Yes, McDonald’s has been criticized, but not for using meat, but for how it processes food, for adding chemicals, for poor farming ethics, and for injecting animals with antibiotics. And this criticism comes from within the West itself. People in the West challenge their corporations, their systems, and even their own eating habits.
But what about Muslims?
They refuse to question anything, because it is the supposed command of Allah, even if it results in waste, price inflation, sickness, animal cruelty, and malnutrition for the poor. There is no room for criticism, because everything is protected under the label of “divine wisdom.”
That is the difference.
People in the West criticize McDonald's openly. But Muslims fear to even whisper a doubt about Eid or about Allah’s decisions, even when they clearly cause harm.
So no, we are not hypocrites. We are asking valid questions. We are challenging an ancient system that claims to be from an all-wise God, but functions like a human-made tradition full of flaws.
Look at the Foolishness: They killed billions of animals in the past 1400 years, but they don't even know if it was Ishaaq or Ismael who was sacrificed
It is ironic. Muslims have been killing billions of animals for 1400 years, all in memory of the "sacrifice," yet they cannot even agree on who the son was. Was it Ishaaq or Ismael?
Strangely, early on, even Muhammad seemed to follow the Biblical tradition and declared that it was Ishaaq who was to be sacrificed. But then this story created a major problem. Ishaaq never lived in or visited Mecca. So how could he have been sacrificed there on the day of Hajj?
In order to cover this issue, early Muslims tried to solve it by fabricating stories. Just as they invented Muhammad's "night journey" on a flying mule, they fabricated another hadith suggesting that Ishaaq also miraculously arrived in Mecca just for the sacrifice.
But this miracle claim was too bizarre to be taken seriously. So later Muslims started fabricating new hadiths, this time claiming that it was Ismael who was to be sacrificed. This was more convenient since Ismael was believed to have lived in Mecca, and Muslims wanted to glorify their Prophet’s ancestry through him.
Still, despite the dozens of hadiths that were later fabricated in favor of Ismael, many early Muslim scholars and companions of the Prophet continued to believe that the son who was to be sacrificed was Ishaaq.
For example, Imam Qurtabi, in his tafsir under verse 37:102, clearly writes (link):
وٱختلف العلماء في المأمور بذبحه. فقال أكثرهم: الذبيح إسحاق. وممن قال بذلك العباس بن عبد المطلب وٱبنه عبد اللّه وهو الصحيح عنه. روى الثوريّ وٱبن جريج يرفعانه إلى ٱبن عباس قال: الذبيح إسحاق. وهو الصحيح عن عبد اللّه بن مسعود أن رجلاً قال له: يا بن الأشياخ الكرام. فقال عبد اللّه: ذلك يوسف بن يعقوب بن إسحاق ذبيح اللّه بن إبراهيم خليل اللّه صلى اللّه عليهم وسلم ـ. وقد روى حماد بن زيد يرفعه إلى رسول اللّه صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: " إن الكريم ابن الكريم ابن الكريم ابن الكريم يوسف بن يعقوب بن إسحاق بن إبراهيم صلى الله عليه وسلم " وروى أبو الزبير عن جابر قال: الذبيح إسحاق. وذلك مروي أيضاً عن عليّ بن أبي طالب رضي اللّه عنه. وعن عبد اللّه بن عمر: أن الذبيح إسحاق. وهو قول عمر رضي اللّه عنه. فهؤلاء سبعة من الصحابة. وقال به من التابعين وغيرهم عَلْقَمة والشّعبي ومجاهد وسعيد بن جُبير وكعب الأحبار وقتادة ومسروق وعِكرمة والقاسم بن أبي بَزَّة وعطاء ومقاتل وعبد الرحمن بن سابط والزهريّ والسديّ وعبد اللّه بن أبي الهذيل ومالك بن أنس، كلهم قالوا: الذبيح إسحاق. وعليه أهل الكتابين اليهود والنصارى، واختاره غير واحد منهم النحاس والطبري وغيرهما.
There is a difference of opinion among the scholars who was sacrificed. The MAJORITY of them said that it was Ishaaq ....
(Then Qurtabi recorded the name of Sahaba and Tabaeen who declared Ishaaq to be Zabih-Ullah.
They were 7 companions:
(1) Ibn 'Abbas
(2) 'Ali ibn Abi Talib
(3) 'Abdullah Ibn Masood
(4) Jabir bin 'Abdullah Ansari
(5) Umar Ibn Khattab
(6) Abdullah Ibn Umar
(7) Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib.
While the following Successors (i.e. the Muslim generation after Sahaba) also considered Ishaaq to be Zabih-Ullah:
(1) Alqama
(2) Sh'ubi
(3) Mujahid
(4) Saeed bin Jubair
(5) K'ab al-Ahbar
(6) Qatadah
(7) Masrooq
(8) 'Ikrimah
(9) Qasim bin Abi Baza
(10) 'Atta
(11) Maqatil
(12) Abdul Rehman bin Sabit
(13) Zuhri
(14) Suddi
(15) 'Abdullah bin Hazil
(16) Imam Malik ibn Anas.
While scholars like Nahas and Tabari also declared Ishaaq to be Zabih-Ullah.
After that, Imam Qurtabi also recorded the name of Sahaba and Tabaeen who declared Ismael to be Zabih-Ullah.
وقال آخرون: هو إسماعيل. وممن قال ذلك أبو هريرة وأبو الطفيل عامر بن واثلة. وروي ذلك عن ٱبن عمر وٱبن عباس أيضاً، ومن التابعين سعيد بن المسيّب والشّعبي ويوسف بن مِهْران ومجاهد والربيع بن أنس ومحمد بن كعب القُرَظيّ والكلبي وعلقمة.
(Imam Qurtabi then recorded the name of Sahaba and Tabaeen who declared Ismael to be Zabih-Ullah)
Those were 4 Sahaba:
(1) Abu Hurairah
(2) Abu Tufail 'Aamir bin Wasila
(3) Ibn Umar
(4) Ibn Abbas.
And Successors are as under:
(1) Sa'eed bin al-Musayyab
(2) Sh'ubi
(3) Yousuf bin Mahran
(4) Mujahid
(5) Rabi bin Anas
(6) Muhammad bin Kaab al-Qurzi
(7) Kalbi
(8) Alqama)
In the end, Imam Qurtabi wrote his own decision in the following words (link):
وهذا القول أقوى في النقل عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم وعن الصحابة والتابعين.
The saying (i.e. Ishaaq was Zabih-Ullah) has been narrated through stronger traditions from the Prophet and Sahaba and Successors.
Shockingly, Islamic records show that 131 traditions claimed it was Ishaaq, but later to cover this and to promote Ismael, apologists fabricated 133 new traditions. This was done purely to elevate Muhammad and his Arab ancestor Ismael over the Jews and their ancestor Ishaaq.
Now comes the funniest part.
Some figures like Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar, Sh'ubi, Mujahid, and Alqama are listed in traditions saying both names. So one tradition from Ibn Abbas says it was Ishaaq, and another says it was Ismael.
How can the same person believe two opposite things?
This is not just confusion. This is contradiction, and it completely exposes the unreliability of Hadith literature. It reveals the systematic fabrication that took place in the name of religion, and how Muslims tried to reshape narratives based on tribal and religious agendas.
A deeper truth is also exposed here:
Muhammad usually copied Jewish laws and traditions, but Hajj was not from Jewish origins. It was a pagan Arab ritual. There is no mention of Hajj in the Bible. There is no evidence in Jewish or Christian history that they ever journeyed to Mecca for any pilgrimage. There is also no archaeological record showing Jews or Christians performing Hajj in ancient Mecca.
So what did Muhammad do?
He mixed the monotheistic framework of Judaism and Christianity with the local Arab pagan practices like Hajj to win over the Arab tribes. This explains why Hajj has no basis in Jewish history, and yet Muslims are sacrificing animals thinking they are following Abrahamic tradition — without even knowing who the son was.
What a tragedy.
They killed billions of animals, but cannot even decide who the sacrifice was for.
That is the level of confusion and blind belief within Islam. No real God with real wisdom would allow this kind of chaos in his message.
Hassan Radwan