The first ten days of the holy month of Zul-Hijjah or month of Hajj culminates in Id-al-adha or Bakrid. It is a day when Muslims worldwide sacrifice an animal, either a goat, sheep, buffalo, cow or a camel. While this sacrifice is an important ritual of the Muslim pilgrimage, the Faithful world-wide commemorate and honor, in essence and deed the supreme sacrifice one of its most important prophets Prophet Ebrahim or Abraham, was ready to make.

Prophet Ebrahim and his wife Hadrat Sarah were childless for many years. On Hadrat Sarah’s insistence, he took Hajirah as his wife and Hadrat Ishmael was born of the union. When Hadrat Ishmael was quite a young boy, Prophet Ebrahim received a command from Allah to sacrifice his beloved son. Hadrat Ebrahim, with the consent of Hadrat Hajirah prepared to carry it out.

At Mina, he laid Hadrat Ishmael on the ground, covering his eyes, and pierced the throat of his much-loved son. But Lo! there lay before him a slaughtered ram instead! It is since then that the sacrifice or Qurbani (in Urdu and Persian) of an animal became an obligatory duty binding upon every Muslim who possesses the means.

Qurbani means an act performed to seek proximity to Almighty Allah and to seek His pleasure. Qurbani is a demonstration to Allah and a proof of complete obedience to Allah’s Will and Command. Thus the act of sacrifice of an animal reaffirms to the Muslim that he is a slave of His Maker. Not only his worldly possessions, but his very life is a bounty from Allah, which he would not hesitate to lay down at His command.

The flesh of the sacrificed animal is divided into three equal parts. One part can be kept for household use, the second part is distributed among relatives and the third part is to be distributed to the poor.

While in the Id-ul-fitr, or the Ramzan Id, there is much focus on feasting, revelry and dressing in one’s best, Id-al-adha is comparatively low-key. The day begins with prayers. The men offer special Id prayers at the Idgah after which the animals are mainly sacrificed at home, with the help of a butcher. The young are seen going around distributing the meat to relatives while it is not uncommon to see the poorer people thronging the houses of the well to do for their pound of flesh.

For most housewives the immediate dilemma would be how to make the optimum use of the meat received. In the olden days, meat was salted and hung out to dry to be preserved and used when required. Many people still make these dried kebabs.

My own personal favorite kebab is the Shaami Kebab and this is how it is made :

Minced-meat – 1kg
Chana dal – 100 gms soaked for an hour before cooking
White of two eggs
Mint leaves,
coriander leaves.
Garam masala – few cardomoms, 2-3 cloves, cinnamon, pepper balls 4-5, shah-zeera etc ground fine.
Lime juice, salt and green chillies to taste.

Pressure cook the mince and the dal together. After opening the cooker, check if mixture is absolutely dry. If not do so on high flame with the rest of the ingredients. Leave to cool. Fine grind everything together. Make small balls and flatten kebabs between the palms as one would a cutlet.

Add a little salt and red chilli powder (optional) to the white of the egg. Dip each kebab in and shallow fry till golden brown on both sides. Can be eaten by itself or served with roomali roti and a spicy dip.

Unfried kebabs can be kept in the fridge for three days and in the deep freeze for much longer too.

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