We are now in Dzulhijah. In this very moment, moslems have many
opportunity in doing various worships. Going to hajj, making sacrifice (or qurban
*red), and doing Arafat fasting are those popular worships in this month.
But in this occasion I will not discuss
on the worships, rather to focus on the history of Eid
Adha, or we call it by Idul Adha or Feast of Sacrifice the westerns call.
Eid Adha honors the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his
promised son, Ismail, as an act of obedience and submission to Allah’s
command. As it is stated in QS Ash
Shafat:102:
فَلَمَّا بَلَغَ مَعَهُ السَّعْيَ قَالَ يَا بُنَيَّ إِنِّي أَرَىٰ فِي الْمَنَامِ أَنِّي أَذْبَحُكَ فَانظُرْ مَاذَا تَرَىٰ ۚ قَالَ يَا أَبَتِ افْعَلْ مَا تُؤْمَرُ ۖ سَتَجِدُنِي إِن شَاءَ اللَّـهُ مِنَ الصَّابِرِينَ ﴿١٠٢
And when he
reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, "O my son, indeed I have
seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think." He
said, "O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah
wills, of the steadfast."
Let’s see the conversation between Prophet Ibrahim and his son
above. The topic of the conversation is
about Prophet Ibrahim’s dream. In the dream, Ibrahim saw himself sacrificing
his own son. In the dialog Ibrahim asked Ismail to think of the dream, and
amazingly Ismail answered to his father to implement the command of Allah.
Well, let’s analyze the content…
Ibrahim did not say that Allah commanded him to sacrifice Ismail, but
Ismail interpreted his father’s dream as a revelation from Allah. Then comes
the question: Why did Ismail so believe that the story of his father is a
revelation from Allah?
In study of communication, communicant (as the recipient of
information) will believe the communicator if the communicator has high
credibility. Everett M Rogers (1983) said that credibility is the rate at which
a communicator is perceived as a trust or ability by the recipient. Credibility itself is made up of two elements:
skill and trust (please check Alexis S Tan (1981)). These two elements are owned by Ibrahim, as a
communicator with high credibility. This empowers Ibrahim in front of Ismail,
so when Ibrahim shared his dream, Ismail immediately understood the purpose of
his father.
The story of Prophet Ibrahim and his credibility can be our
inspiration, as having credibility can empower our position in delivering
message. Simply, being teachers or fathers with credibility can increase the
possibility of our messages be heard and implemented by our students, sons, and
our daughters. Wallahu a'lam bi al-shawab.
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