LI Muslims to celebrate Eid al-Adha marking end of Mecca pilgrimage

Muslims across Long Island this weekend will celebrate one of the holiest times of the year, a three-day festival marking the end of an annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia known as the Hajj.

Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice, started Friday after sunset but will swing into full gear Saturday morning as Muslims gather for prayers at local mosques and in some cases at sports fields expected to attract thousands.

That will be followed by three days of special meals with family and friends, gift-giving and acts of charity.

The holy festival commemorates the biblical Abraham, who was tested by God over his willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael. God, seeing Abraham’s devotion, spared his son, who was not killed. Instead, Abraham sacrificed a ram.

“His love and devotion and love for God was so intense that he deep down knew that God will protect him and his family,” said Isma Chaudhry, co-chair of the board of trustees at the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury.

Thousands of years later, Muslims around the world recall that story by having an animal — usually a goat or lamb — sacrificed and then distributing a third of the meat to poor people. Another third goes to relatives and friends. They keep the final third for themselves.

Muslims physically and financially able to do so are required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetimes for the Hajj. Mecca, considered the holiest city in Islam, is the birthplace of Muhammad and the site of Muhammad’s first revelation of the Quran.

Performing the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. The pilgrimage is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.

For the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance at the Hajj was severely limited to prevent spread of the virus. This year, it opened up some more, with 1 million visitors allowed by the Saudi government, though that was still below the 2 million or 3 million who typically attend.

The Hajj started July 1 and ended Friday, followed by Eid al-Adha.

Some Muslims from Long Island made the Hajj this year, but fewer than normal, local Muslim leaders said.

The Islamic Association of Long Island, a mosque in Selden, typically sees at least 10 congregants travel to Mecca for the Hajj, but this year only two went, said Nayyar Imam, a leader of the mosque.

Imam himself traveled to Mecca a couple of months ago, partly because of the complications and restrictions of getting there for the Hajj. “By the time I left it was almost like Hajj — so many people there,” he said.

On Saturday morning, his mosque will hold prayer services at 9 a.m. at the Centereach High School football field. The service is expected to attract several thousand people, and avoids the mosque having to hold multiple prayer services indoors throughout the day to accommodate the faithful.

The Selden mosque used the football field for the first time in 2019, but did not do so in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.

In Nassau County, prayer services will be held at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale at 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Mosques throughout Long Island will also hold morning services.

This year’s festival comes following an attack on a mosque in Ronkonkoma.

During the July Fourth holiday weekend, an "ignited device" was set off at the Masjid Fatima Al-Zahra Mosque on Lake Shore Road, damaging a crescent-shaped sign, Suffolk County police said.

The mosque itself was not damaged and no one was injured, police said. They are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

Chaudhry said the attack was disturbing.

Some Muslims are “scared to come out because of the violence and the hateful rhetoric that is leading our country in a very different direction,” she said. “It’s not a good thing to live in this kind of fear where we are afraid to perform our rituals and our religious obligations, or to get together as a family.”