6. The Baqr-'Id.--This is the most important Feast in the whole year. It is also known as the 'Id-i-Qurban, and as the 'Id-ul-Azha, commonly called the Id-uz-Zuha, the feast of sacrifice. In Turkey and in Egypt it is called Bairam. Its origin was as follows: A few months after the Hijra, or flight from Mecca, Muhammad, dwelling in Madina, observed that the Jews kept, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the great fast of the Atonement. A Tradition records that the Prophet asked them why they kept this fast. He was informed that it was a memorial of the deliverance of Moses and the children of Israel from the hands of Pharaoh. "We have a greater right in Moses than they," said Muhammad, so he fasted with the Jews and commanded his followers to fast also. This was at the period of his mission when Muhammad was friendly with the Jews of Madina, who occasionally came to hear him preach. The Prophet also occasionally attended the synagogue. Then came the change of the Qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca, for the Jews were not so ready to change their {253} creed as Muhammad had at first hoped. In the second year of the Hijra, Muhammad and his followers did not participate in the Jewish fast, for the Prophet now instituted the feast of the Baqr-'Id. The idolatrous Arabs had been in the habit of making an annual pilgrimage to Mecca at this season of the year. The offering of animals in sacrifice formed a part of the concluding ceremony of that pilgrimage. That portion--the sacrifice of animals--Muhammad adopted in the feast which now, at Madina, he substituted for the Jewish fast. This was well calculated to attract the attention of the Meccans and to gain the goodwill of the Arabs. Muhammad could not then make the pilgrimage to Mecca, for as yet there was a hostile feeling between the inhabitants of the two cities; but on the tenth day of the month Zu'l-Hajja, at the very time when the Arabs at Mecca were engaged in sacrificing victims, Muhammad went forth from his house at Madina, and assembling his followers instituted the Id-uz-Zuha or Baqr-'Id. Two young kids were brought before him. One he sacrificed and said: "O Lord! I sacrifice this for my whole people, all those who bear witness to Thy unity and to my mission. O Lord! this is for Muhammad and for the family of Muhammad." Great merit is obtained by all who keep this feast. 'Ayesha relates how the Prophet once said: "Man hath not done anything on the 'Id-ul-Azha more pleasing to God than spilling blood; for verily the animal sacrificed will come on the day of resurrection with its horns, hair and hoofs, and will make the scale of his good actions very heavy. Verily its blood reached the acceptance of God before it falleth upon the ground, therefore be joyful in it."