NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh Spiritual Directorate of Muslims (KSDM) distributed sacrificial meat to 81,301 needy families, as well as the elderly, orphanages and hospitals across Kazakhstan, reported the directorate’s press service.
A volunteer distributing the sacrifice meat. Photo credit: muftyat.kz.
The directorate amended the rituals around the annual Kurban Ait (Festival of the Sacrifice), which is known internationally as Eid Al-Adha, due to the pandemic. The KSDM employees and volunteers performed the ritual on behalf of the Kazakh Muslim community. The believers could request the service online on a special website.
“Due to the pandemic, we cannot get together and celebrate Kurban Ait in mosques. Since the preservation of the health entrusted to us by the Almighty is a paramount Muslim duty. For people seeking the Creator’s contentment, the Kazakh Spiritual Directorate of Muslims provided all the possibilities for this by organizing an online sacrifice,” said Supreme Mufti Nauryzbai kazhy Taganuly addressing the Kazakh Muslim community, the press service quoted.
Kazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev both stressed that Kurban Ait is also the celebration of interethnic and inter-religious unity in Kazakhstan.
“In our country, Kurban Ait contributes to the strengthening of unity between people of various ethnicities and religions,” said Nazarbayev in an official letter on elbasy.kz.
“If our aspirations are united, we will certainly achieve the desired goal. I am talking about this, because the essence of the Kurban Ait is to strengthen the mutual understanding and unity of the people,” Tokayev said according to the Akorda press service.
The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan and its ethnocultural associations organized the Myng Algys charity action to honor the religious holiday. The action supported families of frontline medical workers fighting against coronavirus.
“Kurban Ait unites all citizens on the basis of high human values, principles of social solidarity, feelings of civic duty and responsibility,” the assembly said in a statement.
The volunteers distributed 8,100 hot meals from the sacrificed meat to the Kazakh capital’s medical workers in 12 hospitals, the Nur-Sultan Akimat (city administration) press service reported. The charity project united the efforts of the assembly, the Nur-Astana mosque, Nur-Sultan’s Department of Religious Affairs, the Emergency Situations Department, the Nur-Otan party, Gauhartas restaurant and many volunteers.
