Thousands of Muslims Celebrate Eid al-Adha in Plymouth
Wednesday marked one of the biggest holidays for the Muslim faith, and thousands in the west metro came out to celebrate.
The Plymouth Community Center hosted more than 4,000 people for prayer services to honor the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, also known as the feast of the sacrifice.
The holiday commemorates the day when God appears to Abraham in a dream and asks him to sacrifice his only son. Abraham is ready to comply, but ultimately, God stops him and has Abraham sacrifice an animal instead.
The overall message for Muslims is to submit to God’s will, even though we may not understand the wisdom behind it.
“The goal from this Eid celebration is to detach from worldly desires and worldly things, and attach to God ultimately,” said Shaykh Saifullah Muhammed. “It’s specifically important in the time and era that we live in where people are attached to social media, they’re attached to technology more than they’re attached to their families and their loved-ones, so that message is kind of the same — focus on what is important in life.”
Prayer services traditionally take place at the Northwest Islamic Community Center in Plymouth, but they entered into a partnership with the Plymouth Community Center to allow for more people and to help manage the crowd.
Related: As Muslims Celebrate Eid, Plymouth Mosque Eyes Expansion