“Neither their flesh reaches Allah nor their blood; it is your piety that reaches Him. He has subjected these animals (to you) that you may magnify Allah for the guidance He has bestowed upon you. Give glad tidings (O Prophet!) to those who do good.”
(Al-Qur’ān 22:37)
In pre-Islamic times, the Arabs used to offer the flesh of the animals they sacrificed at the altars of idols. In like manner, they brought the flesh of animals so sacrificed to the Ka’bah, smearing the walls of the Ka’bah with their blood. Exposing the underlying folly of this practice, the Qur’ān points out that what reaches God is not the blood or the flesh of the sacrificed animal, but rather piety.
If a man sacrifices an animal out of genuine feelings of gratitude to God, and does so with purity of intention and for the sake of God alone, then the purity of his spirit and intention is bound to reach God. Devoid of that purity of spirit, however, the mere offering of blood and flesh is meaningless. The same point is made in the hadīth which states that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said: ‘God does not look at your faces or complexions: He rather looks at your intentions and your deeds.’
Sacrifice has been made obligatory not only to express man’s gratitude to God for making the cattle subservient to him, it has also been instituted in order that man may fully remember, both in thought and deed, the Lordship of God Who subjected the cattle, His creatures, to man’s control. This enables man to avoid falling prey to the illusion that he is the true master of whatever he happens to possess.