Eid al-Adha honors Ibrahim’s willingness to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son.
In Islamic tradition, Ibrahim understood recurring dreams as a divine command and prepared to submit to it. As he and his son carried out that obedience, God accepted Ibrahim’s faith and provided a ram as a substitute. The story emphasizes submission, trust, and devotion rather than the completion of a human sacrifice.
Muslim accounts generally identify the son as Isma'il, known as Ishmael in English, although the Qur’an does not name him explicitly in the sacrifice passage. This differs from the Jewish and Christian biblical account, which identifies Isaac as the son in the Binding of Isaac narrative. Ibrahim is the Arabic form of the name Abraham.
The festival’s sacrifice, called udhiyah or qurbani in many contexts, commemorates this willingness to obey God. Meat is traditionally shared among the household, relatives, neighbors, and people in need. Eid al-Adha also falls during the season of Hajj, whose rites include remembrance of Ibrahim’s family.