Marissa Steck

Professor Reyna
SSP 105 05
4 December 2019

Spanish Cultural Event: The Sacrifice: The Story of Abraham's/Ibrahim's Sacrifice

For my cultural requirement I decided to attend an event held by a guest speaker, Dr.

Younus Mirza. Dr. Younus Mirza presented a lecture titled "The Sacrifice: The Story of

Abraham's/Ibrahim's Sacrifice and Its Relevance Today". I chose this because at the time, the

story pertained to what I was learning in my faith and religion class. 

During the event, I was able to have a better understanding of the definition of sacrifice.

Sacrifice is more than giving up something for something else.We have to choose something

within our lives and it is connected to the idea of commitment. We point to sacrifice to show

commitment and allegiance. In addition, I also learned the Biblical and Qur’anic stories of

Abraham’s/Ibrahim’s Sacrifice. I learned from the Biblical version that it starts in Genesis 22

when God said take your Son and your only Son to the mountain to sacrifice him, meaning

Abraham. Also Dr. Younus Mirza explained the story of Isaac's sacrifice. I learned that he did

not actually do it, because they did not want the blood of Isaac, but instead were testing

Abraham's commitment. From the Quranic version, I learned that Abraham's son accepts the

sacrifice and accepts God’s decision. Abraham tries to sacrifice his son, however, it does not

work twice. The third time an angel comes down and tells him that his duty is complete.

Overall, I really enjoyed Dr. Younus Mirza’s lecture. It was nice to hear about a topic I

was somewhat familiar with, from someone outside of my professor.