Milwaukee celebrates Eid Al-Adha with a morning community prayer

Local Muslims with ethnic backgrounds connected to counties all over the world, including America’s home soil, gathered by the thousands on August 21 at the Wisconsin Center to worship together for Eid Al-Adha.

Eid Al-Adha is one of Islam’s most revered observances. Along with Eid Al-Fitr, which occurs at the end of Ramadan, “The Greater Eid” is one of the two major religious holidays for the Muslim community in Milwaukee. Eid Al-Adha commemorates the Quranic story of the Prophet Abraham’s intense devotion to God and his willingness to sacrifice his eldest son Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God. Before he could carry out the sacrifice, God provided a ram as an offering instead. In the Christian and Jewish version of the story, Abraham is ordered to sacrifice another son, Isaac.

Eid Al-Adha also marks the end of the Hajj, the sacred journey to Mecca undertaken by about two million Muslims each year. The journey is one of the five pillars of Islam, and should be undertaken by every Muslim who is physically and financially able to do so.

Organized by the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the Community Eid Al-Adha Prayer brings together families from across the Southeastern Wisconsin region. Additionally, there were early Eid prayers at the three ISM locations as well as five other Mosques in the area for those who were unable to make it to the main community prayer downtown.

These pictures share highlights from the morning’s prayer event and show the diversity, warmth, love, and deep connections between the generations of participants.

© PHOTO NOTE: All the editorial images published here have been posted to the Wisconsin Muslim Journal’s Facebook Page. That collection of photos contains the WMJ watermark for attribution, and may be used for private social media sharing.