Education volunteer Taner Koçyiğit continues to narrate the accounts from his 14 years in Pakistan. In the fifth part, he shares with us their first-ever Eid al-Adha in Attock as narrated by a friend.

Part Five:

Mr. Mustafa and Mr. Ilhan had gone to Peshawar to buy ten cattle on occasion of the Eid al-Adha. On their way back from Peshawar, they sat in the cabin of the truck they had rented to transport the cattle. Suddenly they heard a loud noise, and when they looked back, they saw that the animals had broken free and jumped off the truck 😊 They stopped immediately and, with the help of the villagers around, tried to wrangle the cattle that ran amok in the middle of the road. They searched for the animals for a long time.

Let’s listen to the details of this incident and the first Eid al-Adha he had spent in Attock from Mr. Mustafa himself: “While hauling the cattle, we heard a loud noise and when we turned back to see what it was about, to our surprise, we saw that the cattle had jumped off the truck and were roaming around. I was extremely worried at that time as I thought, “What are we going to say to the people from Turkey who has trusted us with their sacrificial animals to be sacrificed here? What are we going to say to the families who have been waiting for the distribution of meat during this Eid?” We promised to the children – most of whom were our students – that we would bring them meat. What would we ever do if we were not able to find the sacrificial animals? Meanwhile, we also did not give up searching for the animals. Thank God, we managed to find all the cattle after a long struggle.

The unforgettable incident we had while distributing meat

When we reached Attock, we immediately tied the cattle in the garden of the school and started preparations for the next day’s Eid al-Adha. On the first day of the feast, with the help of our parents and students, we sacrificed the animals and distributed their meat to the families in need. While doing that, we closely witnessed the people who had not eaten meat for years and who eagerly awaited the meat packets we would bring.

When we brought meat packets to a parent, we encountered a very emotional incident at their home. It turned out that the family had been brought meat by other people before us, and we had actually pledged that we would be handing them some meat packets. If he wanted to and given his serious financial problems, the parent might not have mentioned to us that he had received some meat from another person or organization as well. He could simply receive the meat packets from us and consume it with his family as if nothing had happened. However, he said to us, “We have received some meat, but our neighbours need more, please give this meat packet to them.” In this way, he taught us an unforgettable lesson in altruism.

Even now, I can feel in my soul the deep feelings I felt at that moment. I can say that the sweetest Eid-al-Adha I have ever had was in Attock. I miss the sincere people and students there very much. If Allah bestowed me with the opportunity again, I would definitely go and serve those people there.

To be continued…

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Part Four: Allah led our long-sought school building to our doorstep