The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2040 page)

) comes from the verb meaning ‘to draw near’ and implies an offering without slaughter. The major Muslim sacrifice occurs at al-‘
d al-A
(‘the feast of the sacrifice’, also known as ‘
d al-Kab
r, ‘the great feast’) which commemorates the offering by Ibr
h
m (
Abraham
) of a ram instead of his son. In addition, sacrifice may be performed at any time with the intention of drawing closer to God, and is particularly expected when a child is born (
al-‘aq
qah
).
Hinduism
Sacrifice (
yajña
) is deeply involved among Hindus in the maintenance of cosmic order, and although it obviously has reference to the gods, it is distinct from the approach to God in
p
j
(worship). In the early
Vedic
age, sacrifice was relatively simple, a way of bringing the power inherent in the natural order to bear in relevant ways. Hence there were also sacrifices at regular moments, such as morning and evening, new and full moon, etc. For these ceremonies, the
g
hapati
(householder) is usually the officient, though he could call on a
purohita
if necessary. These offerings are known as
g
hyakarm
i