Chapter: Compensation for Game
For an ostrich: a camel fit for sacrifice …
His statement, “Chapter: Compensation for Game,” means: the chapter concerning the equivalent to be given as compensation for game. For he does not intend to explain what is due for game in general; rather, he intends to explain its equivalent. He did not say “expiation,” because Allah expresses it in the Quran as: “Then the compensation is an equivalent to what he killed of grazing livestock.”
Game is that which it is forbidden for a person in the state of ihram to hunt, or which is hunted within the Sacred Precinct. It should be known that game is of two types:
The first is that for which there is no equivalent.
The second is that for which there is an equivalent.
The type for which there is an equivalent is likewise of two kinds:
One kind is that concerning which the Companions gave a ruling; in that case, reference is made to what they ruled, and we have no right to depart from their ruling.
The other is that concerning which the Companions gave no ruling. In that case, two upright experts shall determine what is equivalent.
His statement, “For an ostrich: a camel fit for sacrifice,” means that if a person kills an ostrich while in the state of ihram, or kills an ostrich within the Sacred Precinct, even if he is not in the state of ihram, then he must offer a camel fit for sacrifice (1), that is,