young she-goat is dearer to me than two sheep,” we would say: It does not suffice. Its being dearer to him is not the effective cause, for this is an incidental attribute that cannot serve as a basis for legal reasoning.
His statement, “Whoever slaughters before the prayer, let him slaughter another in its place,” proves that the slaughter must take place after the Eid prayer. If one is in a place where no Eid prayer is held, he should estimate it according to the time of the Eid prayer and not according to the surrounding areas. That is, if he were, for example, in a desert area near Unayzah, what matters is not the time of the Eid prayer in Unayzah, but the estimated time of the prayer itself. Since the Eid prayer becomes permissible once the sun has risen to the height of a spear, and since it is recommended to perform the Eid al-Adha prayer early, one should estimate the time after the sun has risen to that height, adding approximately fifteen minutes for the prayer to be completed. If the sun’s rising to the height of a spear takes a third of an hour, or a quarter of an hour, then slaughter may begin approximately half an hour, or thirty-five minutes, after sunrise.
It is understood from his saying, “the Eid prayer,” that it is not conditional for the slaughter to take place after the Eid sermon. Thus, if a person leaves as soon as he has performed the Eid prayer and slaughters while the imam is delivering the sermon, his sacrifice is valid. The apparent meaning of his words is that this is valid even if the imam has not yet slaughtered, since the author stated the matter without restriction. This is indeed so, and the evidence is that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said, “Whoever slaughters before the prayer has no sacrificial offering.” Its implication is that whoever slaughters after the prayer has a valid sacrificial offering, whether the sermon has ended or not, and whether the imam has slaughtered or not.
However, it is better not to slaughter before the imam. What the scholars have said in this regard is correct when people deal with their sacrificial animals as they did in the time of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. In that case, we wait for the imam, because he is our imam in the prayer and thus our imam in the sacrificial rite. In the past, they would