he delayed it deliberately, making it up would not avail him, and he is not instructed to do so, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Whoever performs an act that is not in accordance with our matter, it is rejected.” (1)

But if it was due to forgetfulness or ignorance, or if the animal escaped and he hoped to find it before the time for slaughter expired, but the time then ran out and he later found the animal, in that case he should slaughter it. This is because he delayed it beyond its time due to an excuse, and it is thus like the Prophet’s saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it should pray it when he remembers it; there is no expiation for it other than that.” (2)

If it is a bequest and does not belong to him, does it fall under the general meaning of his statement, “he makes up his obligation”? The answer is no. A bequest is considered a voluntary act on the part of the testator, while what is obligatory upon the executor is to carry it out.

Thus, we say that the executor stands in the place of the testator. Had the testator delayed it until after sunset—that is, until after the time had expired—he would not have been required to make it up, because in his case it was voluntary, not obligatory. Accordingly, if the executor did not offer the udhiyah that year due to an excuse, for example, we would say to him: Delay it until the following year and slaughter it during the days of slaughter. He would then slaughter two udhiyahs: one in fulfillment of the previous year’s offering, and the other as the current year’s offering performed on time.