obligated to slaughter it so that it may be an act of devotion, then he cannot give the butcher his wages from it, since the butcher is acting as his agent.

Someone may ask: Do you not permit the worker appointed to administer zakah to be paid from the zakah? Why, then, is it not permissible to give the butcher of the sacrificial animal or the offering something from the offering, just as we give the zakah administrator from the zakah?

We say: The difference is clear. This butcher is the owner’s agent. Thus, if a person appoints someone to distribute his zakah, he may not give him a share from those employed to administer it.

For example, if a person sends another person ten thousand riyals and says, “Take this and distribute it as zakah,” the one who receives the ten thousand may not take anything from it, because the zakah administrator is one appointed to this task by the governing authority.

May he give him something as wages?

The answer is no. That is, if he says, “Slaughter it for me,” and the slaughtering normally costs ten riyals, then says, “I will give you five from its meat and five in cash,” this is not permissible. By doing so, he would have sold what he offered as a means of drawing near to Allah—namely, the meat—because compensation for wages is equivalent to the price received in a sale. He would therefore have sold meat that he had set aside for Allah, and this is not permissible.

May he give him a gift or charity?

The answer is yes, just as he may give it to anyone else: if he is poor, he may give it to him as charity; and if he is wealthy, he may give it to him as a gift.

His statement, “Nor may he sell its hide or anything from it”: as mentioned previously, he may not—