Chapter on the Udhiyah (Sacrificial Animal)

It is an emphatically recommended Sunnah.

It becomes obligatory1 when one makes a vow or declares, “This is my udhiyah,” or, “This is for Allah.”

The best animals—ranked in virtue—are: camels, then cattle, then sheep and goats.

No species outside these three categories is acceptable.

One sheep suffices for a single person together with the members of his household and his dependents.

One camel or one cow suffices for seven people.2

The minimum age that fulfills the requirement is: six months for a lamb, one year for a goat, two years for cattle or water-buffalo, and five years for a camel.3

Acceptable are the hornless, the dock-tailed, the castrated, the pregnant, and any animal born without an ear, or one that has lost half of its rump or ear.

Unacceptable are: an animal with a manifest disease; one that is clearly blind, its eye sunken; one whose eyes look sound though it has lost its sight; and the ajfāʾ—an emaciated creature so lean that its bones contain no marrow.