the case of livestock—whether grazing animals or otherwise—according to the three imams: Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad.

21 – This indicates that the zakah collector must take from the middle quality of the property: he must not select the best and thereby wrong the payer, nor take the worst and thereby wrong the rightful recipients. If, however, the owner wishes to give from the higher quality, that is up to him.

22 – It follows that one may not offer as zakah a muṣinnah (aged animal), a harimah (decrepit animal), or a maʿībah (defective animal), unless the entire niṣāb consists only of such animals; otherwise they are unacceptable for zakah and constitute an injustice to those entitled to it.

23 – Likewise, one may not discharge zakah with a tays (male goat), a ṭarūqat al-faḥl (breeding stud), a ḥāmil (pregnant female), or an akūlah (fattened animal kept for slaughter), unless the owner himself chooses to do so.

24 – Giving a male animal in zakah is valid only in three situations:

1. In the zakah of cattle: a tabiʿ (one-year-old bull calf) suffices in place of a tabiʿah (yearling heifer) because the text so states, and an older musinn (two-year-old) is acceptable because it is better.
2. In the absence of a bint makhāḍ (one-year-old she-camel), an ibn labūn (two-year-old male camel), a ḥiq (three-year-old camel), a jadhʿ (four-year-old) or anything older may be given instead.
3. If the entire niṣāb of camels, cattle, or sheep is composed solely of males, then giving a male suffices, for zakah is founded on mutual assistance and one is not required to offer what he does not possess.

25 – This establishes the legal effect of commingling (khulṭa) in livestock, unlike other forms of wealth. Such commingling can make zakah obligatory, remove the obligation, increase the amount due, or lessen it, because it treats the combined herds as though they were a single property.

26 – If two or more zakah-liable persons mix their livestock so that, for a complete lunar year, they together possess one full niṣāb, their zakah is assessed as though they were a single owner—whether the commingling is of actual stock, in that they jointly own the animals by inheritance, purchase, or the like, or by commingling.