1181 – Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: “During the year of al-Ḥudaybiyah we slaughtered with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): one budnah (camel) on behalf of seven people, and one cow on behalf of seven people.” Related by Muslim (1).
Points derived from the hadith
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The term budnah refers to camels and to large cattle, both of which yield plentiful meat. Because of the greater benefit they provide to the one offering the hady or the ʿuḍḥiyah, each camel or cow is deemed equivalent to seven sheep; therefore, a single camel or cow fulfils the requirement for seven separate sacrifices or seven hady offerings.
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It is permissible for seven people who intend an udḥiyah or a hady to share one camel or cow, each counting it as his own sacrifice, after which they divide the meat into seven equal portions.
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Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jāsir states in his manual on the rites that the validity of a camel or cow on behalf of up to seven persons depends on all of them entering the partnership at the same time. If, for example, three people jointly purchase a camel or cow for an udḥiyah and say, “Anyone who later wants to join us will be included,” and others subsequently do join, the animal suffices only for the original three. This ruling is transmitted by al-Zarkashī from al-Ḥaqī from al-Shīrāzī.
In al-Iqnāʿ and its commentary he adds: this applies when the three have already made the sacrifice binding on themselves; if they have not yet done so, there is nothing to prevent further partners from joining before the slaughter, because the animal has not yet been designated.
He further says in Sharḥ al-Muntahā: if three people share in a camel or cow and make it obligatory upon themselves, they are not permitted to admit anyone else into the partnership.