As for the issue of sufficiency, a seventh of a camel or cow suffices for one person only.

By contrast, in the issue of gifting the reward—where someone offers a sacrifice and dedicates its reward to more than one person, whether during his lifetime or through a bequest after his death—both a sheep and a seventh of a camel suffice for more than one recipient.

Shaykh ʿAbd Allah Aba Buṭayn, when asked about this matter, said, “I have found nothing that proves it impermissible, and some of the scholars we knew used to dedicate the reward of a seventh of a camel to more than one person. What misled certain shaykhs is the jurists’ statement, ‘A camel or cow suffices for seven,’ but that belongs to the chapter on sufficiency, not the chapter on gifting. Allah knows best.”

5 – The hadith cited in this chapter originally concerns the hady (the sacrificial animal offered during Hajj), yet the same ruling applies to the udḥiyah by analogy. In fact, regarding the udḥiyah, al-Tirmidhi (905) and al-Nasaʾi (4392) record the ḥadith of Ibn ʿAbbās: “We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a journey when Eid al-Aḍḥā arrived, so we shared in a cow—seven of us—and in a camel—ten of us.”

The scholars differ on whether a camel suffices for ten or for seven, but the later report—dating from the Farewell Pilgrimage—indicates that it suffices for seven, just like a cow. Allah knows best.