and feeding, like fasting, may be done outside Mecca.

As for the manner of slaughter, the majority are unanimous that pronouncing the Divine Name is recommended, for the sacrifice is an act of purification. Some of them further recommend adding the takbīr along with the basmalah.

It is also recommended that the one offering the hady perform the slaughter with his own hand; if he appoints a deputy, that is permissible. This was exactly what the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—did with his hady. Among its Sunnah is that the animal be slaughtered while standing, in keeping with the Almighty’s words:

“So mention the name of Allah over them while they are standing in rows” (al-Ḥajj 22:36).

Further details on the procedure of slaughter are dealt with in the Book of Slaughtered Animals.

With regard to the owner’s right to benefit from the hady or its meat, several well-known questions arise, one of which is whether he may ride an obligatory or voluntary hady. The Ẓāhirīs held that riding it is permissible both in cases of necessity and otherwise—indeed, some of them considered it obligatory—whereas the majority of jurists in the provinces disapproved of riding it without necessity.

The majority cite as proof what Abū Dāwūd transmitted from Jābir, who, when asked about riding the hady, said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—say, ‘Ride it in a reasonable manner if you are compelled to do so, until you find another mount.’” From a legal-thematic perspective, the very spirit of the Law suggests that benefiting from something dedicated as an offering to draw near to Allah is generally prohibited.

The Ẓāhirīs, on the other hand, rely on the report recorded by Mālik from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah: “The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—saw a man driving a sacrificial camel and said, ‘Ride her!’ The man replied, ‘Messenger of Allah, she is a hady!’ He said, ‘Ride her—woe to you!’ repeating it a second or third time.”

All scholars agree that once a voluntary hady reaches its place of sacrifice, its owner may eat from it like anyone else; but if it becomes unfit before reaching that place, he must release it to the people and may not eat from it himself. Dāwūd added: he should not give any of it to the members of his own party, because it is authentically reported that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—sent Najiyah al-Aslamī with sacrificial animals and told him, “If any of them becomes unfit, slaughter it, stain your sandals with its blood, and let it be for the people.” Ibn ʿAbbās related the same ḥadīth and added, “Do not eat from it yourself, nor any of your companions.” Dāwūd and Abū Thawr upheld this additional clause.

The jurists differed over what is required of someone who nevertheless eats from such an animal. Mālik said that if he eats from it, he must provide another animal in its stead. Al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Thawrī, Aḥmad, and Ibn Ḥabīb—one of Mālik’s own disciples—held that he must pay the value of what he consumed, or give its equivalent in food as charity.