That view is likewise reported from ʿAlī, Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, and a number of the Successors.
If the sacrificial animal becomes unfit within the Sanctuary (Ḥaram) before it reaches Mecca, has it thereby reached its appointed place of sacrifice or not? The disagreement on this point rests on the earlier dispute: is the required place the city of Mecca itself, or any location inside the Ḥaram?
As for an obligatory hady that perishes before reaching its place, its owner is permitted to eat from it, because he must still furnish a substitute. Some jurists even allowed him to sell its meat and put the proceeds toward the replacement, whereas Mālik regarded that as reprehensible.
The scholars also differed over eating from an obligatory hady once it has reached its place of sacrifice.
• Al-Shāfiʿī held that nothing of it may be eaten; all of its meat is for the poor, as is its entire hide—if it had been draped—and even the sandal with which it was garlanded.
• Mālik maintained that one may eat from every kind of obligatory hady except the offering made as compensation for hunting, the hady vowed specifically for the poor, and the fidya for violations causing harm.
• Abū Ḥanīfah said that nothing of an obligatory hady may be eaten except the hady of tamattuʿ and that of qirān.
Al-Shāfiʿī’s principal argument is that all categories of obligatory hady are analogous to expiations (kafārah). Those who distinguished between the various types did so because two meanings are evident in the hady:
- It is an independent act of worship;
- It is an expiation.
In some kinds the first meaning is more apparent. Hence, whoever emphasizes the worship aspect—especially those who consider tamattuʿ and qirān superior—does not require the offerer to refrain from eating, since for him this hady is a meritorious act, not an expiation warding off punishment. Conversely, whoever stresses its expiatory character rules that the owner may not partake of it, because all agree that the person liable for an expiation does not eat from his own expiatory offering. And since the hady given in compensation for hunting and the fidya for harm are clearly expiatory, the jurists are unanimous that the owner may not eat from them.
The Qāḍī said: We have now spoken of the legal status of the hady, its species and age, the manner of driving it, the temporal and spatial conditions for its validity, the mode of slaughter, and the ruling on deriving benefit from it. That is what we intended, and Allah is the One who grants success to what is right.
With the completion of this discussion, according to our arrangement, the purpose of this book is fulfilled. To Allah belong abundant praise and thanks for His guidance, His enabling grace, and the favor of bringing the work to completion and perfection.
The writing was finished on Wednesday, the ninth of Jumādā I in the year 584 AH. This treatise forms part of “Kitāb al-Mujtahid,” which I began more than twenty years ago—or thereabouts. Praised be Allah, Lord of the worlds.
At first—may Allah be pleased with him—the author had resolved, when he began compiling the work, not to include the Book of Ḥajj; later he reconsidered and decided to incorporate it.