that we examine the eyes and ears and that no animal be offered whose ear is split (sharqā’), perforated (khirqā’), cut on both rear edges (mudābarah), or wholly severed (batrā’).

Sharqā’: an animal whose ear is slit.
Khirqā’: one whose ear is pierced.
Mudābarah: one from whose ear the two back sides have been cut.

Whoever gives precedence to the ḥadīth of Abū Burdah says that only the four defects, or anything more serious, must be avoided. But the scholar who reconciles the two reports by interpreting the ḥadīth of Abū Burdah as referring to a slight, unapparent flaw, and the ḥadīth of ʿAlī to a considerable, obvious flaw, extends the ruling of the explicit text to every defect equal in severity. Hence the adherents of this view sought to fix precise limits for what invalidates the offering when part of these organs is lost: some deemed the loss of one-third of the ear or tail disqualifying, while others required that most of it be gone. The same applies to the loss of teeth or the udder.

As for the horn, Mālik held that the loss of part of it is not a defect unless it bleeds, in which case it is classed as an illness; and there is no dispute that a manifest illness invalidates the sacrifice.

Abū Dāwūd recorded: “The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—forbade an animal whose ear or horn has been broken off.”

They disagreed about the sakkāʾ—an animal born without ears. Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī judged it impermissible, whereas Abū Ḥanīfah maintained that if the condition is congenital it is permissible, like an animal born without horns. The majority nonetheless agree that cutting off the whole ear, or most of it, is a defect. All of these differences return to what has already been set forth.

They also differed concerning the abtar (an animal with its tail cut off). Some permitted it, citing the report of Jābir al-Juʿfī from Muḥammad ibn Qurazah, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: “I bought a ram to sacrifice, but a wolf ate its tail. I asked the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—about it, and he said, ‘Offer it as your sacrifice.’” Yet most ḥadīth experts do not rely on Jābir’s narrations, and others prohibited the animal on the strength of ʿAlī’s earlier report.

The third issue is determining the required age of sacrificial animals. There is consensus that a jadhaʿ of goats is invalid; the animal must be a thanī or older, because the Prophet—peace be upon him—said to Abū Burdah, when ordering him to replace his sacrifice: “It will suffice for you, but no jadhaʿ is acceptable on anyone’s behalf after you.”

They disagreed, however, about the jadhaʿ of sheep. The majority rule it permissible, while others require a thanī. The point of contention lies in a particular text opposing a general one. The particular is the ḥadīth of Jābir: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said, ‘Do not slaughter except a musinnah, unless it is difficult for you…’”