Islamic Rulings regarding the Sharing in Udhiyah.

By Bro. Abu Abdur Rahman Yahya Silmy bin Muhammed Nubar bin Usman bin Noah Lebbe Alaa Marikaar As-Saylani As-Salafi Al-Athari

This is a short article compiled from the MSN Messenger Chat for quick reference.[1]

All praises to Allah the Almighty and the Salaams and Salawaath to the Last Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassallum. And then to proceed....  

This was a chat on the MSN Messenger with Bro. Ehsaan from Bombay for clearing the doubts to those in the Land of India in understanding this issue for a reply which I had given in one of my telephone conversations as an answer to the Islamic rulings on the Sharing of Udhiyah.  I have prepared this as a quick reference for this discussion, while I had informed to the Muslims of Sri Lanka on my Friday Siraatul Mustaqeem[2] Sri Lankan Broad casting Radio once and as well left out a print out from Dar As-Salaf Educational Institute, which carried the Arabic texts and some other points as well. Praying to Allah that my statement benefits me when I am dead and alone in my grave. And bestow me the best chances in awaking the Sunnah and demolishing the innovations insha-Allaah.  

We should realize that Udhiyah is a worship which we adopt and not a mere practice it is done in the remembrance of Ibrahim Alaihis Salaam who had come ahead to sacrifice his son on the order of Allaah.

As it is worship we should know the fundamentals in the worship.

The Base in the worship is that you have to act as to the text and not of anything else and as well no analogy should be used in the worship matters.  

That means the Udhiyah sacrifice should not be confused with the other sacrifices like the Aqeeqah[3] or Haadi[4].

Aqeeqah which is sacrificed when a child is born two for male and one for female, which we are all sure that in Udhiyah we will not apply the Aqeeqah application for sacrificing two for male and one for female, similarly in the Haadi the sacrifice is compulsory for every Hajji and we should know that the only hajj permitted for Muslims is the Tamattoo[5] and Ifraad[6] while the Qiraan[7] is abrogated..  

And the Ifraad is only for the Peoples of Makkah which make for all other than the Makkans to act only on the Tamattoo, where the sacrifice is compulsory.  

This compulsory is to the limit if one cannot sacrifice he should fast three days in the Hajj and seven days when he reaches home.  

Now knowing all these let us come to the Udhiyah.

Udhiyah is for those who have not gone for Hajj and it stated in the Saheeh Hadith.

“Who have the ability and did not sacrifice let him not come next to our Mussallah” (Reported by Ahmad and Ibn Maajah; classed as saheeh by al-Haakim from the hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him). It says in Fath al-Baari that its men are thiqaat).

which clearly says that importance of Udhiyah and as well it informs that only for those who have the ability should do it while in Hajj the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassallum Sacrificed for his nations who will not be able to sacrifice all these informations tell us that the ability is a condition in this sacrifice. As long as the ability is there it becomes compulsory for us and on the absence of this ability there is not a duty for this sacrifice This is what Imaam Malik informs in his Muwatta the Hadith of Abu Ayub Al-Ansari's narration, where the meaning of it's word quote as .. “We use to sacrifice a sheep one for a household later it became boosting and people started competing in it”

Which led to the sharing of the animal..

Where Imaam Malik clearly explains that it is not from Sunnah to share in a cow or camel in the Udhiyah and one should own the animal to sacrifice it.  

As well he clearly explains that one animal is enough for a family how much ever the number of the family members may be..

This is the strongest among the different opinions of the Imaams in the matter of Udhiyah. Mostly the scholars use a Hadith of Ibn Abbas which narrated in Sunan Abu Dawud and Sunan Tirmizi, which is Saheeh, It states as

"We were in a journey with the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassallum the Azha came we shared seven in the Cow and ten in the Camel"  

which is usually carried by many scholars as evidence for sharing in the Cow and Camel in Udhiyah, Which actually opposes the narration of the Abu Ayub Al-Ansari's Hadith in Muwatta Malik and as well there is talk on the text of this Hadith, The wording ten in Camel is a mistake it should be seven in Camel as well. Which is clear from the other narration as well this has been narrated by Imam Bazzar in his Musnad where Tawoos bin Qaiysaan narrates from Ibn Abbas that ...  

"We were in a journey the journey of Al-Hudaybiyyah with the Messenger of Allah and the Adha came we shared seven in the Cow and Seven in the Camel"  

Which is another wording for the same incident..  

As explained in the narrational information of Imam Noorudeen Al-Haithami in his Kashful Asthaar fi Zawaiyidil Bazzaar.  

Looking into these two narrations we understand how correct Imam Malik was to say that it is not from Sunnah that one can share in the Udhiyah even in the Cow and Camel. As let me explain it.

This Al-Hudaybiyyah was a journey where the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassallum and his companions left to Makkah to have Umrah. They were prevented from the Quraish to perform the Umrah.

Imam Suhaili says in his Rouwzul Anf they remained there more than 25 days trying to get in.  

Some Imams explain till the day of sacrificing reaches, where the Imams have there discussion of weather one could sacrifice for the prevention on the same place and the sacrifice day or other, in short it is that it has to reach the day of sacrificing that is what I can final which has it's own detail study insha-Allaah will talk about it another time well so the Prophet remained there for to do the sacrifice thus this sacrifice was for the prevention as Allah mentions in the Qur'aan.  

"And if you are prevented sacrifice of what is possible of a Haadi"  

Thus this sacrifice was done by the Messenger of Allah and it falls in the ruling of the Haadi and not the Udhiyah as Allah clearly as well mentions it as the Haadi. The Hadith Ibn Abbas which says of this sacrifice on the journey has been explained by Imam Ibn Abdul Burr in his Istizkaar as the sacrifice for the Prevention. Understanding this we can clearly now see how strong the verdict of Imam Malik remains firm in this matter that is his statement  

“Udhiya is not to be shared and this practice of sharing is not from Sunnah”  

Thus I can come to the conclusion of clearly saying that the practice which was adopted at the early times still later after the Sahabas for the purpose of competition. The practice of sharing in Udhiyah which now have become a ruling in Udhiyah is a totally wrong and is an innovation.

And Allah knows the best.  

ehsaan says: Does it mean that in a Haadi we can share seven in a cow and camel even today when somebody goes to Hajj?

Abu Abdur Rahman As- Saylani says: Yes. That is the ruling of Haadi only.

ehsaan says: And in the Hadith of Ibn Abbas if the journey is the journey of Al-Hudaibiya then does it mean that when they were prevented from doing Umrah means after the treaty was concluded and it was said that they cannot do the Umrah that year but will be allowed to do the next year.

Abu Abdur Rahman Saylani says: Yes

ehsaan says: They had to sacrifice because of the ruling in the Qur’aan?

Saylani says: For the prevention otherwise there was no need for a sacrifice. Yes of course.  

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