Scriptural Foundation and the Sunnah of Ibrahim
The udhiyah (also termed qurban, qurbani, or — for the standing camel — nahr) is the animal offering slaughtered to mark Eid al-Adha, the climactic act of the Hajj season that every Muslim household is invited to share even when not on pilgrimage. Its scriptural anchor is the narrative of Ibrahim, who saw in a dream that he was to sacrifice his son and submitted with him to God’s command, only for the son to be redeemed with a momentous sacrifice (37:102-107). The annual rite is thus understood as a re-enactment of that submission (islam) and ransom (fida’). The Quran further commands the Prophet, ‘So pray to your Lord and sacrifice’ (108:2, fa-salli li-rabbika wa-nhar), pairing prayer with offering, and in 22:36-37 it counts the sacrificial camels (budn) among the symbols of God (sha’a’ir Allah), instructing that their flesh and their blood do not reach God — rather it is the taqwa of the offerer that ascends. This verse is the jurists’ constant reminder that the act is an exercise in devotion and gratitude, not a transaction, and that intention (niyya) and lawful provenance of the animal are integral to its validity.
The hadith corpus reinforces and details the practice. The Prophet sacrificed two horned, white-and-black rams with his own hand, naming God and pronouncing the takbir, and he taught that ‘whoever can afford it and does not offer a sacrifice should not approach our place of prayer’ — a report the Hanafis read as evidence of obligation and the majority as emphatic encouragement. Reports also fix the household-sufficiency of a single sheep, the seven-share rule for cattle and camels, and the prohibition of the one intending to sacrifice cutting hair or nails from the start of Dhu al-Hijjah until the animal is slaughtered.
Eligible Animals, Conditions of Age and Soundness, and the Distribution
Only the an’am — bahimat al-an’am of 22:34 — qualify: sheep, goats, cattle (cows and buffalo), and camels; poultry and game do not. A single sheep or goat suffices for one person and, by the dominant view, for his whole household, while a cow or camel may be shared among up to seven offerers. The age conditions are firmly established: a sheep should be a jadha’ (roughly six months to a year, though many allow a well-grown six-month lamb), a goat a thaniyy of a completed year, cattle of two completed years, and a camel of five. The animal must be free of defects that diminish it as an offering; the Prophet named four explicitly — the one-eyed whose defect is manifest, the sick whose sickness is manifest, the lame whose limp is manifest, and the emaciated with no marrow — and the jurists extend the principle to severe ear or tail mutilation, while differing over minor blemishes. The Malikis are the strictest on soundness, treating apparent defect as fully disqualifying.
The timing is delimited by the Eid prayer. Slaughter before the prayer on 10 Dhu al-Hijjah is invalid and counts merely as meat for the family, per the well-known hadith of al-Bara’ ibn Azib; the valid window opens after the prayer (and, for those in towns, after the khutba) and continues, in the majority view of the Shafi’is, Hanbalis, and the Ja’fari school, through the three days of tashriq (until sunset of 13 Dhu al-Hijjah), the Malikis and Hanafis ending it after the second day. The recommended manner of distribution follows 22:36 (‘eat of them and feed the content poor and the beggar’): the meat is apportioned in thirds — one part for the offerer’s household, one for relatives, friends, and neighbours by way of gift, and one for the destitute as charity — though this proportioning is a sunnah of merit rather than a strict legal requirement, and the offerer may eat more or give more as circumstances dictate. Selling the meat, hide, or any part as payment to the butcher is prohibited.
The Juristic Ruling: Sunnah Mu’akkada versus Wajib
The schools divide on the legal weight of the udhiyah. The majority — the Malikis, Shafi’is, Hanbalis, and the prevailing Ja’fari position — hold it to be a sunnah mu’akkada, a strongly emphasised confirmed practice that the able-bodied person of means should not omit, such that neglecting it is disliked though not sinful. They reason from the Prophet’s having offered on behalf of himself and his community and from reports in which sacrifice is framed as commendable rather than strictly commanded, and they read ‘whoever can afford it’ as urging, not imposing. The Hanafi school, by contrast, declares udhiyah wajib upon every free, resident (non-traveller) Muslim adult of sound mind who possesses the nisab on the days of nahr; Abu Hanifa grounds this in the imperative of 108:2 and the warning against the able who fail to offer, and the obligation, once incurred, must be discharged or compensated by the value of an animal given in charity if the days pass.
Practically, the distinction governs whether a missed sacrifice entails make-up or expiation. Under the Hanafi view a resident of means who lets the days lapse owes the price of a qualifying animal to the poor; under the majority view there is no such liability, only the loss of a great merit. Across all schools the deeper teaching remains that of 22:37 — that what reaches God is taqwa, so the offering is meaningless without sincerity, lawful wealth, generous sharing with the needy, and remembrance of the Ibrahimic submission it commemorates. For pilgrims, the parallel sacrifice of tamattu’ and qiran (the hady) is governed by the law of Hajj and the kaffarah of 2:196, which the offerer of udhiyah should distinguish from the festival sacrifice proper.
See also: Fiqh Al Aqiqah, Fiqh Al Nadhr, Fiqh Al Kaffarah, Fiqh Al Walima, Fiqh Al Yamin