Islamic Fiqh > Udhiya and aqiqa > Conditions of the udhiya animal: age and defects
Which animal qualifies for the Eid sacrifice: age thresholds per species, invalidating defects and free choice within the herd.
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Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
Third condition of the sacrificial animal: freedom from defects, then the required age per species. The jurists agree on the core of these rules and diverge on borderline cases, which the encyclopedia details defect by defect.
The people of knowledge are unanimous: not valid as sacrifice the obviously one-eyed animal, the blind, the lame whose lameness is evident, and the emaciated one with no marrow. Ibn Abd al-Barr: "The 4 defects in this hadith are agreed upon; whatever is of their nature enters into them, especially when the cause is more visible: if the one-eyed does not suffice, the blind even less; if the lame does not, the one with no leg or crippled even less. The hadith shows that mild sickness is tolerated ("obviously sick"), likewise mild limping, a small spot in the eye, and thinness that is not extreme (at-Tamhid 20/168; al-Istidhkar 5/215). Ibn Hazm (Maratib al-Ijma', p.
153), Ibn Hubayra (al-Ifsah 1/335), an-Nawawi (al-Majmu' 8/297) and Ibn Qudama (al-Mughni 9/349) each report this consensus of 4.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stood among us and said: Four do not qualify for sacrifice: the obviously one-eyed, the obviously sick, the obviously lame, and the broken one with no marrow. I said: I dislike any deficiency in tooth, ear or horn. He said: What you dislike, leave it, and do not forbid it to anyone.
Abu Dawud 2802; at-Tirmidhi 1497; an-Nasa'i 4369; Ibn Majah 3144; Ahmad 18565 (authentic)
As for defects beyond the 4, some scholars claimed every other defect is permitted by the implication of the enumeration; but it is reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) what joins the 4, for the majority: from Ali: "The Messenger of Allah ordered us to inspect the eye and the ear, and not to sacrifice the muqabala, the mudabira, the sharqa' nor the kharqa'" (at-Tirmidhi 1498; an-Nasa'i 4373; Ibn Majah 3142; Ahmad 1274: weak hadith). Abu Umar: the muqabala has the tip of the ear cut; the mudabira, the sides cut; the sharqa', the ear split; the kharqa', the ear pierced. No known disagreement: cutting the whole ear or most of it is a defect to avoid in sacrifices.
Cutting the whole ear: not valid, by agreement. If part is cut:
Hanafis: in Abu Hanifa's apparent version, if more than a third is cut the animal is invalid; a third or less is valid. In Bishr's version: less than a third valid, more not, per: "A third and a third is much". In Ibn Shuja's version: a quarter lost is invalid, the quarter having the status of wholeness as in wiping the head. Abu Yusuf: as long as the majority of eye and ear remains, valid; he said: "I mentioned my view to
Abu Hanifa who said: my view is your view"; some say
Abu Hanifa retracted.
As for the ear split: a minor defect, done as a mark, it does not prevent validity.
Malikis: if more than a third of the ear is missing or split, invalid; a third or less does not harm. Shafi'ites: the cut ear is invalid; if the tip is split but still hanging, it does not prevent in the sounder of 2 views (al-Qaffal prevents it); if detached, much prevents by consensus, and little also prevents in the sounder view, for losing an edible part. Juwayni: the marker between much and little: if the deficiency is visible from afar, much; otherwise little. Hanbalis: loss of most of the ear or horn prevents, per: "The Messenger of Allah forbade sacrificing the animal with mutilated horn or ear" (at-Tirmidhi 1504; Ibn Majah 3145; Ahmad 1158; Ibn Khuzayma 2913), and Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib: the mutilated (a'dab) reaches half and more.
The split or pierced ear is disliked yet valid: requiring freedom from all this would be impossible, no animal being exempt (Ibn Qudama).
Hanbalis and a weak Shafi'ite view: the cut one is valid, so the one born without more so. The majority (Hanafis, Malikis, and the Shafi'ites' correct version): the sakka', born earless, is invalid: if cutting prevents, absence a fortiori; but the small ear is valid, being sound though small.
The majority of the 4 schools: the jama', born hornless, is valid (like cows and sheep per species): a defect diminishing neither flesh nor purpose; Ibn Abd al-Barr reports consensus. Ibn Hamid (Hanbali) objected. For the broken horn: Hanafis and Shafi'ites: valid, bleeding or not, from Salama ibn Kuhayl's account: a man asked Ali about a cow: "A 7-year-old cow is valid. Broken-horned?
That does not harm you" (Ahmad 734; al-Hakim 7535), and ash-Shafi'i: the horn is no loss; no fear of its blood making it sick. Malikis: the broken horn that bleeds is invalid, healed it is valid (Malik saw it as a sickness); Hanbalis: losing most of the horn prevents (the a'dab hadith), and a fracture under half is disliked yet valid.
Hanbalis (and
Abu Hanifa for the animal born tailless): the batra', tailless by birth or cut, is valid. Hanafis (majority), Malikis and Shafi'ites: invalid. Hanafis: losing most of the tail prevents, the little does not (unavoidable); 4 versions from
Abu Hanifa on the limit: the third (Muhammad in al-Asl and al-Jami' as-Saghir), even the third lost (Abu Yusuf: the third invalid, below valid), the half (the remaining outweighing the lost is valid), the quarter (version of Abu Abdallah al-Balkhi). For the tailless-born: Muhammad says invalid,
Abu Hanifa valid.
Malikis: born tailless in a tailed species invalid (lack of flesh); cutting half or the third invalid; the quarter is little by agreement. Ibn al-Arabi: in those lands the sheep's fat is in its tails; hence the scholars' attention. Shafi'ites: the cut one is invalid (loss of a limb; hadith reported: "He forbade sacrificing the batra'"); but the goat born tailless is valid (absence is its state in that species). From Ibn Umar, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, Sa'id ibn Jubayr, al-Hasan and Ibrahim: the abtar is valid; the hadith of Abu Sa'id (the wolf and the ram's tail: "sacrifice it", Ahmad 11838) is no proof: Jabir al-Ju'fi is not retained though a memorizer, and the wolf may have eaten only a small part, which is valid among the scholars.
Born without alya (fat tail): valid per Abu Hanifa and the Shafi'ites, the goat having none yet being valid; likewise a small alya. Malikis and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan: invalid. Cut: the majority cut prevents among Hanafis (the 4 versions of the limit as for the tail), the little does not.
Al-Mawardi: once established that sacrifice is by camel, cow and sheep, age counts: no sacrifice below the jadha', and nothing required beyond the thaniyya. The Maliki school's view: the jadha' of sheep has completed one year; the goat suffices from its thaniyya, one year completed entering the second; the bovine's thani, among the Malikis, has completed three years and entered the fourth.
The 4 schools agree the sheep's jadha' is valid: "Slaughter none but a musinna (aged) animal, unless it is hard for you: then slaughter a jadha' of sheep" (Muslim 1963). Uqba ibn Amir: the Prophet gave him sheep to distribute as sacrifices; an old ram ('atud) remained: "Sacrifice it yourself" (Ibn Majah 3138; at-Tirmidhi 1500). Abu Kibash: "What an excellent sacrifice the jadha' of sheep is! (at-Tirmidhi 1499; Ahmad 9737).
Mujashi': "The jadha' fulfills what the thaniyya fulfills" (Ibn Majah 3140). An-Nawawi: Qadi Iyad reports consensus that the sheep's jadha' is valid and the goat's is not; Jabir's hadith concerns the better and more complete: "it is recommended for you to slaughter a musinna; if you cannot, a jadha' of sheep" (al-Majmu' 8/288). At-Tahawi: the jurists of the metropolises agree on the sheep's jadha'; Ibn Abd al-Barr: nothing of the goat or any other species is valid, only the thaniyya there.
The goat's thaniyya: one year completed and entering the second, from Abu Burda's hadith: he slaughtered before the prayer; the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) told him: "Replace it." "I have only a jadha' she-goat, better than a meat animal." "It is valid for you, and will not be valid for anyone after you" (al-Bukhari 940-941; Muslim 1961): the goat's jadha' is valid for no one after Abu Burda; the meaning is the goat's jadha', not the sheep's. Ibn Battal: the 'anaq, a she-goat of about 5 months, is invalid by consensus; Ibn Rushd: they agree only the goat's thaniyya and above is valid; the divergence over the sheep's jadha' (Ibn Hazm rejected it, preferring the generality of Abu Burda's hadith) is resolved by the specificity of Jabir's hadith, the better reading.
Cow and camel: nothing below the thaniyya is valid there and nothing beyond it is required; among the Malikis, the bovine's thani has completed three years and entered the fourth. There is no jadha' of cattle for sacrifice: only the thaniyya is valid there.
Hanafis (one view), Malikis (the known view) and Shafi'ites (the sound one): the sheep's jadha' has completed one year; the Shafi'ites add: if it loses its tooth before the year, it is valid (like majority reached by tooth or emission). Hanafis (one view), Malikis (one view), Hanbalis (the madhhab) and one Shafi'ite view: 6 completed months entering the seventh; Hanafis: provided its frame is such that, mixed with thaniyyas, it confuses seen from afar.
The majority group (Hanafis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis) holds the best is the camel, then the bovine, then the sheep, then the goat; the Malikis hold the sheep best, it is what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sacrificed. One who slaughters alone does better with a camel than with a sheep, for the camel covers seven shares; if seven join so that each is a sacrificer by his share, the sheep becomes better than the camel's share.
Al-Mughni by Ibn Qudama · Hanbali school
Abu Dawud and an-Nasa'i reported it. Al-Qadi said: the kharqa is the one whose ear was pierced. And this is a prohibition of disapproval (tanzih), by which one is discharged, and we know of no disagreement in this; for requiring integrity from all of that is difficult, since an animal free of all of it is nearly unfindable.
Question 1754; he said: "If he made it obligatory while it was intact, then it became defective in his keeping, he sacrifices it, and it is an udhiya".