Islamic Fiqh > Udhiya and aqiqa > Sharing and selling udhiya meat
Eating, storing, distributing: dividing the sacrifice meat, the question of selling its parts and the schools' views.
Contents
Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
Eating one's udhiya, storing it, giving parts of it away: the encyclopedia treats the use of the meat point by point, on a foundation of consensus.
We had been forbidden the meat of the sacrifices beyond 3 days, then he said: eat, make provision and store.
al-Bukhari 1719 ; Muslim 1972
That the sacrificer eats of his animal is unanimously agreed (al-Hajj 28 ; the account of Thawban, Muslim 1975). Keeping the meat beyond 3 days was first forbidden, then permission came: the initial prohibition concerned a year of scarcity (Aisha's account, Muslim 1971). The 4 schools agree on the permission to keep the meat as long as one wishes (Ibn Abd al-Barr, al-Mawardi, Ibn Qudama).
Hanafis, Shafi'is (in the mazhab) and Hanbalis recommend a third in charity, a third in gifts, a third for oneself, based on the verse « eat of them and feed the content and the imploring » (al-Hajj 36), which mentions 3 kinds of people. Shafi'is in the early view recommend half as food and half in charity, based on al-Hajj 28 which mentions 2 categories. Malikis fix no division: Malik writes that in the sacrifices there is neither a described portion nor a known limit; everything remains permitted, and giving it all in charity is best.
The Messenger of Allah ordered me to look after his camels, distribute their meat and their skins in charity, and give the butcher nothing. He said: we give him from our own.
Muslim 1317
The 4 schools agree to forbid paying the butcher with a share of the animal: that would be payment for work, and no exchange is permitted on the offering. Giving him something on one's own initiative, in charity for his poverty, remains welcome, even preferable (an-Nawawi).
Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi'is (in one view) teach that nothing is obligatory: eating all of it is permitted, the purpose of the rite being the mention of Allah's name and piety, not the plate (al-Hajj 37). Shafi'is in another view require both eating and giving, based on the verse that joins the 2 commands (al-Hajj 28). The skin is not sold according to the majority; if sold, its price must go to charity; Hanafis allow a durable use of it for the house.
The right to eat everything is firm; the divisions described here are recommendations whose degree each school weighs differently.
Al-Mughni by Ibn Qudama · Hanbali school
Question 1756; he said: "Its condition of obligation is that he say: it is an udhiya".
In summary, that by which the udhiya becomes obligatory and fixed is the word, not the intention. And this is an explicit text of al-Shafi'i. And Malik and Abu Hanifa said: if he buys a sheep or other with the intention of the udhiya, it becomes an udhiya, for he is commanded to buy the udhiya; when he buys it with the intention, it falls from him, like the agent. And for us (the Hanbalis), it is the alienation of ownership in the manner of nearness (qurba): the intention accompanying the purchase therefore has no effect upon it, like manumission and waqf, and it differs from sale, for he cannot dedicate it to his agent after the alienation, whereas here, after the purchase, he can dedicate it as an udhiya.