The Types of Animals to Be Offered as a Sacrifice
Authors: AYKUL Abdulmuid 
Published: June 2022

The phrase bahīmat al-anʿām refers to animals that could be slaughtered both as hady, uḍḥiyah or ʾaqīqah. This phrase is mentioned three times in the Qurʾān and is associated with sacrificial animals slaughtered during Eid al-Adha in these mentions. While “bahīmah” was a term used to refer to all living things without intelligence and the power of telling apart the good and bad, it later evolved into a term used solely for four-legged land animals and sea creatures. However, what animals al- anʿām refers to is doubtful. There is more detailed information about the usage of the term in dictionaries and commentaries, but it should be noted that there is a dispute about what animals are meant by al- anʿām in commentaries and dictionaries. In such works, it is seen that the term comes with meanings which differ from the one attributed to it by Islamic jurists. Some even include predatory animals in this category, whereas others mean only wild and herbivorous animals by this term. Some, on the other hand, spared effort to make a distinction between al- anʿām and other animals based on the verses of the Qurʾān. This is because, according to commentators in this group, the animals meant by al-anʾam are those that are herbivorous, whose meat can be eaten, whose milk can be drunk and which are not used as a mount; there are eight categories of these, including both males and females of the following: camels, sheep, goats and cattle. While the works of furūʿ al-fiqh mention that the animals to be sacrificed must belong to one these groups, they often emphasize that the animals considered as al- anʿām include only sheep, camels and cattle. The Holy Prophet offered such animals as sacrifices or allowed them to be sacrificed, but scholars considered this as a limitation. Therefore, there is a consensus among the jurists, of at least four madhhabs, that animals other than these cannot be sacrificed. However, this study focuses on whether it is sufficient for an animal to be sacrificed if it belongs to al- anʿām and whether there are other requirements to be met, and what the approaches of the madhabs on the issue are. Furthermore, this section includes the perspectives of the Zahirite scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) and those of Ḥasān b. Ṣaliḥ’s (d. 168/784-785), both of whom thought differently from mainstream scholars about the types of sacrificial animals.

This study first focuses on the terms used in the Qurʾān and Sunnah regarding what animals can be sacrificed; then it draws the conceptual framework of bahīmat al-anʿām and provides the views of language scholars and commentators on what animals this term includes. Next, it discusses the requirements for the animal to be sacrificed, as mentioned in furūʿ al-fiqh. Finally, it examines animals that are unknown whether they belong to the category of animals that can be sacrificed and discusses if such animals can be sacrificed based on the requirements mentioned by furūʿ al-fiqh. The present study concludes that those animals considered as al- anʿām and domesticated at least two generations ago can be sacrificed. In addition, except for the single-humped dromedary camel and the Bactrian camel (the Arabian camel and Asian camel), the sacrifice of the llama and alpaca, also known as new world camels, whose domestication dates back to millennia, hardly causes problems, based on the requirements mentioned by furūʿ al-fiqh. However, vicuna and guanaco camels cannot be sacrificed as they are not domesticated. Finally, the paper also discusses whether wild cattle, such as buffalo, and deer or roedeer can be sacrificed.