Does a Wife Have to Purchase Her Own Animal for Eid Slaughtering?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Ustadh Salman Younas
Question: My question is in regards to the sacrifice of animals for Eid: (1) What is the ruling on the purchasing of the animal? (2) Does the purchasing of an animal by the husband cover the wife? Does the wife have to purchase her own animal? (3) Does the wife have a choice in sharing or purchasing on her own?
Answer: assalamu `alaykum
I pray you are well.
1. Slaughtering a sheep or 1/7th of a cow or camel is necessary upon a person who is:
a. Muslim
b. Resident, meaning not a traveler
c. Possesses the minimum amount to make sadaqat al-fitr obligatory upon him or her, which is the same as the zakatable-minimum (nisab) except that one takes all one’s wealth into account when calculating.
If the above conditions are fulfilled, it would be obligatory to purchase an animal to slaughter and this slaughtering is to be performed on any of the three days of Eid al-Adh after the Eid prayer. Doing so on the first day is optimal.
[Tumurtashi, Tanwir al-Absar; Haskafi, Durr al-Mukhtar]
2. If a wife fulfills the above condition, she would have to purchase her own animal. One animal for both the husband and wife would not suffice. Rather, the wife must slaughter her own sheep or purchase 1/7th of a cow or camel.
However, a wife may permit her husband to purchase and slaughter a separate animal on her behalf. [Ibn `Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
Salman
Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani
