10th of Zulhijjah marks the date for Eid-ul-Adha celebration in which during this time, the muslims are obligated to sacrifice animals as a form of obedience and devotion towards Allah while at the same time help the community.
Even so, it is important for the muslims to always offer animals with the best quality for sacrifice based on Islamic regulations and quality. Even in the dawn of time, just like, when both Habil and Qabil were commanded to offer their sacrifice to Allah, the best sheep from Habil is the one that was accepted by Allah.
The animals with the best quality have the more meat and fat and also with good health and no defections. Plus, the kinds of animals for qurban is four-legged livestock not wild animals, like camels, cows, buffalo, sheep, rams, or goats.
Let’s look at what really defines the best animals suitable for qurban.
1# The right range of age of sacrificial animals
When choosing a sacrificial animal, it is important to choose from the right suitable range of age. Like for instances:
- Camel – 5 years in age
- Cow/buffalo – 2 years in age
- sheep/ram/goat – one year in age
how can we determine that the animals have achieved the right age? by looking at the changes of their teeths from baby teeths to permanent.
2# The animals weight
Another aspect in choosing the best animals for qurban is by looking at the animal’s weight percentage. A larger animals equals to more meat and bones. However, the weight percentage is measured by calculating the carcass weight. Carcass consists of meat and bones excluding head, feet, hide and innards.
For instances, in Malaysia we have a hybrid cow or called of ‘lembu sado’, a limosine breed cattle have a weight of 1000 kilograms. This is the actual weight of the cow and after being slaughtered and butchered, it has 60% weight percentage which is about 600 kilograms of carcasses. But a 1000 kilograms of cow will surely cost you tons of money, right?
Compared to the breed of cow that we usually sacrifice that weigh below 300 kilograms have only about 40% of weight percentage, around 70-80 kilograms of meat and bones.
3# Good conditions
When doing qurban, there are rules that stated for the sacrificial animals to be in a good condition physically with no illness and diseases.
The criteria for a good condition sacrificial animals are:
- The animals are not blind or even half-blind
- The animals must be able to walk without a limp
- It must be well fed and not thin
- The animal is not obviously suffering from a disease or something like scabies that can degrades the quality of its meat.
- its horn are not broken
Therefore, it is important to choose the best animals with the best quality for sacrifice or qurban. Because it is an ibadah for the sake of Allah. Of course we have to give our best to our creator. Qurban is an ibadah that measure up the level of devotion of us Muslim towards our creator, Allah.
Always remember that, during this time, Allah will bestowed upon His servants abundance of rewards that perform the act of qurban sincerely, truthfully for the sake of Allah.
Not only do we get to be closer to Allah, we can also help those in need, those who are only able to eat meat during eid or the ones who aren’t capable of even buying nutritious food for themselves and their family.
