al-Mufassal fi Ahkam al-Adhiyah
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- al-Mufassal fi Ahkam al-Adhiyah
al-Mufassal fi Ahkam al-Adhiyah (The Detailed Guide to the Rulings of the Sacrificial Offering) is a legal treatise on the jurisprudence of the ritual sacrifice (udhiyah) by the Palestinian scholar Husam al-Din Afana.
Composition and Publication
The author completed the book on Monday morning, 15 Shawwal 1419 AH (1 February 1999 CE) in Abu Dis, Jerusalem, while serving as an associate professor of jurisprudence and legal theory (fiqh and usul al-fiqh) in the Faculty of Da‘wah and Usul al-Din at Al-Quds University. The first edition was published in Jerusalem in Shawwal 1419 AH (1999 CE) through Matba‘at al-Amal and was sponsored by Jam‘iyyat al-Islah (Lajnat Ihya’ al-Turath). Afana modeled the layout and scope of the book after his earlier work, Ahkam al-‘Aqiqah fi al-Shari‘ah al-Islamiyyah (Rulings of the ‘Aqiqah in Islamic Law).
Content and Scope
The book addresses the legal regulations of the animal sacrifice offered during the days of Eid al-Adha. It begins with the linguistic and juristic definitions of udhiyah, establishing its status as a prescribed ritual substantiated by the Quran, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus (ijma‘). The work systematically examines:
- The legal ruling of the sacrifice and whether it is an obligation (wajib) or an emphasized Sunnah.
- The prerequisites incumbent upon the individual offering the sacrifice, including recommendations such as abstaining from cutting one's hair or clipping nails upon the entry of the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijjah.
- The types of permissible livestock (an‘am), minimum age requirements, and disqualifying physical defects.
- The prescribed timeframe for slaughtering, spanning from after the Eid prayer on the Day of Sacrifice through the Days of Tashriq.
- The etiquette of slaughtering, rules regarding partnerships in sacrificial animals, and the distribution, gifting, and consumption of the meat.
Methodology and Sources
Afana compiled material from classical Quranic commentaries (tafsir), hadith commentaries, and authoritative references across Islamic jurisprudence. In presenting legal opinions, he followed an evidence-based comparative approach (manhaj al-muhaqqiqin), examining the views of the Companions, the Successors, and the established Sunni legal schools. He favored legal positions supported by textual proofs without adhering rigidly to any particular madhhab.
For hadith documentation, narrations from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim were referenced directly, while for narrations found in other Sunnah collections, the author cited rulings by classical hadith critics—including Ibn Abd al-Barr, al-Nawawi, al-Haythami, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and al-Zayla‘i—as well as the contemporary scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani.
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