“Neither their meat nor their blood reaches Allah, but it is your piety that reaches Him. Thus, He subjected them to you that you may magnify Allah for guiding you. And give glad tidings to those who excel.” (22:37)

Introduction

This book is about the sacrificial offering (uḍḥiyah). It presents decisive texts and authenticated reports proving that the obligation of sacrifice has fallen away from the Muslim ummah.
This book comes precisely at the right time. The current harsh economic conditions, especially the soaring prices of livestock, have created immense pressure - making our call more relevant than ever. We urge people to emulate the noble Prophet (peace be upon him), who sacrificed on behalf of his ummah, thereby lifting the obligation from them. We also call people to follow the example of the Prophet’s Companions - his senior followers and wealthy companions - who did not perform the sacrifice, acting in accordance with the spirit of the religion and in deep understanding of the Prophet’s action.
This call is now more practical and intellectually acceptable than at any previous time, especially in light of the social harms caused by the practice of sacrifice in our present circumstances.
It is not our intent to fabricate religious justifications for the difficulty or practical impossibility of sacrificing today - as is often the custom of modern religious preachers. Rather, we seek to affirm the sound religious view we have always held about the sacrifice, and to find support for it in today’s reality - true to our usual approach of letting reason speak ahead of events. Often, our views seem strange and ignored - until reality catches up and proves them true.
We, the Republican Brothers, in our pursuit of adhering to the true sunnah - and we are the ones calling for its revival today - hold that the uḍḥiyah, as understood within the religion, is a customary practice (sunnah ʿādah). Its ruling ceased once its original circumstances ceased to exist, and this is supported by the strongest of textual evidences from both the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
Therefore, for quite some time, we have refrained from offering the sacrifice, just as Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, and the wealthy among the Companions also refrained from it - as confirmed in the well - established reports cited in this book.
We previously published a private internal bulletin, which we strictly committed to among ourselves. Then, on November 7, 1978, we issued a public statement to the entire nation, in which we clarified the ruling of the sacrifice as a customary and transitional sunnah, whose obligation the noble Prophet lifted from the ummah. His Companions followed his example beautifully.
In that statement, we said:
“If people were truly motivated by religious concern in performing the sacrifice, they would not cling to it - which is a transitional and circumstantial practice - while neglecting the Prophet’s foundational sunnahs: in character, in night prayer, in caring for the needy and giving to them. This shows that the time for sacrifice as a religious act of devotion has ended. It has now become a social custom that people uphold with methods that push them further from religion and destabilize their financial wellbeing - despite the existence of more critical sunnahs for religious people, which are increasingly needed yet do not receive the same attention as this social custom.”
Thus, the sacrifice is not required of this ummah - and abandoning it today is more imperative than ever before.
So, let us approach this book with sincere intent, in diligent pursuit of the truth, and with firm resolve to follow it, for the truth has more right to be followed.
And Allah is our Helper.