Hadith 9144

Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that Abdullahibn Abbas used to say, "The least difficult thing acceptable as asacrificial animal is a sheep."Malik said, "That is what Ilike most out of what I have heard about the matter, because Allah,the Blessed and Exalted, says in His Book, 'O you who trust, do notkill game while you are in ihram. Whoever of you kills itintentionally, there shall be repayment the like of what he has slain,from livestock, as shall be judged by two men of justice among you, asacrificial animal which will reach the Kaba, or food for poor people,or the equivalent of that in fasting,' (Sura 5 ayat 95) and a sheep isone of the animals which is judged to be acceptable as a sacrifice.Allah has called it a sacrificial animal, and there is no disputeamong us about the matter. How, indeed, could anyone be in doubt aboutthe matter? A sheep is the kaffara for anything which does not reachthe extent of something for which a camel or a cow would be thekaffara, and the kaffara for something which does not reach the extentof something for which a sheep would be the kaffara is fasting, orfeeding poor people."