Purchasing A Qurbaani Animal Without Seeing It

Question

Certain stock farmers sell sheep and goats at the time of Qurbaani. They charge a stipulated fee for providing the service of parcelling and packaging the Qurbaani meat for all those people who wish to do Qurbaani at their farm. Before the days of Qurbaani people go to the farms and after selecting the animal, purchase it from the farmers. After purchasing the animal they leave the animal on the farms to be slaughtered and parcelled by the farmers during the days of Qurbaani.

Other people just phone the farmer and purchase their animals over the phone without going to the farm and selecting the animals. The farmers also do not select the animals on behalf of the people who phone them, rather on the day of Qurbaani from the animals that remain they select animals and at that time they make the intention that this specific animal is for so and so person.

At the time of purchasing the animal, is it necessary for the purchaser to select the animal he wishes to purchase and make Qurbaani of?

Darul Ifta, Darul Uloom Azaadville · Accepted Answer

The purchaser should be fully aware of the item that is being purchased. By merely ordering an animal over the phone (without being given a description of the nature of the animal), one is unaware of the type/ description /size, etc. of the animal that is being purchased and could even lead to a dispute at a later stage. Therefore if an animal is bought over the phone without the buyer seeing the animal and the transaction is concluded then such a transaction will not be correct.

Yes, in the above scenario, the buyer may phone the farmer and request him to reserve an animal for him. The buyer then goes on the day of Qurbani or a few days earlier, views the animal and, if he is happy, confirms his purchase by paying the farmer for the animal that he selects. If the buyer is unhappy, it is not obligatory upon him to purchase the animal. This procedure will be in order.

The other alternative is that the farmer provides a detailed description of a particular animal over the phone describing the weight, type of sheep, age, etc. The buyer is then satisfied with the description and confirms the purchase. In this case the purchase will be valid as the transaction has taken place on a particular animal which has been fully described to the purchaser.

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