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Fatwa CenterUdh-hiyah is a recommended act of Sunnah
Question
I live in Ghana were I met a person who told me that a Shaykh said to him that once the Muslim slaughters an Udh-hiyah for the first time, it becomes obligatory for him to slaughter it every year. What is more funny is that the Shaykh told him that he had to slaughter an Udh-hiyah on behalf of his father for each year the father did not do it. The man’s father did not slaughter Udh-hiyah for five years due to lack of financial capability. Please advise.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
It is a false and an unfounded belief that whoever does a voluntary act of worship, it becomes obligatory for him to do it throughout his lifetime. Some common people, for instance, believe that whoever observed fasting six days in Shawwaal had to fast them every year; or whoever made an Udh-hiyah in one year had to make it every year, and so on. This is a false and an unfounded belief. No Muslim scholar held that performing an act of Sunnah one time renders it obligatory. Scholars – the Hanafi scholars – who considered Udh-hiyah obligatory, and Ibn Taymiyyah who approved this opinion, said that Udh-hiyah is obligatory every year only for the rich Muslim. The preponderant opinion, which represents the opinion of the majority of scholars, is that Udh-hiyah is a confirmed act of Sunnah. This seems to be consensus among the Companions. Abu Bakr and ‘Umar 
did not make Udh-hiyah [in some years] for fear that people would consider it obligatory. Ibn Hazm 
reported the permissibility of not offering Udh-hiyah from six Companions, and none was authentically reported to have denied that.
The Hadeeths which are drawn to support the obligation of Udh-hiyah are not fully authentic. Therefore, what the Shaykh said is incorrect. The Muslim who affords Udh-hiyah is recommended to slaughter one, and if he made it one year, it would not become obligatory on him every year.
The Shaykh also said that he had to slaughter an Udh-hiyah on behalf of his father who did not slaughter it for five years, and this is more incorrect than the former one. That is because Udh-hiyah was not obligatory for the father who could not afford it, so how come that it becomes obligatory for his son to do it on behalf of his father? Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {Every soul, for what it has earned, will be retained.} [Quran 74:38] This is the ruling when we suppose the obligation of Udh-hiyah, so what will be the case when the preponderant opinion is that it is not obligatory?!
Allaah Knows best.
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