Strict Requirements for Eid al-Adha Committee Taking Sacrifice Wages

 

Muslimcreed – The sacrificial committee in the community usually doubles as a butcher team that slaughters, skins, chops, and makes packages of freshly slaughtered sacrificial animals that are ready to be distributed to the community. If the sacrificial committee is seen as a butcher’s team, then they are not entitled to receive a share of the sacrificial animal (either skin, meat, or other parts) from the person who performs the sacrifice as wages. 

This is because it is forbidden for people who perform sacrifices to give some of their sacrificial animals to the butcher team as a reward for them. People who perform sacrifices must prepare funds or other valuable objects other than the meat or skins of the sacrificial animal as wages for them. 

Sheikh Nawawi Banten explained the reason why people who sacrificed were prohibited from giving meat or skins of sacrificial animals to the butcher team as wages. But if the person making the sacrifice gives the meat or skin of the sacrificial animal to the sacrificial committee who is also the butcher team with the intention of giving alms, then the gift is not prohibited.

The committee may ask for wages from animal owners for their services in handling sacrificial animals. Because the committee is a representative status or who represents the owner of the victim. In Islam, representatives may get wages for the tasks assigned to them (wakalah bil ujrah). However, there are requirements that must be met, namely:

1. Wages for the committee, may not be taken from the results of the sacrifice. If the wages are taken from the results of the sacrifice, it means that the sohibul kurban (who sacrifices) gets some of the benefits in the form of financial benefits. And this is not allowed.

Therefore, wages are given from the personal money of the sacrificial companion, excluding the price of the sacrificial animal.

2. The wage value must be certain, clearly in front. For example, for the management of a goat the wages are 100 thousand. So God willing, the practice in our society is correct. Only this part is the right of the committee. Therefore, they should not ask for special meat rations in addition to wages. There is no amil quota term, because the committee is not amil. The ulama explained that the sacrifice must be carried out carefully. Because, in the book Ahkamul Udhiyyah wadz Dzakah, it is mentioned that this sacrificial worship is also in the Shari’a of the previous people.

Shaykh Muhammad bin Shalih Al Utsaimin in the book Ahkamul Udhiyyah wadz Dzakah said that qurban worship is a form of taqarrub (getting closer) to Allah which is prescribed in all millah in every ummah. Scholars argue about the law. Some scholars say the law is obligatory for everyone who can afford it, and some scholars say the law is sunnah muakkadah.

In the procession of slaughtering sacrificial animals on Eid al-Adha and tasyrik days, the sacrificial committee is allowed to receive and cook the sacrificial meat, provided that it must go through the intention of alms from the qurban shahibul, not as wages. 

So, what are the legal details for cooking sacrificial meat for the committee? In the community, usually the qurbani committee is a group of people who are tasked with collecting sacrificial animals, slaughtering, dismembering, and packing them to be distributed to people in need.

Their duties also include slaughtering the animal according to Islamic law. In this case, the sacrificial committee must be careful about taking part of the sacrificial animals they handle. Because, if the intention of the qurban shahibul is wrong, the portion of the sacrificial meat cooked by the legal committee becomes haraam.

After all, the sacrificial animal is an animal that is donated to Muslims. Therefore, the committee may not take some of the meat of the sacrificial animal as a reward for their work as a committee. Because, if the committee takes wages from the meat, it means that the qurban shahibul has “sold” some of the sacrificial animals to the committee. 

In fact, at the beginning of the sacrificial worship procession, the qurban shahibul openly stated that the animal was donated to Muslims. This is explained in detail by the well-known scholar Sheikh Nawawi Al-Bantani in Tausyih ‘ala Ibni Qasim (1996).

The sacrificial committee is actually allowed to take part of the sacrificial animal not as a “wages”, but as “alms” from the qurban shahibul. In this condition, the sacrificial committee is treated the same as the general public who are also entitled to receive a share of alms from the sacrificial animal. If the qurban shahibul really wants to give wages to the committee, the fee is set aside from other money, not from the part of the meat that is sacrificed.