Sacrifice - rules, guidelines and modern issues

 The defects which make an animal unfit for sacrifice

Through sacrifice, the worshipper seeks nearness with Allah Most High and as such, the animal selected for sacrifice should be plump, perfect and should not be blind, lame or ill in any way.

An animal which is blind, in one eye or both, lame, so weak that it cannot even walk towards the sacrificial place, an animal whose ears, tail or rear are more than 1/3^rd cut off, a toothless animal, an animal whose horns are broken off right from the base.  The animals which don’t have any horns naturally are excluded.

In Musnad Imam Ahmed, there is a Hadith:

It is narrated on the authority of Hadhrat Bara'a bin A’azib (May Allah be well pleased with him) that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) was asked: Which animals should not be sacrificed?  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said and gestured: Four.  Hadhrat Bara'a bin A’azib (May Allah be well pleased with him) says: My hand is smaller and lower than the hand of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) (i.e. out of respect for the Holy Prophet, Hadhrat Bara'a did not even raise his hand like Him):

1. Such a lame animal whose lameness is obvious.
2. An animal blind in one eye, whose blindness is obvious.
3. An ill animal, whose illness is evident.
4. A weak animal whose bones are empty of marrow (i.e. a very weak animal)

(Musnad Imam Ahmad Bin Hambal, Hadith No. 19185; Sunan

Kubra Lil Baihaqui, Hadith No. 19567)