Holy Prophet gave us permission and said, Eat and take it as a provision for the way; so we ate and made it provision for the way” (Bu. 25:124). The giving of one-third, or more, or less, to the poor is simply optional. No hard and fast rules have been laid down. The skin of the animal must, however, be disposed of in charity (Bu. 25:121).
To the ordinary mind, the idea underlying sacrifice seems no more than charity, and the question has often been asked, May not a Muslim instead of sacrificing an animal, give away its price in charity? The answer to this question, in the light of the Islāmic law, is in the negative. The sacrifice by the Muslims throughout the world on the ‘Īd day is intended to make Muslim hearts, throughout the world, beat in unison with the hearts of the unparalleled assemblage at Makkah, the centre of Islām. Millions of people assemble there from all quarters of the world, people who have sacrificed all comforts of life for no object except to develop the idea of sacrifice, a sacrifice selfless beyond all measure, because it has no personal or even national end in view, a sacrifice for the sake of God alone. However grand that idea, it receives a greater grandeur from the fact that the people who have been unable to make that sacrifice actually, are made to share the same desire and show their willingness to make the same sacrifice by the ostensible act of the sacrifice of an animal, which is the final act of the pilgrimage. One desire moves the hearts of the whole Muslim world from one end to the other at one moment, and this is made possible only by the institution of sacrifice, the red letters of which can be read by the ignorant and the learned alike. That this institution should also serve the purpose of charity is quite a different thing. Islām does not allow its rich members to forget their poorer brethren in the hour of their joy at a time of festival, but charity is not the idea underlying the sacrifice on the occasion of the ‘Īd or the pilgrimage, and therefore no mere charity can take the place of sacrifice.