A man slaughtered his sacrificial animal and forgot to mention the name of Allah; what are the consequences of this? And is there a difference between the case where the person is volunteering to slaughter and the case where he is the owner?

The questioner : The honorable Shaykh is asked: A man slaughtered his sacrificial animal and forgot to mention the name of Allah; what are the consequences of this? And is there a difference between the case where the person is volunteering to slaughter and the case where he is the owner?

The Shaykh : Yes. If he forgot to mention the name of Allah, he commits no sin, based on the saying of Allah the Exalted: . But is it permissible for us to eat from this slaughtered animal? We look into it. Allah Mighty and Majestic said: . So before us now are two actions: the action of the one who slaughters and the action of the one who eats. As for the one who slaughters, he is excused. Why? Because he is forgetful. And Allah the Exalted said: . As for the one who eats, we say: And because mentioning the name of Allah on the slaughtered animal is a condition. And a condition is not dropped due to forgetfulness or ignorance. The parallel to this is if a person prays without ablution while forgetful, prays without ablution while forgetful. Does he commit a sin? No, he does not commit a sin, based on the saying of Allah the Exalted: . But is his obligation discharged? No. He must perform ablution and pray. And if we adopt this position chosen by the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), which is the apparent meaning of the texts, if we adopt it, then people will never forget to mention the name of Allah on the slaughtered animal, because he will be mindful of it. For this reason, some people have raised the objection: If we say that the one who slaughters while forgetting to mention the name of Allah makes the animal forbidden, and that it must be dragged to the dogs, you have destroyed the wealth of people, because forgetfulness is common. What do we say? We say: On the contrary. We have preserved the wealth of people, because if we say to this man who forgot to mention the name of Allah: the animal is forbidden and it is not permissible to eat from it, he may forget in the future, so he will keep the mention of the name in mind and he will not be able to forget. Yes.

The questioner : He asks: What if he is volunteering to slaughter?

The Shaykh : Yes, and there is no difference between the volunteer and the non-volunteer; the animal is not permissible to eat now. But the question remains: Does the one who slaughters guarantee compensation to the owner of the animal, because he was the cause of its becoming forbidden? Or does he not guarantee it? — A minute, my brothers. It may be said: If he was doing a favor, there is no guarantee on him, based on the saying of Allah Blessed and Exalted is He: And because forgetfulness happens often. And we may say that there is a guarantee even if he was doing a favor, because he destroyed the wealth of its owner. And destroying the wealth of its owner is guaranteed in all cases. Even if a person is forgetful, he guarantees it. If a person forgets and eats his brother’s food, does he guarantee it or not? He guarantees it. But the first opinion is more correct, stronger, that the volunteer who is doing a favor, if he forgets to mention the name of Allah, has no guarantee on him. But the animal is not permissible to eat. Yes.