Salaam Alaykum Sheikh,
Can one slaughter a milch sheep or goat?
Thank you.

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 permissible, under Sharee’ah, to slaughter a milch sheep or goat, and their like. As for the forbiddance in the Hadeeth, in which the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said to him who liked to slaughter a sheep for them (the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar ): “But do not slaughter a milch one,” [Muslim], he indeed forbade him to slaughter it out of pity for his family that they should get benefit from its milk, so long as he could achieve the same purpose (of hospitality) by slaughtering another sheep. In this way, it is a forbiddance for guiding and offering advice, and it is not disliked to do otherwise for the sake of offering better hospitality to the guests, as clarified by Al-Munaawi in his book “Faydh-ul-Qadeer”.

Allaah Knows best.