Would slaughtering a sacrificial animal ward off afflictions?

22/11/2009| IslamWeb

Question

Would slaughtering a sacrificial animal ward off harm or prevent death of a person?

Fatwa

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

We do not know of evidence from Sharee‘ah indicating that slaughtering a sacrificial animal would ward off afflictions from the person who provides the sacrifice. Prophetic narrations indicate that righteous deeds such as charity and the like do ward off afflictions and bring recovery to the sick people. We hope that slaughtering a sacrificial animal would also bring about something like that.

In principle, a Muslim should perform good deeds with the intention of drawing himself closer to Allah, not for attaining a worldly objective. It should also be noted that when death comes nothing can ward it off, for Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {When their time has come, then they will not remain behind an hour, nor will they precede [it].} [Quran 10:49] Allah Knows best.