Sūrah Al-Kawthar The Abundance: Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī Qurʾānic Rulings and Law

DetailInformationClassificationSignificance

SurahAl-KawtharMeccanDivine abundance and the command to pray and sacrifice

Key Fiqh IssueUḍḥiyah Eid al-Aḍḥā sacrifice: wājib or sunnah muʾakkadah?Wājib (Ḥanafī) / Sunnah muʾakkadah (majority)Major annual worship act with significant financial obligation for some

School ComparisonḤanafī: wājib for able resident Muslim (missing without excuse = sin + make-up sadaqah); Mālikī: sunnah muʾakkadah; Shāfiʿī: sunnah muʾakkadah; Ḥanbalī: sunnah muʾakkadah (some say wājib following Ahmad)Wājib (Ḥanafī) / Sunnah (majority)The single most debated annual ritual obligation

Uṣūl PrincipleAl-amr bi-l-naḥr hel yufīd al-wujūb does "fa-nḥar" (sacrifice!) imply obligation?Imperative analysisThe ḥukm of the imperative is the core uṣūl question

Al-Qurṭubī derives from verse 2 "so pray to your Lord and sacrifice (fa-nḥar)" the primary Qurʾānic basis for the uḍḥiyah (Eid sacrifice) obligation. He analyzes the uṣūl question: the imperative "fa-nḥar" (sacrifice!) does this grammatical form imply wujūb (obligation) or nadb (strong recommendation)? The Ḥanafī school reads the imperative as generating wajib; the majority (Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and most Ḥanbalī scholars) read the wider context as establishing sunnah muʾakkadah.

Al-Qurṭubī maps the practical implications: the Ḥanafī wājib position means a financially able Muslim who is a permanent resident and deliberately skips uḍḥiyah has committed a sin; the compensation is to give the equivalent value as sadaqah. The majority sunnah muʾakkadah position means missing uḍḥiyah is strongly blameworthy but not sinful in the strict legal sense. All four schools agree on the conditions for a valid sacrifice animal: appropriate age (goat/sheep: 1+ year; cattle: 2+ years; camel: 5+ years), free of major defects, slaughtered on the specified days (10-13 Dhū l-Ḥijjah).

إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ Innā aʿṭaynāka l-kawthar Meaning: "Indeed We have granted you al-Kawthar" Al-Qurṭubī: al-Kawthar is identified as a river in paradise (most common interpretation), or as "abundant good" generally; either way, the divine gift of abundance grounds the command to sacrifice gratitude (shukr) for divine abundance is expressed through the sacrifice, prayer, and generosity.

فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ وَانْحَرْ Fa-ṣalli li-rabbika wa-nḥar Meaning: "So pray to your Lord and sacrifice" Al-Qurṭubī: "ṣalli... wa-nḥar" (pray and sacrifice together) the pairing of Eid prayer with sacrifice establishes both as connected acts of worship; al-Qurṭubī notes that the sacrifice should ideally follow the Eid prayer slaughtering before the prayer is not valid as uḍḥiyah per majority position.

Uḍḥiyah obligation: Ḥanafī (wājib sin to miss for able resident); Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, majority Ḥanbalī (sunnah muʾakkadah strongly recommended, blameworthy to miss).
Valid animal requirements: appropriate age, free of major defects, slaughtered after Eid prayer on days 10-13 of Dhū l-Ḥijjah.
Slaughtering before the Eid prayer: not valid as uḍḥiyah (counts only as regular sadaqah) per majority must follow the Eid prayer.
One sheep/goat covers one household; one cattle/camel covers seven households this is the prophetic scale for the sacrifice.
The uṣūl analysis of "fa-nḥar" (sacrifice!) illustrates the fundamental question of whether imperatives in Islamic legal texts generate wujūb or nadb the schools' different analyses of this single imperative produce the wājib/sunnah split.

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