the passing of the year, while zakat increases with the increase in number, unlike age. So if we adopt this narration, if the mothers die except for one, the zakat year is not interrupted, but if they all die, the year is interrupted.

410 - Issue; He said: "And there shall be taken from the goats the thaniyy (two-year-old), and from the sheep the jadha' (six-month-old)."

The total sum of this is that nothing is sufficient as charity for sheep except the jadha' from sheep—which is what is six months old—and the thaniyy from goats—which is what is one year old. If the owner voluntarily gives better than them in age, it is permissible. If what is mandatory is among the nisa' (threshold), he takes it. If all of it is above what is mandatory, the owner is given the choice between giving one of them or purchasing what is mandatory and paying it out. Al-Shafi'i held this view. Abu Hanifa said, in one of the two narrations from him: Nothing is sufficient except the thaniyya (two-year-old) from both of them, because they are two types of one genus, so what is mandatory from them is one, like the types of camels and cattle. Malik said: The jadha' is sufficient from both of them, due to that, and due to the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Our right is only in the jadha' and the thaniyya." Our argument for the permissibility of giving the jadha' from sheep, along with this report, is the statement of Si'r ibn Daysam: "Two men came to me on a camel and said: 'We are the messengers of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to you, so that you may pay the zakat of your sheep.' I said: 'Which one will you take?' They said: 'An 'anaq (a young female goat), a jadha', or a thaniyya.'" Reported by Abu Dawud. Our argument [against Malik; is what] Suwayd ibn Ghafala narrated, saying: "The collector of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to us and said: 'We have been commanded to take the jadha' from sheep and the thaniyya from goats.'" This is explicit, and within it is the clarification of the absolute (mutlaq) in the two hadiths before it, and because the jadha' of sheep...