the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) regarding the fara'ah, [stating that] for every fifty (17) there is one (18). Ibn al-Mundhir said: This is a sound (thabit) hadith. Our evidence is what Abu Hurayra narrated, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "There is no fara'ah and no 'atirah." Muttafaq 'alayh (agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim) (19). This hadith is later in time than the command [to perform them], and therefore it acts as an abrogating text. Evidence for its later timing is two-fold: First, its narrator is Abu Hurayra, who was a late convert to Islam; he embraced Islam in the year of the conquest of Khaybar, which is the seventh year after the Hijra. Second, the performance of the fara'ah and the 'atirah was a practice that predated Islam, and the apparent meaning is that they continued it until the time of its abrogation, and [then] the abrogation continued without it being lifted. If we were to posit that the prohibition preceded the command for them, then it would have been abrogated and then its abrogator would have been abrogated [in turn], and this is contrary to what is apparent. Once this is established, the intent of the report is to negate their status as a sunnah, not to prohibit their performance nor to deem it disliked. Thus, if a person were to slaughter a sacrificial animal in Rajab, or slaughter a firstborn camel because he had a need for it, or to give it as charity and feed others with it, this would not be disliked. And Allah the Exalted knows best.