Khayl (horses)

Khayl is the collective of horses; it is feminine, with no singular of its own form — a stated singular being kha'il — and its plurals are khuyul and akhyal; it was named for their prancing self-admiration. ¹ It is applied to Arab and non-Arab horses, male and female, as in Surah al-Nahl ayah 8, and also to cavalrymen, as in Surah al-Isra ayah 64 — "your horsemen and your footmen". ¹ The jurists' usage of the word does not depart from the first linguistic sense. ¹

The Law urges acquiring horses for jihad and tethering them for the cause of God, by Surah al-Anfal ayah 60 and by the hadith "goodness is tied to the forelocks of horses until the Day of Resurrection". ¹

Their zakat

The majority of jurists — including Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, on whose view the Hanafi fatwa rests — hold there is no zakat on horses unless they are for trade, by the hadith "a Muslim owes no sadaqa on his horse and his servant", by the hadith "I have exempted you from sadaqa on horses and slaves", and because they are not grazing livestock so no zakat falls due on them, like wild animals. ¹ Abu Hanifa holds pastured horses are zakatable when they are male and female; if all are female there are two reports; if all male, on the apparent report none is due while the Nawadir questions oblige it. ²

Eating them

The majority of jurists — the Shafiis and Hanbalis, also a Maliki view — hold horseflesh is permitted to eat. ² The Hanafis on their preponderant view, also a second Maliki view, hold eating it lawful with light disapproval, the view of al-Awza'i and Abu Ubayd too; a transmission from Abu Hanifa gives grave disapproval, and a Maliki view is near that. ²

Their share in the booty

The majority hold that the booty is divided giving the horseman three shares: one for him and two for his horse; this was the view of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, al-Hasan, Ibn Sirin, al-Thawri, al-Layth ibn Sa'd, Ishaq and Abu Thawr, for Ibn Umar's report that on the day of Khaybar he allotted the horseman three shares, two for his horse and one for him. ² Abu Hanifa holds the horse gets one share, for Mujamma' ibn Haritha's report that he divided Khaybar among the people of al-Hudaybiyya giving the horseman two shares and the footman one — a report Ibn Hajar weakened — and because it is an animal with a share not exceeding one, like the human. ²

No more than one horse receives a share at the Hanafis except Abu Yusuf, the Malikis and the Shafiis, since no one can fight on more than one so no share goes to the excess. ² The Hanbalis — also Abu Yusuf's view among the Hanafis — let two horses share and no more, for al-Awza'i's report that no man received for more than two horses even with ten, and because a second is needed: constant riding of one weakens it and bars fighting on it, so it shares like the first, unlike the third which is dispensable. ³

Racing between them

The jurists do not dispute the permissibility of horse racing, with a prize or without; how precedence is established is detailed under ramy and sabq. ³

Other questions attach to horses, examined in their places: the question of a donkey stallion covering mares the jurists raised in zakat; the purity of their urine for a fighter it reaches on enemy soil, in the chapter on impurities; women riding them, under prohibition and permission; and barring the dhimmi from riding them, in jizya when distinguishing the dhimmis' dress. ³