Zaid b. Arqam said the companions of God’s Messenger asked him the significance of these sacrifices and he replied, “It is a custom which has come down from your father Abraham." They asked what reward they would receive for them and he replied, “For every hair you will receive a blessing." They asked about wool, and he replied, “For every strand of wool you will receive a blessing."
Abu Huraira reported the Prophet as saying, “There is no fara’ and no ‘atira.” He said that the fara’ was the first animal born to them which they sacrificed to their idols, and the ‘atira was observed in Rajab.*
* These were practices of the idolatrous pre-Islamic Arabs. While the fara' sacrifice was abolished in Islam, it is said that the sacrifice of a sheep or goat in Rajab, known as the ‘atira, was continued in the early days of Islam and then abolished.
