The Excellence of the Meat of Sheep Over Goats

1. Ali ibn Muhammad has narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from certain persons of his people, I think Muhammad ibn ’Isma‘il who has said the following: “Certain ones among us mentioned two kinds of meat before abu al-Hassan, al-Rida’ عليه السلام. He said, ‘No other meat is better than the meat of goat.’ Abu al-Hassan عليه السلام, looked at him and said, ‘Had Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, created any chunk of meat finer than that of sheep He would have presented that instead (of the ram) as ransom for ’Isma‘il عليه السلام.”’