Scriptural Basis and Definition
The word aqiqah derives from the root meaning ‘to cut’ or ‘to cleave’, referring originally to the hair on a newborn’s head and, by extension, to the animal slaughtered when that hair is first shorn. In the Shariah it denotes the sacrifice offered in gratitude to God on behalf of a newly born child. Its principal textual foundation is the hadith of Samura ibn Jundub, transmitted in the Sunan of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasai, and Ibn Majah, in which the Prophet said: ‘Every child is pledged (murtahan / rahinah) by its aqiqah; it is slaughtered for on its seventh day, it is named, and its head is shaved.’ The description of the child as a ‘pledge’ has been variously interpreted — most jurists understanding it to mean that the full blessing and intercession associated with the child are, in some sense, held in trust until the rite is performed, rather than implying any defect in the child itself.
A second cluster of reports fixes the gender-based quantity of animals. Aisha reported that the Prophet commanded two comparable sheep for a boy and one sheep for a girl, and the hadith of Umm Kurz al-Khuzaiyya in Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi conveys the same instruction, specifying that the animals need not differ by the child’s sex in kind, only in number, and that males or females among the animals are equally acceptable. The Prophet is also reported in Sahih al-Bukhari and elsewhere to have performed the aqiqah for his grandsons al-Hasan and al-Husayn, a precedent of central importance in the Ahl al-Bayt tradition and frequently cited as the model act.
The Ruling Across the Schools and the Animal Required
The dominant position among jurists is that aqiqah is a confirmed sunnah (sunnah muakkadah) or strongly recommended act (mustahabb) — the view of the Maliki, Shafii, and Hanbali schools and the standard Ja’fari position, which treats it as an emphatic recommendation tied to the rights of the child. The Zahiris, following the literal force of Samura’s hadith, regard it as obligatory (wajib), and a minority of Hanbalis (associated with reports from Ahmad ibn Hanbal) lean toward strong insistence upon it. The Hanafi school stands apart in classifying it as merely permissible (mubah) or a virtuous custom inherited from the pre-Islamic Arabs and neither commanded nor forbidden, on the reasoning that the obligation of the udhiyah (Eid sacrifice) and the rules of charity sufficiently order the believer’s ritual giving.
On the animal, the schools generally require that the aqiqah meet the same conditions of soundness and minimum age as the udhiyah: a sheep or goat that has reached the requisite age and is free of disqualifying defects, with a camel or cow also acceptable (and, in several views, one large animal may suffice for the whole, though pairs of sheep remain the preferred form for a boy). Two sheep are recommended for a boy and one for a girl, as the texts specify, though many jurists hold that a single sheep discharges the recommendation for a boy if two are not feasible. The meat may be eaten by the family, gifted to relatives and neighbours, and given as charity to the poor, mirroring the threefold apportionment encouraged for the udhiyah; cooking the meat (often with something sweet) before distribution is considered praiseworthy.
Timing, Naming, Shaving, the Silver Charity, and Tahnik
The preferred time is the seventh day after birth, counting the day of birth, on which three connected acts are gathered: the animal is slaughtered, the child is given a good name, and the head is shaved. If the seventh day is missed, the schools permit performing it on the fourteenth or twenty-first day, and many jurists allow it at any later time the means permit, since the underlying recommendation is not extinguished by delay; some even hold an adult may perform his own aqiqah if it was never done for him. After the head is shaved, it is recommended to give in charity the weight of the hair in silver — or its monetary equivalent — a small act of almsgiving that links the rite to the broader Quranic ethic of spending in gratitude for God’s bounty.
These practices sit within a wider cluster of birth observances. Tahnik — softening a date (or similar sweet) and gently rubbing it on the newborn’s palate, ideally by a pious person — is reported of the Prophet with his grandchildren and is recommended near the time of birth, often before or around the aqiqah. The call to prayer (adhan) whispered in the infant’s ear, the choice of a meritorious name, and, for a boy, khitan (circumcision) form the surrounding rites of welcome. Together, aqiqah and its companions express thanksgiving to God for the gift of the child, redeem and protect the newborn, and publicly enrol the infant in the life of the community — a theme of gratitude, hospitality, and charitable sacrifice that the fiqh treats as continuous with the law of vows, oaths of devotion, and the festal sacrifice.
See also: Fiqh Al Udhiyah, Fiqh Al Khitan, Fiqh Al Nadhr, Fiqh Al Walima, Fiqh Al Rada