Aqiqah

ʿAqīqah (Arabic: عقيقة), aqeeqa, or aqeeqah is the Islamic tradition of the sacrifice of an animal on the occasion of a child's birth. Aqiqah is a type of sadaqah and it is also sunnah, though not obligatory.

According to hadith and the majority of Islamic scholars, two goats are sacrificed for a boy and one for a girl.

If one cannot slaughter on the seventh day, someone may do it on the fourteenth day or the twenty-first day. If one is not capable of doing so, then a person may slaughter at any time before the puberty of the child. The aqiqah is sunnah and mustahabb; it is not obligatory at all, so there is no sin on the one who does not do it.

According to a hadith in Muwatta Imam Malik, Fatima donated, in silver equivalent, the shaved-hair weight of her children Hasan, Husayn, Umm Kulthum and Zaynab.

Ja'far al-Sadiq, a great grandchild of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a prominent scholar in his era, claimed that the shaving, slaughtering for aqiqah, and naming of the child should, ideally, be done within one hour.

Additionally, Ja'far al-Sadiq replied in response to a question: "'Would almsgiving (equal to the price of aqiqah) be sufficient instead of aqiqah?'" with the answer that: 'No, it wouldn't be sufficient; Allah likes giving food and submission to his will.'"

According to another hadith from Ja'far al-Sadiq, every born is in pawn of aqiqah; namely, it would be exposed to death/kinds of calamities if they don't do aqiqah for the child. It is Sunnah for the parents to eat from the meat of aqiqah.

Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib performed aqiqah for Muhammad on the seventh day of his birth and invited members of his family for the occasion, who asked "what is this?" to which he replied "aqiqah for Ahmad". He claimed to have named him Ahmad "because of the praises of the inhabitants of the skies and the Earth for him".