{{Short description|Islamic tradition}} '''ʿAqīqah''' ({{Langx|ar|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'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.irfny.com/hadith/sunanaltirmidhi.pdf |title=Sunan al-Tirmidhi, hadith #1522–1524 |access-date=2012-05-08 |archive-date=2018-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006194601/http://www.irfny.com/hadith/sunanaltirmidhi.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> though not obligatory.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Muḥammad Manẓūr Nuʻmānī |author2=Rafiq Abdur Rehman |title=معارف الحديث |date=2002 |publisher=Darul-Ishaat |page=354}}</ref>
==Description== According to hadith and the majority of Islamic scholars, two goats are sacrificed for a boy and one for a girl.<ref>{{cite book |title=Child Education in Islam |publisher=Islamic Books |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lk685SYzgOIC&dq=Aqiqah+girls&pg=PA51}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Afsaneh Najmabadi |title=Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Family, body, sexuality and health |date=2003 |publisher=Brill |page=32}}</ref>
If one cannot perform the slaughter on the seventh day, it may be done on the fourteenth or the twenty-first day. If one is still unable to do so, it may be performed at any time before the child reaches puberty. The aqiqah is sunnah and mustahabb; it is not obligatory, so there is no sin upon one who does not perform it.<ref>The sacred meadows: a structural analysis of religious symbolism in an East African town / by Abdul Hamid M. el Zein.</ref><ref>'Raise your voices and kill your animals': Islamic discourses on the Idd el-Hajj and sacrifices in Tanga (Tanzania): authoritative texts, ritual practices and social identities / by Gerard C. van de Bruinhorst {{hdl|1887/12442}}</ref>
According to a hadith in Muwatta Imam Malik, Fatima donated, in silver equivalent, the weight of the shaved hair of her children Hasan, Husayn, Umm Kulthum, and Zaynab.<ref>{{cite book |title=Child Education in Islam |publisher=Islamic Books |page=40}}</ref>
== Alternative views ==
===Shia views=== 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.<ref name= "Kulayni">{{cite book |last1=al-Kulayni |first1=Muhammad ibn Ya'qub |author-link=Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni |title=Al-Kafi |date=2015 |publisher=Islamic Seminary Incorporated |location=NY |isbn=9780991430864 |edition=Volume 6}}</ref>
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.'"<ref>[http://eporsesh.com/content/%D8%A7%D8%AD%DA%A9%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B9%D9%82%DB%8C%D9%82%D9%87-%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%B7%D9%88%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86-%DA%A9%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%AF-%D8%9F The rulings (Ahkams) of Aqeeqah] eporsesh.com Retrieved 26 June 2018</ref><ref>[https://www.yjc.ir/fa/news/5518408/%D8%B9%D9%82%DB%8C%D9%82%D9%87-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA-%DB%8C%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A8 Is aqeeqah obligatory to Mustahab (recommended)?] yjc.ir Retrieved 26 June 2018</ref>
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.<ref>[http://www.islamquest.net/ar/archive/question/fa21644 Aghighah and its rulings] islamquest.net Retrieved 26 June 2018</ref> It is Sunnah for the parents to eat from the meat of aqiqah.<ref name=Kulayni/>
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".<ref name=Kulayni/>
Muhammad is said to have performed aqiqah for both Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, his grandsons, on the seventh day of their births respectively by sacrificing one sheep each; the leg of which was given to the nurse that helped with the delivery.<ref name=Kulayni/> Anointing the baby with the blood of the sacrificed animal for aqiqah was a common practice among Arab pagans and was, therefore, prohibited in Islam.<ref name=Kulayni/>
=== Shafi'i view === The Shafiʿi madhdhab allows for an aqiqah practice after the death of a child. This is also the school of law that emphasizes the child’s potential for shafaʿa (intercession). Two prominent representatives of the Shafiʿi madhhab who defend this idea of a deceased child as a heavenly intercessor are alSuyuti (ca. 1445–1505) and al-Ghazzali (ca. 1058-1111).<ref>Abū al-Faḍl ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Suyuti, Nuzhat al-muta’ammil wa murshid al-muta’ahhil fi’l khatib wa al-mutazawwij; Ghazali’s classic work, Revival of Religious Sciences deals with this issue in the chapter on the advantages and disadvantages of marriage. A Swahili booklet mentioning shufaa is Abdallah Bawazir, Haki za mtoto mchanga katika uislam (Dar es Salaam), 1: “Mtoto ambaye hakuchinjwa akika, hapewi nafasi ya kuwaombea (Shufaa) wazazi wake siku ya kiama.” </ref>
=== Abu Hanifa's view === Abu Hanifa, unlike other jurists, held that the aqiqah sacrifice was an illegitimate practice<ref name= "Ibn Hubayra">{{cite book |last1=ibn Hubayra |first1=Awn al-Din |author-link=Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra |title=al-Ifṣāḥ ʿan Maʿānī al-Ṣiḥāḥ |date=1996 |publisher=Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya |page=563 |url=https://www.islamweb.net/ar/library/index.php?page=bookcontents&idfrom=631&idto=633&bk_no=408&ID=62&fbclid=IwAR0vA93WzHJt3_j7dcBcqusWhcPyp4WlkAt39qtqZzRtyxYFSAawwUfpMss}}</ref> from the pre-Islamic pagan period in Arabia.<ref name= "Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi">{{cite book |last1=al-Baghdādī |first1=Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī |author-link=Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi |title=Tarikh Baghdad |date=2001 |publisher=Dar al-Gharb al-Islami |page=568 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QkArCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT567}}</ref><ref name= "Ibn Qudamah">{{cite book |last1=al-Maqdisī |first1=Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad |author-link=Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi |title=al-Mug̲h̲nī |date=1997 |publisher=Dar 'Alam al-Kutub |page=395 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2xJCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT384}}</ref><ref name= "al-Iraqi">{{cite book |last1=al-'Iraqi |first1=Zain al-Din |author-link=Zain al-Din al-'Iraqi |title=Ṭarḥ al-Tathrīb |date=2008 |publisher=Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi |page=206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAdGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT206}}</ref>
==Islamic historical usage== The tradition of animal sacrifice and weighing the first haircut against gold or silver for charity appear to have their origins in pre-Islamic Arabia.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Trygve Wyller |title=The Given Child |date=2007 |isbn=9783525604366 |page=55|publisher=V&r Academic }}</ref>
== See also == * Sacrifice in Islam * Dhabihah * First haircut * Infant baptism
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Rites of passage}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Animal sacrifice Category:Islamic terminology Category:Ritual purity in Islam