Aqiqah is the Islamic rite marking the birth of a child, performed on or around the seventh day of life. It includes the sacrifice of an animal, traditionally two sheep or goats for a boy and one for a girl, the shaving of the infant's head with an equivalent weight in silver given as charity, and the naming of the child. Its meat is distributed to family, the poor and neighbours, in a manner recalling other Islamic sacrificial charity.
Facts
Practice
Who Performs ItHouseholders, those living in the world 3 No ordained clergy is required; responsibility for the sacrifice and its arrangements rests with the child's father or guardian, who may perform the slaughter himself or have it carried out on the family's behalf, unlike Islamic rites that call for a trained officiant. Practitioner DetailSourced to the subject's own accountArranged by the child's parents or guardians, who commission the sacrifice and typically host the distribution of its meat 1 ObligationRecommended and meritorious, not required 4 FrequencyOnce, or at a turning point in a life 3 Performed once per child, ideally on the seventh day after birth, though jurists differ on whether it may instead be held on the fourteenth or twenty first day, or at any later point if the seventh day is missed. Use
OccasionSourced to the subject's own accountThe seventh day after a child's birth, though it may be performed later if circumstances require 2 Function
Stage of Life Marked Origins
Place of OriginSourced to the subject's own accountAqiqah traces to pre-Islamic Arabian custom, retained by the Prophet Muhammad in seventh century Hejaz but reformed in its meaning: hadith accounts have him redirecting a rite earlier associated with warding off harm to the child toward simple thanksgiving and charitable distribution of its meat. 2 Historical OriginSourced to the subject's own accountRooted in hadith attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and recorded in the major Sunni hadith collections, which describe the animal sacrifice, the shaving of the infant's hair and the naming as the Prophet's own practice for his grandsons Hasan and Husayn. 1 Attestation
Earliest AttestationSourced to the subject's own accountRecorded among the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad collected in the ninth century Hadith compilations Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, which specify the animal counts by the sex of the child 1 Attributions
TraditionSourced to the subject's own account PurposeSourced to the subject's own accountGives thanks for the birth of a child and provides for the needy through the sacrifice's distributed meat, paired in the same hadith tradition with the shaving of the infant's hair and a charitable gift of its weight in silver 2 Meaning
Literal MeaningArabic aqiqah, literally the hair of a newborn, extended to name the rite of shaving that hair and offering an animal sacrifice on the infant's behalf soon after birth. 3 Status
Current StatusWidely practiced across the Muslim world today, treated by most schools of Islamic law as strongly recommended rather than obligatory 3 Standing as a Comparative CategorySourced to the subject's own accountA standard analytic category in the study of religion 1 Connections
Addressed To
Aqiqah is offered in thanksgiving and dedication to God for a newborn child, per the hadith collections describing the rite.
Source Sahih al-BukhariMuhammad al-Bukhari
Belongs to Tradition
Source Sahih al-BukhariMuhammad al-Bukhari
Related To
Sources
1. Sahih al-Bukhari
2. Sahih Muslim
3. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005View the Source 4. Aqiqah (Wikipedia)
Lead section: life-stage
ʿAqīqah (Arabic: عقيقة), aqeeqa, or aqeeqah is the Islamic tradition of the sacrifice of an animal on the occasion of a child's birth.
- In Group: Birth and Naming Rites, lead paragraph: "the Islamic tradition of the sacrifice of an animal on the occasion of a child's birth"
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