Aqiqah — The Sacrifice for a Newborn

What is Aqiqah?

Aqiqah (عقيقة) is the sacrifice offered to welcome a newborn child into the world — an animal slaughtered and its meat shared, traditionally around the seventh day after birth, alongside naming the child and shaving its head. The word originally referred to the newborn's hair itself; the ruling later took the name of what accompanied the hair-shaving.

Most scholars — the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, and the majority of Maliki scholars — hold aqiqah to be sunnah mu'akkadah: a strongly emphasized, recommended sunnah, not obligatory. The Hanafi school stands apart: its classical texts do not count aqiqah as an established sunnah at all — Imam Muhammad al-Shaybani's words, "whoever wishes may do it, and whoever wishes may leave it," were read by the school as permissibility (mubah), with some early Hanafis holding it superseded by the Eid sacrifice — though many later Hanafi scholars treat it as mustahabb (recommended), and it is widely practised in Hanafi communities today. A minority of scholars, reading the "pledge" language in the hadith below more literally, hold it wajib (obligatory) on the father if he can afford it. In practice, this means: highly encouraged for anyone who is able, not a sin to omit if genuinely unable to afford it.

Aqiqah predates Islam — and Islam kept the welcome while removing the blood. Buraidah (رضي الله عنه) said: "When a boy was born to one of us in the pre-Islamic period, we sacrificed a sheep and smeared his head with its blood; but when Allah brought Islam, we sacrificed a sheep, shaved his head and smeared his head with saffron" (Sunan Abi Dawud 2843, graded hasan). The hadith settles two things at once: the sacrifice of welcome was affirmed, and the old custom of touching the newborn with the animal's blood was deliberately retired, replaced with something clean and fragrant. Where blood-smearing customs still survive culturally today, this narration is the gentle correction — it is the one part of the old aqiqah that Islam specifically abolished.

The hadith basis

The clearest single hadith ties together the sacrifice, the timing, and two of its accompanying practices in one narration:

"In pledge" (rahn) is the word scholars who hold aqiqah obligatory lean on most — a pledge is something owed, not merely optional. Scholars who hold it recommended read the same word more loosely, as emphasis rather than a strict legal lien. Either way, the hadith is the anchor for all three practices addressed on this page: the sacrifice, the shaving, and the naming, together, around the same event.

What's offered — two for a boy, one for a girl

"Two resembling" (mukafi'atani) means roughly equal in age and condition to each other — not that they need to be identical. The animal itself follows the same conditions as an udhiyah (Eid al-Adha sacrifice): a sheep, goat, cow, or camel of the permitted age and free of major defects. The meat is then eaten, given away, and shared with others — most commonly split, or given entirely to those in need, following the same general spirit as other Islamic sacrifices.

Timing — traditionally the seventh day

The hadith above names the seventh day specifically, alongside the shaving and naming, and this is the timing most scholars recommend following where possible. If the seventh day genuinely isn't practical — financially, medically, or otherwise — scholars generally allow performing the aqiqah later; the recommendation is to follow the sunnah's timing when able, not that a delayed aqiqah is invalid. Day-counting conventions differ slightly between scholars (whether the day of birth itself counts as day one), so if the exact day matters to you, a local scholar familiar with your madhhab's counting convention can confirm it precisely.

If the seventh day passes, is the aqiqah missed? No. A report in al-Tabarani has the Prophet ﷺ saying the aqiqah is slaughtered "on the seventh, or the fourteenth, or the twenty-first" — its chain is weak (Ibn Hajar and al-Haythami both faulted the narrator Isma'il ibn Muslim), but a supporting narration from 'Aishah in Mustadrak al-Hakim was graded sahih by al-Hakim, with al-Dhahabi concurring, and at-Tirmidhi records that scholars simply practised it this way: the seventh day where possible, else the fourteenth, else the twenty-first. The Hanbali school adopted that sequence as the preferred order; Shafi'i and Maliki scholars hold the recommendation simply remains open after the seventh day. No school holds a delayed aqiqah invalid — the schedule is a courtesy of the sunnah, not a deadline.

Naming, shaving the head, and the silver-charity sunnah

Alongside the sacrifice, the same hadith names two further practices for the same day: giving the child a name, and shaving the head. A separate, specific narration ties the head-shaving to a further act of charity — giving the equivalent weight of the shaved hair in silver:

Note this specific narration reports one sheep for Al-Hasan, not the two named as the general rule above — see the honest discrepancy across the reports on this in the section below. The silver-weight-of-hair charity itself is a distinct, well-attested sunnah in its own right, separate from the head-shaving being obligatory or not.

Must the name wait for the seventh day? Not necessarily. The hadith of Samurah ties naming to the seventh day, but the Prophet ﷺ also named on the day of birth itself: "A boy was born to me tonight, and I named him after my father — Ibrahim" (Sahih Muslim 2315). Abu Musa likewise relates: "A son was born to me and I took him to the Prophet ﷺ who named him Ibrahim, did Tahnik for him with a date, invoked Allah to bless him and returned him to me." (Sahih al-Bukhari 5467) — a hadith al-Bukhari placed in his own Book of Aqiqah. Scholars accordingly allow both timings. The same reports gift us a further welcome-sunnah: tahnik — softening a date and touching it to the newborn's palate, with a du'a for blessing.

What the Prophet ﷺ did — for his own grandsons

Beyond instructing others, there are direct reports of the Prophet ﷺ performing (or ordering) the aqiqah for his own grandsons, Al-Hasan and Al-Husain ibn 'Ali (رضي الله عنهما) — worth reading honestly, because the reports don't all agree on the exact number of animals:

Read together with the "one sheep for Al-Hasan" report above (Tirmidhi 1519), the honest picture is that the reports on exactly how many animals the Prophet ﷺ used for his own grandsons don't fully agree — Ibn 'Abbas's narration says two rams each (matching the general two-for-a-boy rule), while 'Ali's narration on the same event names one. This is a real, acknowledged point where the narrations vary, not something this page will paper over. What all the reports agree on, without exception, is that the Prophet ﷺ did perform aqiqah for Hasan and Husain, and that it included shaving the head and giving charity by its weight in silver — the practice itself, not the precise headcount, is the settled part.

Frequently asked