Is circumcision (khitān) obligatory for children, and at what age?

The Prophet ﷺ listed circumcision first among five practices of the fitrah, along with shaving the pubic hair, plucking the armpit hair, trimming the nails and trimming the moustache, and he ﷺ reported that Ibrāhīm عليه السلام was circumcised at eighty. For males the Shāfiʿīs and Ḥanbalīs held it obligatory, while the Ḥanafīs and Mālikīs held it a strongly emphasised sunnah; the Sharīʿah fixes no specific age, so it is done while the child is young and heals easily, and many scholars recommend it around the seventh day with the ʿaqīqah. As for females, the scholars differed considerably: the strongest position among contemporary scholars is that it is not obligatory and that anything causing harm, mutilation or the severe cutting practised in some cultures is unlawful, since the Prophet ﷺ forbade harm. Whatever is done must be by a competent practitioner, and where local law forbids a procedure the family does not place itself or the child in danger.

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