Aqiqah

According to hadith and the majority of Islamic scholars, two goats are sacrificed for a boy and one for a girl. 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. 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. == 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. 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 Hanifa's view Abu Hanifa, unlike other jurists, held that the aqiqah sacrifice was an illegitimate practice from the pre-Islamic pagan period in Arabia. ==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. == See also ==