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The seventh day

Silver for the hair

On the seventh day the baby’s hair is shaved, and its weight in silver is given in charity. Weigh the hair, enter today’s silver price, and we will do the sum.

The price is
Prices are usually quoted per troy ounce (31.1035 g). Look up today’s spot price on Kitco or the LBMA price page.

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To give in charity

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Enter the weight and the price.

You may round up and give more; many families give a generous amount. Give it to someone in need as ṣadaqah (charity).

Where this comes from

ʿAlī reported that the Prophet ﷺ made the ʿaqīqah for al-Ḥasan and said: “Fāṭimah, shave his head and give the weight of his hair in silver as charity.” It weighed a dirham or a little less.1 Scholars graded this report differently: al-Tirmidhī noted its chain is broken, while al-Albānī graded it ḥasan with a supporting report.

يَا فَاطِمَةُ احْلِقِي رَأْسَهُ وَتَصَدَّقِي بِزِنَةِ شَعْرِهِ فِضَّةً

Yā Fāṭimah, iḥliqī raʾsahu wa-taṣaddaqī bi-zinati shaʿrihi fiḍḍah.

Fāṭimah, shave his head and give the weight of his hair in silver as charity.1

Fāṭimah’s own practice is reported in the Muwaṭṭaʾ: she weighed the hair of Ḥasan, Ḥusayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthūm and gave its weight in silver.2 Ibn al-Qayyim gathers these reports in his chapter on the hair.3

The four schools

Shaving and giving silver are recommended in all four schools. They differ on girls and on whether gold also counts.

Ḥanafī

Recommended: shave the head on the seventh day and give the hair’s weight in silver or gold. The text (al-Durr al-Mukhtār, printed with Radd al-Muḥtār) attributes the giving to “the three imams”.6

Mālikī

Shave the head, even of a girl, even if no ʿaqīqah is made, and give its weight in gold or silver. If it is not shaved, estimate the weight.4

Shāfiʿī

Shave on the seventh day and give its weight in gold, or else silver, for a boy and a girl alike. Al-Nawawī notes the reports mention only silver. Shaving after the slaughter is preferred.7

Ḥanbalī

Shave a boy’s head, not a girl’s, on the seventh day, and give its weight in silver.8,9

This calculator uses silver, as in the ḥadīth. Some schools also allow gold. The seventh-day guide has the full section.

Sources

  1. Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1519ʿAlī: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made the ʿaqīqah for al-Ḥasan with a sheep and said, “Fāṭimah, shave his head and give the weight of his hair in silver.” It weighed a dirham or part of one.Grading: Graded differently. al-Tirmidhī: “ḥasan gharīb, and its chain is not connected” (Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī did not meet ʿAlī). al-Albānī: ḥasan (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Tirmidhī 1519), with a supporting chain (Irwāʾ 1175). al-Bayhaqī and Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ: munqaṭiʿ (broken). Ibn Bāz: the weighing of the hair is not authentic.
  2. Muwaṭṭaʾ Mālik, Kitāb al-ʿAqīqah 26/2–3Fāṭimah, daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, weighed the hair of Ḥasan, Ḥusayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthūm, and gave its weight in silver in charity.Grading: A report of Fāṭimah’s practice through Muḥammad al-Bāqir, who did not meet her (mursal).
  3. Ibn al-Qayyim, Tuḥfat al-Mawdūd, ch. 7, pp. 97–100Scholars recommended shaving the baby’s head at the ʿaqīqah (Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr). Aḥmad: recommended on the seventh day, “no harm” in giving its weight in silver. Fāṭimah did so for her children. The Prophet ﷺ forbade qazaʿ, shaving part of a child’s head and leaving part (Ibn ʿUmar, in Bukhārī and Muslim); al-Nawawī classes it as disliked (karāhat tanzīh).
  4. al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with al-Dasūqī’s Ḥāshiyah (Mālikī) 2/126Recommended for the father, from his own wealth: one animal valid as an uḍḥiyah, boy or girl alike, on the seventh day, by day. The day of birth is not counted if the baby was born after dawn. Its time lapses at sunset of the seventh (a weaker view allows the second and third weeks). Shave the head even of a girl, and give its weight in gold or silver. Breaking the bones is allowed. Making it a walīmah that people are invited to is disliked; it is cooked and eaten by the family and others in their own places. Smearing the baby with its blood is disliked.
  5. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ ʿalā Zād al-Mustaqniʿ (Ḥanbalī) 7/493–495Slaughter on the seventh day: “if born on Saturday, slaughter on Friday, one day before the weekday of birth; this is the rule.” If no barber can shave a newborn safely, estimate the hair’s weight in silver.
  6. Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī) 6/336Name the child on his seventh day, shave his head, and (according to “the three imams”) give the hair’s weight in silver or gold. Then the ʿaqīqah, as something permitted (ibāḥah) or voluntary (taṭawwuʿ): one sheep fit for an uḍḥiyah, for a boy and a girl alike. Raw or cooked, bones broken or not, with an invitation or without. Al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad hold it a confirmed sunnah: two sheep for a boy, one for a girl.
  7. al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī) 8/429–433A confirmed sunnah: two sheep for a boy and one for a girl; one for a boy achieves the basic sunnah. Same conditions as the uḍḥiyah; a cow or camel may be shared by seven. Joints separated without breaking bones (if broken, it is against the better course, not disliked). Cooked, ideally sweet; sending it to the poor is better than inviting them, but both are allowed. The day of birth is counted among the seven; if born at night, the following day. It does not lapse, but should not be delayed past puberty; then the person may do it for himself. Smearing with blood is disliked; saffron is recommended. Shave on the seventh and give the hair’s weight in gold, else silver, boy and girl alike.
  8. al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ (Ḥanbalī) 3/25–31A sunnah for the father; if two sheep are not possible, one; he may borrow if able to repay. The child does not do it for himself when grown (Aḥmad), but if he does it is not disliked, and a group of Ḥanbalīs recommend it. Seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, then any day; “it is not limited to childhood”. Shave a boy’s head, not a girl’s, on the seventh, and give its weight in silver. Saffron is fine; blood is disliked. Cooked with water and salt, no bones broken; give the midwife a thigh.
  9. Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī) 9/459–463A sunnah per most scholars; not obligatory. Better than giving its value in charity. Two matching sheep for a boy and one for a girl; one for a boy is valid. On the seventh day, then the fourteenth, then the twenty-first (from ʿĀʾishah); before or after is still valid. Shave the boy’s head and name him on the seventh; giving the hair’s weight in silver is good; naming before the seventh is allowed. Smearing with blood is disliked. Its meat is like the uḍḥiyah’s, cooked in pieces without breaking bones.