76 – Muhammad ibn al-Muthannā narrated to me; Ibn ʿĀʾishah narrated to us; he said: I heard Abū Tawbah al-Khāqānī relate, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, that al-Ḥasan was asked about his saying, “The newborn boy is held in pledge by his ʿaqīqah (post-birth sacrifice); so remove the harm from him.”
Al-Ḥasan replied: “It has reached me that when a child is born, and the blood (of the sacrifice) is shed on his behalf, then he dies while still small, he will intercede for his parents.
“As for the words ‘remove the harm from him,’ Allah says, ‘And they ask you about menstruation. Say: it is a harm’ (Quran 2:222). Menstrual blood remains on the boy’s head; when his head is shaved, the harm is removed until the surface of his scalp becomes visible.”
He (al-Ḥasan) also said: “It settles at the roots of the hair.”