Chapter on the ʿAqīqah (newborn sacrifice)
Introduction
Lexically, ʿaqīqah refers to the hair on a newborn’s head. Because the animal is slaughtered when that hair is shaved, the sacrifice itself came to be called ʿaqīqah; the name became so common that, in everyday usage, the term now denotes only the sacrificial animal.

The ʿaqīqah is recommended by the purified Sunnah.
Imām Aḥmad said: “The ʿaqīqah is a Sunnah established by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He performed it for al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, and the Companions and the Successors practiced it as well.”

Ibn al-Qayyim stated: “Slaughtering the ʿaqīqah is superior to giving its price in charity, because it is a Sunnah and a prescribed offering marking the renewal of Allah’s blessing upon the parents. It therefore embodies devotion, gratitude, charity, ransom, and the feeding of others in a moment of joy. If a banquet is legislated for marriage, then legislating a sacrifice at the very goal of marriage—namely, the birth of offspring—is even more fitting. Since the blessing of a male child is greater for the parents and their happiness more complete, gratitude is shown more abundantly by slaughtering two sheep for him, whereas one sheep suffices for a girl; the greater the blessing, the greater the gratitude owed.”

In Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ it is said: “The child does not perform the ʿaqīqah for himself after reaching adulthood, for it was legislated for the father.”

A number of scholars nonetheless held that one may offer it for himself as a recommended act if his father did not do so.

Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn said: “The guardian should offer the ʿaqīqah on behalf of an orphan from the orphan’s own wealth, just as he offers the udḥiyah, and this is even more appropriate, for the child is held in pledge by it. It is not valid before birth, just as an expiation is not valid before an oath is sworn, because it would precede its cause.”