• As for Jābir’s narration, it is recorded by Abū Yaʿlā and al-Ṭabarānī; its transmitters are trustworthy, and every one of them appears in Muslim’s Ṣaḥīḥ.

• As for the report of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, it is related by al-Tirmidhī, who graded it “ḥasan gharīb.” Its chain, however, is not uninterrupted; al-Ḥākim later supplied the missing link, and he—as well as al-Dhahabī—expressed no objection to it. All of its narrators are reliable and well-known.

The various chains differ over what the Prophet ﷺ sacrificed on behalf of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn: some state “one ram,” while others say “two rams.” The second wording is the one that should be adopted.

Glossary of the ḥadith
– “a ram, a ram” (kabshan kabshan): both words appear in the accusative because the governing preposition has been omitted, or because the verb ʿaqqa (performed the ʿaqīqah) carries the sense of “slaughtered,” making them its two direct objects.
– “ram” (kabsh): the male sheep, regardless of age.

Points derived from the ḥadith
1 – The ʿaqīqah is among the sacrificial acts of devotion; it is an expression of gratitude to Allah for the renewed blessing of a child, male or female. Imām Aḥmad said: “The ʿaqīqah is the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; he performed it for al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, and his Companions and their Followers did likewise.”

2 – This ḥadith states that the Prophet ﷺ offered one ram for al-Ḥasan and one for al-Ḥusayn, yet the same report in the versions of Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī mentions that he sacrificed two rams for each of them. The additional wording was deemed sound by several scholars, among them ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq and Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd. Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, al-Bayhaqī, and Ibn al-Sakan likewise transmit from ʿĀʾishah ﵂ that “He performed the ʿaqīqah for them on the seventh day, named them, removed the harm from them, and substituted perfume (khalūq) in place of the blood,” thereby opposing the pre-Islamic custom of placing a cotton swab dipped in the blood of the ʿaqīqah on the infant’s head.