As for the ruling on its meat, hide, and the rest of its parts, they follow the same regulations that apply to the meat of the Eid sacrifices: one may eat from it and give some of it in charity, but selling it is forbidden.

All the scholars agree that, in the pre-Islamic era, the child’s head used to be daubed with the animal’s blood, and that this practice was abrogated under Islam. The evidence is the ḥadīth of Buraydah al-Aslamī, who said:

“In the Days of Ignorance, when a boy was born to any of us, he would slaughter a sheep for him and smear his head with its blood. When Islam came, we would slaughter, shave his head, and anoint it with saffron.”

Al-Ḥasan [al-Baṣrī] and Qatādah alone held that the child’s head should be touched with a piece of cotton dipped in the blood.

It is recommended to break the animal’s bones, for in the pre-Islamic period people used to sever them joint by joint.

The scholars differ regarding shaving the newborn’s head on the seventh day and giving in charity an amount of silver equal to the weight of the hair:
• Some hold it to be recommended.
• Others hold it is not recommended.
Both positions are reported from Mālik, yet the recommendation is the stronger view, and it is the position of Ibn Ḥabīb, based on what Mālik related in the Muwaṭṭaʾ:

“Fāṭimah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—shaved the heads of al-Ḥasan, al-Ḥusayn, Zaynab, and Umm Kulthūm, and gave in charity the weight of that hair in silver.”