Lesson of last weekend: Aqiqah

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim

CONGRATULATIONS FOR GETTING A BABY

Alhamdulillah, all praise are to Allah, Lord of the universe. I attended 2 invitations to aqiqah ceremonies lately, one sometime ago (I forgot when exactly it was) and another was last Sunday. The former was the aqiqah for Mr Azlan and Mrs Zaffan's new born daughter, Khadijah while the latter was for a Fuai's nephew, Muhammed Harith Faiz (correct me if I spell it wrong please). Congratulations to both families for being blessed with a future generation of the leader of the ummah insyaAllah!

Nope, this is neither my baby nor the baby mentioned. This is Ameera Mujaheedah, my second cousin's newborn baby *captured in summer 2010 in Nottingham*

Having being invited to such events and learnt from people there about the rituals and explanations behind aqiqah, I realised it was the great opportunity to revise about what I've learnt about aqiqah itself. We need to refresh from time to time to ensure what ever have entered into our long term memory is still there and usable.

Open book time!

For the record, I am referring to Al-Fiqh Al-Manhaji Mazhab Al-Syafie by Dr Musafa Al-Khin, Dr Mustafa Al-Bugha and Dr Ali Al-Syarbaji to write this and translate it to English. Due to my limited ability of language and translation techiniques, I may miss out the point that the authors wanted to emphasize and I ask refuge from Allah from misguiding people on what ever things I wrote.

SO LET'S LEARN ABOUT AQIQAH

Aqiqah comes from the word al-'Aqqu and literally means to cut. It originally refers to the hair of the baby that being cut after birth. The hair is termed as such because it is being cut or shaved. From the syara' definition is the animal slaughtered when the baby's hair is being shaved. It is called as such because the meat of slaughtered animal is cut or flayed.

It is categorised as sunnah muakkad (meaning voluntary but highly recommended deeds).

Aqiqah can be done as early as whole of the baby's body has been safely delivered by the mother. Yes, I mean whole of the baby's body. If the animal is slaughtered when the half of the baby's body is still in the mother's womb, that does not count as aqiqah.

It is categorised as sunnah (voluntary) deed until the baby reaches maturity. That is when the responsibility of doing aqiqah is released from the guardian and afterwards aqiqah is highly recommended for the person to do it for himself if no aqiqah was done for him.

However, we are highly encouraged to do aqiqah when the baby is seven days old.

During aqiqah, 3 things should be done and highly recommended to do it on the seventh day are:

1. Slaughtering animal (usually a sheep or a goat is sufficient), cook it sweet and serve it.
2. Announce the baby's name.
   
3. Cut or shave the baby's hair, weigh it and donate equivalent weight of gold or silver to the weight of the hair.
   

These are based from hadiths of the prophet Nabi Muhammad SAW:

1. Whoever being blessed with a child and desire to do worship on their behalf, perform aqiqah. (Riwayat Abu Daud)Rasulullah SAW performed aqiqah for al-Hassan via a goat.
2. Ransom for a baby is via his aqiqah.
3. The aqiqah is slaughtered on the seventh day from birth, the baby is given a name and the hair is shaved (Riwayat at-Tarmizi).
   
4. Rasulullah made aqiqah on behalf of al-Hassan.
   
5. "O Fatimah, shave his head and donate silver based on the weight of his hair." Ali then said,"Fatimah weighed and found out the hair weight around half or one dirham".
   

Although one goat is sufficient, it is ritually better that 2 goats are slaughtered for a baby boy while one goat for a baby girl. Shaving more afdhal to be performed by a respectful religious person, a sheikh, a Tok Guru onto the baby.

Even the goat is happy for the baby ^_^

ATHAN, TAHNIK AND KHITAN

On top of these, some other acts are highly encouraged to perform onto newborn babies. Firstly, right after labour, we need to make athan to the babies' ears. Athan is the Call for remembrance of Allah. Athan glorifies Allah the Almighty, testifies that no God worth to be worship but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, calls people to prayers and encourage people to excel. Muslims are called to prayers via the athan 5 times everyday at a particular place. However, athan is a miracle itself because as we speak, it is called at some places on earth. Don't believe me? Have a look at this video.

The video is not in English though.

It is also recommended to perform tahnik which is "splits" the baby's mouth (ie feed them) with chewed or mashed date and is rubbed gently on the baby's gums. It is sunnah to use dates but when unavailable, do substitute it with something sweet like honey. Circumcision (khitan) is also highly recommendable, but this can be done at any time but the earlier the better.

All activities other then those mentioned are not stated in the sunnah of Rasulullah SAW like shaving the baby's hair and put into coconut water, let the crowd shaves the baby's hair and so on. So be aware of the Malay cultures that do not suit the teaching of Islam and do avoid them. I also encourage people to perform all these in one go when the baby is seven days old. It follows the sunnah, the parents responsibilities towards a new born are completed and no such issues as "should I do aqiqah for myself" or "have my parents made aqiqah for me" arises in the future.

The tahnik ceremony, performed by Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat

Well, those all are deeds that highly recommended to be performed by the family of the newborn and they are not obligatory.

Lastly, don't forget to congratulate the family!

BEAUTY OF ISLAM

Islam is a beautiful and complete way of life. It saves the humanity and dignity of people. Islam encourage marriage and prohibit adultery. Marriage is better than adultery. We do not have to be ashamed of ourselves and hide from people. People praise us and celebrate with us. Our souls will be in peace and reward from good deeds are multiplied. Being blessed with a child, we feel happy, being blessed and people celebrate with us. Allah blesses us and the prophet is proud with us.

Islam is a beautiful way of life. When blessed with children, the family shows their syukur and shares the happiness with other by performing aqiqah. The news will of getting a newborn will spread freely and hence prevents from prejudice towards the family. It also corrode the greed and stingy feelings of the family. Everybody will be happy during aqiqah starting from the family, relatives, friends, the poor and all the people that attend as it encourages love, strengthen bonds and these attributes are taught in Islam.

Islam is a beautiful way of life :)

Ibn MuSa
City of Knowledge
Jamadil Awal 1432/April 2011