RE: shaving the baby's head

Someone objected to the response that shaving the head is not a specific sunna in the Hanafi school by saying: Shaving of the head is sunnah. A strongly recommended practice. There are numerous hadith to support the shaving and the weighing of the baby's hair so that you can pay in charity its weight in silver.   The response given had no daleel. No evidence to support that it is not compulsory or at least strongly recommended.

Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

None of the schools of Sunni Islam consider shaving the child’s head compulsory. The Malikis, Shafiis, and Hanbalis consider it is specifically recommended act, whereas the Hanafis consider it in itself permitted, of the general acts of good one may do.

The Mawsu`a Fiqhiyya tells us:

“The majority of the fuqaha considered it recommended (mustahabb; f: that which is rewarded for if done, but not sinful if left) to shave the head of the newborn on the seventh day and to give its weight in silver in charity...

As for the Hanafis, their position is that shaving the newborn’s hair on the seventh day is permitted, and neither a sunna nor obligatory.”

The Hanafi school’s position is that it is not a specifically recommended action to shave a newborn’s head, such that the one who leaves it is leaving something specific of the sunna that we have been commanded to follow. Rather, it falls under the category of general acts of good, which are rewarded for if done with good intention.

Same as the Aqiqa

This returns to the Hanafi interpretation that the aqiqa for the newborn itself takes this ruling: it is in itself permitted, and of the general acts of good that one may do. As for the hadiths relating to it, these are understood in the Hanafi school to have been abrogated in their specific injunction by the duty to slaughter (adhiya) after Eid al-Adha. [Kasani, Bada’i` al-Sana’i` 5.68-70]

This is because the aqiqa was of the pre-Islamic practices that (because they were in themselves good) were concurred by the Shariah, though the emphasis on them was lifted by the later directive of slaughtering after Eid al-Adha. [Tahawi, Mushkil al-Athaar, 1.80-81]

This is why Haddad said in Siraj al-Wahhaj, as quoted in Tanqih al-Fatawa al-Hamidiyya,

“The aqiqa is of the voluntary good acts ( tatawwu`), which one may do if one wishes and may leave [f: i.e. without blame or sin] if one wishes.” [Ibn Abidin, Tanqih al-Fatawa al-Hamidiyya, 2.212]

And Allah alone gives success.

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani

 

حلق رأس المولود : 5 - ذهب جمهور الفقهاء إلى أنه يستحب حلق رأس المولود في اليوم السابع , ويتصدق بوزن الشعر ورقا ( فضة ) ثم اختلفوا في حلق شعر المولود الأنثى , فذهب المالكية والشافعية إلى أنه لا فرق في ذلك بين الذكر والأنثى , لما روي , أن فاطمة بنت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وزنت شعر الحسن والحسين وزينب وأم كلثوم , وتصدقت بزنة ذلك فضة .  ولأن هذا حلق فيه مصلحة من حيث التصدق , ومن حيث حسن الشعر بعده , وعلة الكراهة من تشويه الخلق غير موجودة هنا . وأما الحنابلة فيرون عدم حلق شعر المولود الأنثى لحديث سمرة بن جندب مرفوعا : { كل غلام رهينة بعقيقته تذبح عنه يوم السابع , ويحلق رأسه } وعن أبي هريرة مثله . ولقول النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم لفاطمة لما ولدت الحسن : { احلقي رأسه , وتصدقي بوزن شعره فضة على المساكين والأوفاض } يعني أهل الصفة . أما الحنفية فذهبوا إلى أن حلق شعر المولود في سابع الولادة مباح لا سنة ولا واجب .