What’s the ruling of shaving the head of the newborn and giving the weight of the hair in silver as charity

Answered by our Shaykh, the ‘Allaamah, the Sincere Adviser, Abu ‘Abdirrahman Yahya bin ‘Ali Al-Hajoori – may Allaah preserve him –

Question:

What’s the ruling of shaving the head of the newborn and giving the weight of the hair in gold as charity?

Answer:

Shaving the hair of the newborn is legislated, its proof is the hadeeth of Al-Hassan from Samurah, found with Ahmad and the authors of the Sunnan, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“كل غلام مرتهن بعقيقته تذبح عنه يوم سابعه، ويحلق ويسمى”

“Every boy is in pledge for his ‘Aqeeqah, he is slaughtered for on his seventh day, and shaven and given a name.”

The hadeeth is authentic, and its like with Al-Bukhari in the book of ‘Aqeeqah, in his Sahih, on the authority of Salmaan bin ‘Aamir, may Allaah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“مع غلام عقيقة فأهريقوا عنه دما وأميطوا عنه الأذى”

“There is an ‘Aqeeqah for a boy, so spill blood for him (slaughter two goats/sheep, and remove the harm from him (shave the head).”

As for giving the weight of the hair in silver this is unauthentic, in its chain of narration is ‘Abdullah bin Muhammed bin ‘Aqeel, and he has weakness, so giving the weight of the hair in silver as charity is not legislated.

Translated by Abu ‘Abdirrahman ‘Abdullaah bin Ahmed Ash-Shingaani