How to Perform Aqiqah: A Step-by-Step Guide

A baby arrives and, somewhere in the first week, someone asks whether you have arranged the aqiqah. If you have not grown up around it, the question can land with more anxiety than it deserves.

Quick answer: Aqiqah is a sacrifice offered for a newborn on the seventh day — two sheep for a boy, one for a girl — alongside naming the child and shaving the head. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Every child is pledged by his aqiqah, which is sacrificed for him on the seventh day, and he is named on it, and his head is shaved" (Abu Dawud 2838). It is a strongly recommended sunnah, not an obligation.

That last sentence matters. Nothing below is a gate your child must pass through.

What is aqiqah, and is it obligatory?

Aqiqah is a sacrifice made in gratitude for a new child. The Prophet (peace be upon him) performed it for his grandsons al-Hasan and al-Husayn, and the practice has continued in Muslim families since.

Scholars differ on its exact ruling. The majority — including the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools — hold it to be a sunnah mu'akkadah, a confirmed sunnah that a family able to afford it should not neglect. The Hanafi position is generally that it is mustahabb, recommended but lighter still. A minority have held it obligatory. What almost nobody says is that a family in genuine financial difficulty is sinning by not doing it. IslamQA's summary of the ruling sets out the evidence in detail.

So the honest framing is: this is a beautiful sunnah to keep if you can, and a debt of guilt to nobody if you cannot.

When is the seventh day?

Count the day of birth as day one.

A child born on Monday has their seventh day on the following Sunday. That is the part people most often get wrong, because the instinct is to count seven days after the birth, which lands you a day late.

One wrinkle: the Islamic day begins at maghrib, not midnight. A baby born after sunset on Monday evening is, by the Islamic reckoning, born on Tuesday — so the count starts from Tuesday. If you are unsure which Hijri date the birth fell on, the Islamic calendar tool will convert it for you.

How many animals, and which?

The sunnah is two sheep for a boy and one for a girl. Umm Kurz asked the Prophet (peace be upon him) about aqiqah and he said: "For a boy, two sheep, and for a girl, one sheep, and it does not matter whether they are male or female" (Tirmidhi 1516, graded hasan sahih).

The animal follows the same conditions as the Eid sacrifice: it should be free of obvious defect and old enough — generally a sheep of at least six months, or a goat of a year. Camels and cattle are accepted by many scholars as well, though sheep is the practice the texts describe.

If two sheep are genuinely beyond reach for a boy, most scholars hold that one still fulfils the sunnah, and that doing what you can is better than doing nothing. IslamQA addresses this case directly. A family should not take on debt for this.

The three things that happen together

The hadith ties three acts to the same day, and they are worth treating as one occasion rather than three chores.

1. The sacrifice. Performed on the seventh day where possible. In most countries today families arrange this through a butcher or a charity that performs the slaughter on their behalf — often in a country where the meat will reach people who need it. That is valid, and for many families it is the only practical route.

2. The naming. The child is named on this day. The Prophet (peace be upon him) encouraged good names, and there is no requirement that a name be Arabic — only that its meaning is sound and carries nothing objectionable. If you are still deciding, our Muslim names tool lets you search by meaning and origin.

3. The shaving. The baby's head is shaved, and it is sunnah to give the weight of the hair in silver as charity. Do not overthink the amount — a newborn's hair weighs a gram or two, so this is a small sum given in gratitude, not a serious financial calculation. If weighing it is impractical, give a reasonable amount instead.

How is the meat divided?

There is no fixed formula, which surprises people who expect something like the zakat percentage.

The general practice, taken from the way sacrificial meat is treated more broadly, is three shares:

• Some kept and eaten by the family
• Some given to relatives, friends and neighbours
• Some given to the poor

Many families simply cook the meat and host a meal, inviting neighbours and those in need — and that is well within the practice. What should be avoided is treating it as a purely private freezer-filling exercise with nothing reaching anyone else. If you want to understand where obligatory giving sits by comparison, how to calculate zakat covers a different obligation with much firmer rules.

One practice worth naming and dropping: breaking the bones was avoided by some out of a belief it was required, but there is no authentic prohibition establishing it. Nothing is invalidated if the bones are cut.

What if you have already missed the seventh day?

This is the most common real question, and the answer is reassuring.

If the seventh day passes, a number of scholars recommend the fourteenth, then the twenty-first — the sevens continuing. Beyond that, the position of many is simply that it may be offered whenever the family becomes able. A father who could not afford it in the first week and can afford it two years later has not lost the sunnah.

Scholars also differ on whether an adult whose parents never performed aqiqah may perform it for themselves. Several permit it; others hold the responsibility rested with the parents and has passed. If this applies to you, it is worth putting the question to a scholar who knows your circumstances rather than settling it from an article. The same is true of the detail questions around a single sheep for a boy, where the reasoning varies between schools.

A short checklist

1. Work out the seventh day, counting the birth day as day one and remembering that the Islamic day starts at maghrib.
2. Arrange the animal — two sheep for a boy, one for a girl, sound and of age.
3. Decide who performs the slaughter: locally, or through a charity abroad.
4. Name the child.
5. Shave the head and give the weight of the hair in silver, or a reasonable equivalent.
6. Divide the meat so that family, neighbours and the poor all receive a share.
7. If the day has passed, do it when you can rather than not at all.

Summary

Aqiqah is a sunnah of gratitude, not a test. The core is a sacrifice on the seventh day — two sheep for a boy, one for a girl — with the child named, the head shaved, and the meat shared beyond the household.

If money is tight, one animal is accepted by most scholars for a boy, and a delayed aqiqah is still an aqiqah. The scholarly differences here are real but they mostly widen the room you have, rather than narrow it.

For questions specific to your family — a missed year, an adult wanting to perform their own, or which school's position applies where you live — ask a scholar you trust. And if you are looking for a name in the meantime, the names of Allah are a common starting point for the Abd- compounds.