Giving Charity in Silver Equal to the Weight of the Newborn’s Hair

In the Name of Allaah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful…

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Umar Baazmool (may Allaah preserve him) was asked: Our shaykh!  It has been reported that Faatimah – may Allaah be pleased with her – used to give charity (in silver) equal to the weight of her newborn’s hair after shaving it on the seventh day.  Is that a Sunnah she got from the Prophet – may Allaah raise his rank and grant him peace – or was it her own preferred way of giving (optional) charity?  May Allaah reward you and bless your time and deeds.

He answered:

Yes, what seems correct is that it was a Sunnah she learned from the Messenger – may Allaah raise his rank and grant him peace – to give the weight of the newborn’s (shaven) hair in silver.  Al-Albaanee alluded to this in al-Irwaa when he traced the sources of the narrations about the ‘Aqeeqah, saying that it reaches the level of being hasan by supporting routes.  Furthermore, the narrations give this impression:

Maalik narrated in his Muwatta’, from Ja’far ibn Muhammad, who narrated that his father said that Faatimah weighed the hair of Hasan, Husayn, Zaynab, and Umm Kulthoom, and then gave its weight in silver in charity.

Also in the Muwatta’ is the report of Rabee’ah ibn Abee ‘Abdir-Rahmaan, who narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Alee ibn Husayn, that Faatimah weighed the hair of Hasan and Husayn, and then gave the weight (of the hair) in silver in charity.

And Yahyaa ibn Bukayr said: Ibn Lahee’ah narrated to me that ‘Umaarah ibn Aziyyah narrated from Rabee’ah ibn Abee ‘Abdir-Rahmaan, from Anas ibn Maalik, that the Messenger of Allaah ordered the heads of Hasan and Husayn on their seventh days to be shaved and the weight of it (the hair) in silver be given in charity.

And ‘Abdur-Razzaaq said: Ibn Jurayj reported that he heard Muhammad ibn ‘Alee saying: Faatimah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allaah, did not used to have a newborn except that she ordered the head to be shaved and the weight of it in silver to be given in charity.

I ask Allaah to give you success, blessings, and stability.

Source: The shaykh’s personally written email dated 1433/1/3 (original Arabic quoted below).

Translated by: Moosaa Richardson

 قلت: شيخنا روي عن فاطمة رضي الله عنها أنها كانت تتصدق بوزن شعر المولود بعد الحلق اليوم السابع، فهل ذلك سنة أخذتها عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أو اختيارها الشخصي في كيفية التصدق؟

 شكر الله لك وبارك في أوقاتك وأعمالك

 فأجاب الشيخ محمد عمر بازمول:

 نعم الذي يظهر أنها سنة تعلمتها من الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم.. أن تتصدق بزنة شعره فضة… والألباني أشار في الأرواء عند تخريجه لأحاديث العقيقة أن هذا الأمر يتقوى بالطرق الواردة فيه إلى درجة الحسن لغيره.. والروايات تشعر بذلك :

وقد روى مالك في موطئه عن جعفر بن محمد عن  أبيه قال وزنت فاطمة شعر حسن وحسين وزينب وأم كلثوم فتصدقت بزنة ذلك فضة

 وفي الموطأ أيضا عن ربيعة بن أبي عبد الرحمن عن محمد بن علي بن حسين أنه قال وزنت فاطمة بنت رسول الله شعر حسن وحسين فتصدقت بزنته فضة وقال يحيى بن بكير حدثنا ابن لهيعة عن عمارة ابن عزية عن ربيعة بن أبي عبد الرحمن عن أنس بن مالك أن رسول الله أمر برأس الحسن والحسين يوم سابعهما فحلقا وتصدق بوزنه فضة

 وقال عبد الرزاق أخبرنا ابن جريج قال سمعت محمد بن علي يقول كانت فاطمة ابنة رسول الله لا يولد لها ولد إلا أمرت بحلق رأسه وتصدقت بوزن شعره ورقا

أسال الله لك التوفيق والبركة والسداد

26 thoughts on “Giving Charity in Silver Equal to the Weight of the Newborn’s Hair

  1. Bis-millah. Can you give an estimate in dollars that you think an average child’s hair would weigh, insha-Allah?

    • I’ve the same question. Is there an average weight of the shaven hair of a newborn baby on the 7th day?

      Jazak Allah.

    • Shaving newborn baby hair : Is there any good side cientifically proved?

    • I would like to give a direct answer. I weighed the hair of my newborn baby girl by using a ruler, fulcrum and a 20 cent Australian coin. The setup is shown in the pic 1 and the solution is shown in pic 2.

      I shaved her head completely at the seventh (7th) day and collected almost all of the hair (ofcourse some were left on the cloth which I couldn’t lift).

      The rough weight I calculated of the total hair is 5.317 grams. Hair are wrapped in a 3ply tissue paper which roughly weighs 0.597 grams. So Total weight of hair is 4.72 grams.

      Please do keep in mind the calculations are not perfect since I didn’t consider the weight of the ruler, the width of the fulcrum which ideally should be very small. I welcome anyone who can look at the pic and make my calculations more precise.

      I hope it will help someone.

      Keep me and my family in your prayers.

      JazakALLAH Khair

  2. As-Salaamu alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu,

    May Allah reward you for posting this.

    It appears from this Q & A that the sunnah of shaving the newborn’s head and giving the value in silver to charity is irrespective of gender. Am I understanding this correctly?

    A brother informed us that it is bidah for girls and sunnah for boys.

    Can you please clarify this matter for us?
    Jazakallahu khayran.

    • Wa ‘alaykas-salaamu wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. Your understanding is correct. This is an issue of differing, and some scholars believe that shaving is only for boys. What appears correct is the argument that the order for shaving is not specific to boys, since shaving has been ordered by the phrase, “Remove the harm,” meaning: the pre-natal hair is something harmful. It would be strange to think that pre-natal hair for boys is harmful, but not the pre-natal hair of girls. Also, there is a principle in Fiqh that all guidance is directed at both males and females equally, until a clear evidence specifies one or the other. Also, dilaalat al-muqaaranah can be used as well (a kind of contextual evidence within the wording), since the same hadeeth mentions naming and slaughtering on the seventh day as well. These two actions are clearly not specific to boys. In brief, this is why I feel the argument is stronger in favor of shaving both boys and girls, and Allaah knows best.

  3. As -salaamu ‘alaiykum, Ustaadh Moosaa- may Allaah preserve you upon khaiyr, can you present the hukm on the narrations cited by the shaiykh above. Also, could you present fat(aa)wa from the ‘ulamah who held that it should be carried out for the girl child as well?

    • Wa alaikum as salam
      As u can read in 3rd paragraph it is clearly writen that grandchildren of Prophet Muhammad sallallaho alihi wasallam including Zaynab and Umm Kulthoom hair were shaved and their equal weight silver was given in charity.
      I hope i am correct because yesterday was 7th day of my newborn baby girl and i shaved her hair and i asked knowledge people.

      Allah forgive me if i m wrong and guide me.
      Aameen

  4. Akhee, Baarakallaahu feekum, i am from india. Allah blessed me with a boy on last Ramadan and i shaved and weighed the hair of my new born baby on seventh day at a jewellery and asked if i can get silver of that weight and they said its too small weight costing rs. 30 (1/2 dollar) for silver in that weight and i cant buy silver for such a small quantity. So what can i do? Its been around four months now.

  5. Bismillah
    Assalaamu Alaikum warahmatuhlahi wabarakatuh.

    To weight the hair one would need a small hand scale and could place hair in a bag and weight it.

    As for the conversion to silver, I don’t know

  6. Yes that is correct. These days silver is about $0.5 per gram. It is difficult to find a scale that can weight small weights. I have estimated about 25-30 grams of our baby girl weight of shaved hair. I could not find any other estimates on hair shavings weight upon searching the web.

    • Estimates are of no benefit in this case. Some children have lots of thick, heavy hair at birth, and others have little to no hair, even siblings from the same parents. Just weigh the hair once it is shaved, and if you can afford to give that amount in silver, then do so. The Deen is easy, don’t complicate it by overthinking it. And Allaah knows best.

    • My second daughter who had a very full head mashAllah had a hair weight of 2.40 grams.
      The silver rate 0.53/gram so the total was around $1.272 Canadian dollars.

  7. Assalam ‘alaykum – I am blessed with a baby girl on 2nd of April,2016 .I did aqeeqah on 7th day ,but i did not manage to shave her on that day then I shaved her on 9th her hair weighed 1.1 g ,my son when was born on seventh day his hair weighed around 0.9 g – these are weights for my children – not necessarily this holds for other children
    But brother you estimated 25 g – this is too much Ithink

  8. Any evidence that Aqiqa animal in case of a baby boy be done at different places each. example . people living away from home can ask to do one at their home country to distribute to poor people there.
    Or it is necessary to do at the same place. JazakAllah khair

  9. السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

    Akhi Moosa, my daughter’s shaving off of hair was done at my wife’s place and they didn’t weigh the hairs. What should I do? Can this Sadqah be given in Mosques?

  10. SALAM aLAIKUM WARAMOTULAHI WABARAKATU.

    I JUST GAVE BIRTH TO A NEW BABY GIRL SOME ONE MONTH AGO,BUT ACCORDING TO THE SUNNAH,I SHAVED THE BABY’S HAIR ON THE SEVENTH DAY BUT THE ISSUE NOW IS,I DID NOT WEIGH THE SHAVED HAIR BEFORE DISPOSING.CAN I USE A PRE-DETERMINED WEIGHT TO VALUE THE AMOUNT OF SADAQAH TO MAKE ON BEHALF OF THE BABY?
    ALSO,WHAT IS THE STANDARD WEIGHT(or range) OF A BABY’S SHAVED HAIR?

    MAA SALAM.

  11. This question does not pertain to the subject but I saw that you recommended that we ask through bakkah ( as women) and that would be best. My question is, however, about hair: As salaamu alaykum rahmatullah. Do you know the permissability on bantu knots or puffs. Not one in the middle but small ones around the head. Does the prohibition of the camels hump prevent the hair from being sectioned into small sections and wrapped with a band (smaller ponytails/pigtails which on certain hair types the hair would puff out and not lay) like what you would see small girls wearing?

  12. Assalaamu’alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu

    U affirmed indirectly in da latest lesson in da manners series in buloogh dat wearing braids is sunnah and that men shud keep them simple though coz we gotta remove them for every prayer.

    I previously came across info. sayin that keeping long hair isn’t sunnah but just something customary.

    How is keepin braids sunnah for which we’re rewarded but keeping long hair isn’t sunnah and was just from da customs of da arabs?

    • Wa ‘alaykum as-salaamu wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. I did not say that wearing long hair or braids is Sunnah, sorry. Except maybe Sunnah ‘Aadiyyah, or Sunnah Taareekhiyyah, which are just facts about his life, and things he did along with the established customs of the people of his time, but not matters taken as things to draw near to Allah with. And Allaah knows best.

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