If the aqiqa is delayed, the shaving of the child’s hair should not be delayed

Question

Question: Is it necessary to have the hair of the child’s head shaved on the very seventh day after birth, or should it be shaved whenever the aqiqa is performed? Can the hair be shaved before or after the aqiqa and silver of equal weight be given in charity? Or should the hair be kept until the aqiqa? Since there is no means to perform the aqiqa now, and the intention is to perform it after a year or two, what should be done in such a case?

Answer

The seventh day is mustahabb; if there is no opportunity at that time, then the fourteenth day, then the twenty-first — this is in Tirmidhi. If it is to be done after that, then even so the seventh day from birth should be observed. The aqiqa itself is not wajib but mustahabb; there is no such emphasis or insistence on it that it must necessarily be performed.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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