What is the meaning of the Aqiqa after a child’s birth?

Through the Aqiqa, parents thank God for their child and, as it were, give it back to Him. Shaving the hair and offering a sacrifice express the resolve to raise the child to live devoted to God.

The Aqiqa is a custom observed after a child is born. The newborn’s hair is shaved, and the family offers a sacrifice. There is no explicit statement of its deeper meaning. That meaning becomes clear, however, when we look at the pilgrimage.

During the pilgrimage, pilgrims offer a sacrifice and shave their heads. The two belong together, as the first verse above shows. The shaven head expresses that a person is handing themselves over completely to God. It is as if they say, until now I was not wholly Yours, from now on I want to be wholly Yours. In many other religions, too, sacrifice and shaving the head have been signs of devotion.

In the Aqiqa the same thing happens on behalf of the child. The parents are saying to God, You gave us this child, and we give it back to You. We want to raise it all its life to be devoted to You. Without this thought the custom would be an empty form. As the second verse says, it is not the flesh of the sacrifice that reaches God, but the devotion behind it.

It is customary to sacrifice two animals for a boy and one for a girl. This says nothing about a child’s worth. It mirrors the order of inheritance, in which a son receives twice the share of a daughter. The reason is responsibility. In Islam the man carries the duty to provide for the family. The woman is free of it, and whatever she owns belongs to her alone. With pregnancy, childbirth and caring for the home she already carries a great deal. Placing the financial burden on her as well would not be equality but hardship.