The 365 · Sunnah · Day 239 · Special Days
The Sacrifice and the Shaving of the Head
The hadith
قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ: اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِلْمُحَلِّقِينَ. قَالُوا: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَلِلْمُقَصِّرِينَ. قَالَ: اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِلْمُحَلِّقِينَ. قَالُوا: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَلِلْمُقَصِّرِينَ. قَالَ: وَلِلْمُقَصِّرِينَ
The Prophet ﷺ said: O Allah, forgive those who shave their heads. They said: O Messenger of Allah, and those who trim. He said: O Allah, forgive those who shave their heads. They said: O Messenger of Allah, and those who trim. He said: And those who trim. (Bukhārī, Muslim)
Svenska: Profeten ﷺ sa: O Gud, förlåt dem som rakar sina huvuden. De sa: O Guds Sändebud, och dem som klipper. Han sa: O Gud, förlåt dem som rakar. De sa: O Guds Sändebud, och dem som klipper. Han sa: Och dem som klipper. (Bukhari, Muslim)
Sahih Bukhārī 1727, Sahih Muslim 1301, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar and Abū Hurayrah. He ﷺ asked thrice for the shavers before including the trimmers.
The story
When Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl reached the place of sacrifice and submitted, Allah substituted the ram (37:107). On the Prophet's ﷺ Hajj, he ﷺ sacrificed sixty-three camels with his own hand, one for each year of his life, and ʿAlī completed the remainder of the hundred (Muslim). After the sacrifice, he ﷺ sat for the shaving, called for the barber, gave the right side of his head first, distributed those hairs among the companions (Abū Ṭalḥah received many), then the left, and distributed those (Bukhārī, Muslim). The hair of the Prophet ﷺ went into the pockets of his ummah as a barakah.
Why it's here
After the stoning, the male pilgrim sacrifices and then shaves his head; the female pilgrim trims a fingertip's length from her hair. Both acts are public surrenders. The animal is given because Ibrāhīm was ready to give his son. The head is shaved because pride lives there and the pilgrim is returning it to its Lord. The Prophet ﷺ supplicated for the shavers three times before he included the trimmers. The shaving is preferred because it is the more complete surrender.
Try it today
1) On the next Eid al-Aḍḥā, witness or perform a sacrifice with full intention; recite bismi Allāhi Allāhu akbar at the moment of slaughter as the Prophet ﷺ did. 2) Distribute one third to the poor, one third to relatives, one third for the family. Do not skip the distribution. 3) Identify what symbolic 'head' of pride in you needs to come off this month: a status you cling to, an image you protect, a corner of your nafs that refuses to bow. Cut it.
In your day
You may not own a camel. You can still practice naḥr. Sacrifice on Eid al-Aḍḥā with intention, even if you order it processed; do not let the rite become an invoice. As for the shaving, brothers, take the head down to the skin on the day of Eid al-Aḍḥā if you make Hajj; outside of Hajj, learn the lesson of the shave: there is a piece of your pride that needs to come off. Identify it. Cut it.
A reflection to carry
There is a quiet humiliation in the shaving. You stand in line with strangers, you sit down, the blade comes across, and the hair you have known your whole life falls to the ground. Men and women have been undone by less. The Prophet ﷺ chose to make this part of Hajj. He made the surrender of the head, the seat of self-image, a pillar of the rite. And he supplicated for the shavers three times before he included the trimmers because Allah loves the more thorough surrender. Now in your own life: where are you trimming when Allah is asking for shaving? The salah that you almost pray. The fast that you almost keep. The repentance that you almost commit to. Allah accepts the trim. He prays for the shaver three times first.
Read the longer reflection
The animal sacrificed on Hajj or on Eid is not for Allah's hunger. The verse is explicit: lan yanāl Allāha luḥūmuhā wa lā dimāʾuhā wa lākin yanāluhu al-taqwā minkum (22:37), neither their flesh nor their blood reaches Allah; only the taqwā from you reaches Him. So what is the point? The point is that an animal under your knife is a tiny rehearsal for the soul under His command. You learn to give what your hand is holding because the day will come when your soul is asked. The sacrifice trains the muscle of surrender. The shaving completes it: now even your appearance is given. The pilgrim who emerges from Minā after the naḥr and the ḥalq is, by design, a new person. He is publicly shorn, publicly emptied, publicly returned. Then he walks toward the Kaʿbah for ṭawāf al-ifāḍah, the ṭawāf of overflow, and Allah pours mercy onto a head whose hair just fell. Apply it. The next time Allah asks something of you that costs your image, your money, your time, your comfort: remember that He is not after the flesh and the blood. He is after the taqwā. Give Him what He is actually asking for. Yā Allāh, accept our sacrifices, even the small ones; shave from us what does not belong; and let what remains be wholly Yours. Āmīn.
Sources: Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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