Naming a newborn baby

The desirability of [naming a child on] the seventh day is established by what has been reported in the book of at-Tirmidhī from ‘Umar ibn Shu‘ayb, who narrated from his father, who narrated from his grandfather, that the Prophet ordered that a newborn baby be given a name on the seventh day, that harm be warded off from him ^[1].and an animal slaughtered. ^[2].According to at-Tirmidhī, this is a ḥasan hadith.

We relate in the Sunans of Abū Dāwūd, at-Tirmidhī, an-Nasā’ī and Ibn Mājah and others, with ṣaḥīḥ isnāds, that Samurah ibn Jundub related that the Messenger of Allah said: “Every baby is subject to his ‘aqīqah: an animal is slaughtered for him on the seventh day, his head is shaved, and he is named.” ^[3].

[There is also support for naming him on] the day he is born, because of what we relate in the hadith of Abū Mūsā which we quoted in the previous chapter. And we relate from the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, as well as from others, that Anas reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “A boy was born to me tonight, and I have given him the name of my forefather Ibrāhīm .” ^[4].

We relate in the Ṣaḥīḥs of al-Bukhārī and Muslim that Anas narrated: “A son was born to Abū Ṭalḥah and I brought him to the Prophet , who did taḥnīk for him and named him ‘Abdullāh.” ^[5].

We relate in both Ṣaḥīḥs that Sahl ibn Sa‘d as-Sa‘dī narrated: “Mundhir ibn Abī Usayd was brought to the Messenger of Allah when he was born. The Prophet put him on his lap while his father, Abū Usayd, was sitting. Then the Prophet was distracted by something in front of him. Abū Usayd asked for his son, and he was carried off the lap of the Prophet and they returned him to his home. The Prophet remembered and said: ‘Where is the baby?’ Abū Usayd said: ‘We have taken him home, Messenger of Allah.’ He said: ‘What is his name?’ He replied: ‘So-and-so.’ He said: ‘No, his name is Mundhir.’ He named him Mundhir on that day.” ^[6].

I say that the word lahiya, with a kasrah on the letter hā’ or with a fatḥah on it (lahā), which are two dialectical variants, (the fatḥah being that of Ṭayyi’ and the kasrah being that of the rest of the Arabs and the well-known classical usage), means ‘to turn away from it’. Others say it means ‘being absorbed in something else’, while others say it means ‘forgetting something’. The word istafāqa means ‘he recalled it’ or ‘he remembered it’; and ‘they took him home’ here means ‘they got him home’.