Hadith about not trimming hair & nails during sacrifice

[Ruhi_Rose]

 





During the occasion of Eid-al-Adha this year (Dec. 20th 2007) the following Hadith was one of the narrations sent around through email newsletters by a number of Islamic websites including IOL. 

Book 022, Number 4870:
"Umm Salama reported Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) as saying: If anyone of you intends to offer sacrifice he should not get his hair cut or nails trimmed."

I wish to take the opportunity to correct this grave & sinful misconception.  The above Hadith is NOT an Islamic tradition.  This is simply a pagan superstitious practice which is NOT supported by the Glorious Quraan and the beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) NEVER said this. 

Praise be to the Almighty Allah .. and peace, love and blessings on Muhammad, the final Messenger and Seal of the prophets.

Here I'll point out the similarity of an important aspect.  The later time imams and teachers, more than 200 years after the passing away of the beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) were responsible for reviving many such pre-Islamic traditions of the pagn society and bringing them back into Islam, mainly through writing the Hadith literature.  It seems that the trend of human nature seldom changes regardless of  time.  Old habits die hard, the negative ones .... unfortunately.  Many of the clerics have borrowed this trend of fetching pagan customs as a copy-cat practice from the Christian priests and bishops who have since long merged Christianity with various pagan traditions in Europe dating much before the advent of Christianity. 

There is one stupid superstition followed by many non-Muslims claiming not to cut or trim your nails at night, and if you do so, you won't meet your loved ones in the next world.  That hadith seems to be an extension of this same pagan nonsense of not cutting / trimming nails at night.

So don't be surprised when you read such nonsensical ahadith.  Just ignore them .. or better still, trash them.

Assalaam Alaykum and peace to all.

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Thanks for this very useful post, Sis Ruhi.  I've come across this hadith many times.  It's just too senseless to even discuss.  Of course the Prophet (pbuh) would never even contemplate of saying such a thing.  I want to ask some traditionalist hadithists what reason they can give for not cutting your nails and hair before sacrifice of Eid-al-Adha.  Just wanna know what they say. 

[Heba E. Husseyn]

AsSalaam Alaykum to all


Here's something interesting which you folks might like to read.  There's a program every Saturday called 'Muslim Chronicle' hosted by Ashraf Zouglou (I think I've spelt his second name wrong).  Anyway .. I contacted him in his website http://www.spiritofislam.com and asked him on this issue.  I quote my email as follows:


"BismAllah ...
 
AsSalaam Alaykum Br. Ashraf
 
I would like to put a question on a hadith that was sent to me on the occasion of Eid-al-Adha by one of the Islamic organizations.  I quote that hadith as follows:
 
Book 022, Number 4870:
"Umm Salama reported Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) as saying: If anyone of you intends to offer sacrifice he should not get his hair cut or nails trimmed."
 
My query is - what's the ethical or logical reason behind not trimming one's nails or hair if one intends to offer sacrifice?  The Noble Qur'an does not say any such thing.  And of course, the beloved Prophet (pbuh) never said it because the Prophet would never implement such unnecessary rules not supported by the Qur'an.  On doing some research, it became quite clear to me that this hadith basically portrays ancient pagan customs that Islam abolished and forbids.  If you think this hadith is correct, can you please elaborate a little by giving proper reasons why it should be accepted.
 
By the way, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Majority of the narrations in the collection of Sahih al-Bukhari seem to be anything but 'sahih.' 
 
May Allah (The Sublime) grant guidance to our misguided Ummah and bring them to the path of the Glorious Qur'an as instructed by Allah and His Messenger.
 
Praise be to Allah (The Highest) and peace & love on Muhammad, the final Messenger and seal of the prophets. 
 
Your sister in Islam"


Br. Ashraf's reply was as follows:    These people never cease to amaze me ..

Quote:
Asslamu Alikum;
 
I'm not sure what you mean when you say "By the way, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Majority of the narrations in the collection of Sahih al-Bukhari seem to be anything but 'sahih.' 
 
The Quran and the Hadith are the bases for our religion Islam. The Quran tell us to pray, but does not tell us how or when to pray. The Hadith tells us the details. So we can not choose our own way of prayers and say the Quran said to pray and I fulfill this by praying my own way. We have to follow the Hadith that tells us how to pray.
 
The Hadith (which tells us about the life and deeds of prophet Mohammed) is the explanation and application of the Quran in our Life.
 
As part of our Iman is to obey the commandments of prophet Mohammed Peace be upon him. These come to us through the Hadith Sahih.
 
Based on this we should never try to argue or doubt whether a Hadith Sahih is true or not. We have to accept it is true. However in some cases we can discuss how this applies to our life today and our circumstances and environment.
 
I hope this clarifies the issue.
 
Asslamu Alikum
Ashraf
Unquote:


My response to Br. Ashraf's above comments:

"BismAllah ..
Walaikum Salaam Br. Ashraf
 
Many thanks for your email.  But I'm sorry, your response clarifies nothing.  When I say majority of the narrations of al-Bukhari (and others) are anything but 'sahih,' I mean that most of them are either downright nonsensical, or they  contradict the Noble Quraan or they defame the character of the beloved Prophet (pbuh).  For instance, I've read a hadith that insinuates that the Prophet (pbuh) married Aisha (ra) against the wishes of her father.  Nauzbillah.  I've read another that says those who don't go to the masjid for Fajr prayers should be burned in their homes.  Taubah!  I've read yet another that states it's healthy to drink camel urine.  AstaghfarAllah!  Hadith also demands death sentence for adultery which is totally against the ruling of the Quraan.  And there are many  more such obnoxious narrations peppered all over the Hadith collections that are not at all supported by the Noble Quraan. 
 
For every single decent Hadith that a person might read, there are more than 12 offensive ones.  So what's the point?
 
Moreover, I'm not surprised that you took up that issue about Hadith teaching salaah.  That's the standard question through which every Hadith adherent tries to defend Hadith.  But it's a quest in futility.  I could write pages of proof from the Glorious Quraan to show that Hadith does not teach salaah just as Hadith does not teach a lot of other things for which it gets undue and blind credit.  But as I see, there's no use talking to my mainstream brethren.  Their minds are already too pre-conditioned by the traditions of their  imams.
 
Whether we like it or not, we have to acknowledge that the Ummah today has deviated into innovations for which Allah has given them no warrant, exactly the same way as the People of the Book did.  Thus, the counterpart of the Old and New Testaments is not the Glorious Quraan.  It is the Hadith.  Just as the Old and New Testaments contain writings by Jewish and Christian clergy and 'saints' in the name of Prophet Essa, son of Maryam (peace on them both), the Hadith contains the writings of imams, ulemas and muftis portraying their ideologies and not those of my beloved Prophet (peace & love be on him, always).  These imams and ulemas are simply using the name of the Prophet (pbuh) only to give leverage to their ideas and thus, duping the naive faithfuls.   It is more than obvious that these imams have used Hadith to re-introduce many of those traditions that are a clear revival of the pagan customs rampant in the days of Jahilya. 
 
Allah (The Highest) has made it crystal clear that the Noble Quraan is complete and perfected.  Yet, the Ummah today insists that it is incomplete without the Hadith.  Our disobedience and arrogance to the commandments of Allah are shocking.  No wonder Allah's wrath is all over the present-day Ummah.  If only the beloved Prophet (pbuh) was here today to see the extent of our deviation, he (pbuh) would have been shocked and grieved beyond words.  Not to mention, there was no such thing as 'Hadith' during the time of the Prophet (pbuh), because he (pbuh) never allowed the writing nor the preservation of his (pbuh) words.  The Prophet (pbuh) only preserved the Divine Words of the Glorious Quraan as revealed to him (pbuh) by Allah (The Highest).
 
Also, no wonder you conveniently ignored my actual query with the usual trick, as follows: 
 
Your quote:
 " .. we should never try to argue or doubt whether a Hadith Sahih is true or not. We have to accept it is true. However in some cases we can discuss how this applies to our life today and our circumstances and environment."
 
*Applause* brother!  What a 'brilliant' explanation!!   Therefore, in "some cases" when we can discuss how a Hadith applies to our lives, we discuss it.  But in other cases where the Hadith narrates nonsense, we are supposed to keep our mouths shut, right?  No wonder you didn't answer my question by discussing why Hadith doesn't permit us to trim our nails and hair during sacrifice .. because it's nonsense.  Thank you for your discreet admission of this fact.  I accept your answer.
 
Although Allah (Subhanu Wa'Tala) does not disallow us from trimming our nails and hair when we intend to offer sacrifice, yet Bukhari does disallow us, so we follow Bukhari blindly by giving him preference to the Quraan.  Shame on this Ummah!
 
JazekAllah Khair and peace ..
 
Your sister in Islam"


I guess he must have tried to respond to my second email above.  But I blocked his address because otherwise the argument would go on and both sides would get hyped.  That's really no use and unpleasant.

May Allah guide such people onto a better path, InshAllah, ameen.

[Zainab_M]

lol 😅   He was completely bowled out.  He didn't have a thing to say on this hadith.  You cornered him well.  I think you shouldn't have blocked him.  It might have been interesting to see what rubbish he would have sent next.  At times it's useful to gauge the extent of their ignorance.  But I agree with your point too.  It makes one get hyped, and it's really not worth getting hyped over such ignorant minds. 

Thanks for putting this up sis 

Salaams and peace!