On the same day, however, two practices which I am about to mention are prescribed to be observed; though, as far as my observations and inquiries allow me to judge, they are generally neglected by the modern Muslims. The first of these is a sacrifice. The victim is called ´aḳeeḳah. It should be a ram or goat; or two such animals should be sacrificed for a son, and one for a daughter. This rite is regarded by Ibn-Ḥambal as absolutely obligatory: he said, "If a father sacrifice not for his son, and he [the son] die, that son will not intercede for him on the day of judgment." The founders of the three other principal sects regard it in different and less important lights, though Moḥammad slew an ´aḳeeḳah for himself after his prophetic mission. The person should say, on slaying the victim, "O God, verily this ´aḳeeḳah is a ransom for my son such a one; its blood for his blood, and its flesh for his flesh, and its bone for his bone, and its skin for his skin, and its hair for his hair. O God, make it a ransom for my son from hell fire." A bone of the victim should not be broken.[219] The midwife should receive a leg of it. It should be cooked without previously cutting off any portion of it; and part of it should be given in alms.
After this should be performed the other ceremony above alluded to, which is this:—It is a sunneh ordinance, incumbent on the father, to shave or cause to be shaved the head of the child, and to give in alms to the poor the weight of the hair in gold or silver. This should also be done for a proselyte.[220] On the subsequent occasions of shaving the head of a male child (for the head of the male is frequently shaven), a tuft of hair is generally left on the crown, and commonly for several years another also over the forehead.
Circumcision is most approved if performed on the same day;[221] but the observance of this rite is generally delayed until the child has attained the age of five or six years, and sometimes several years later. (See p. [200]).
The Muslims regard a child as a trust committed by God to its parents, who, they hold, are responsible for the manner in which they bring it up, and will be examined on this subject on the day of judgment. But they further venture to say, that "the first who will lay hold of a man on the day of judgment will be his wife and children, who [if he have been deficient in his duty to them] will present themselves before God, and say, 'O our Lord, take for us our due from him; for he taught us not that of which we were ignorant, and he fed us with forbidden food, and we knew not:' and their due will be taken from him."[222] By this is meant, that a certain proportion of the good works which the man may have done, and his children and wife neglected, will be set down to their account: or that a similar proportion of their evil works will be transferred to his account.
The mother is enjoined by the law to give suck to her child two full years, unless she have her husband's consent to shorten the period, or to employ another nurse. "For suckling the child, a virtuous woman, who eateth only what is lawful, should be chosen; for the unlawful [food] will manifest its evil in the child; as the Prophet ... said, 'Giving suck altereth the tempers.' But it is recommended by the Sunneh that the mother herself suckle the child; for it is said in a tradition, 'There is nothing better for a child than its mother's milk.' 'If thou wouldst try,' it is added, 'whether the child be of an ingenuous disposition in its infancy or not, order a woman who is not its mother to suckle it after its mother has done so: and if it drink of the milk of the woman who is not its mother, it is not of an ingenuous disposition.'"[223]
Children, being regarded by Muslim parents as enviable blessings, are to them objects of the most anxious solicitude. To guard them from the supposed influence of the envious or evil eye, they have recourse to various expedients. When they are taken abroad, they are usually clad in a most slovenly manner, and left unwashed, or even purposely smeared with dirt; and as a further precaution a fantastic cap is often put upon the child's head, or its head-dress is decorated with one or more coins, a feather, a gay tassel, or a written charm or two sewed up in leather or encased in gold or silver, or some other appendage to attract the eye, that so the infant itself may pass unnoticed. If a person express his admiration of another's child otherwise than by some pious ejaculation, as for instance by praising its Creator (with the exclamation of "Subḥána-lláh!" or Má sháa-lláh!" etc.) or invoking a blessing on the Prophet, he fills the mind of the parent with apprehension; and recourse is had to some superstitious ceremony to counteract the dreaded influence of his envious glance. The children of the poor from their unattractive appearance are less exposed to this imaginary danger: they generally have little or no clothing and are extremely dirty. It is partly with the view of protecting them from the evil eye that those of the rich are so long confined to the ḥareem: there they are petted and pampered for several years, at least until they are of age to go to school; but most of them are instructed at home.
The children of the Muslims are taught to show to their fathers a degree of respect which might be deemed incompatible with the existence of a tender mutual affection; but I believe that this is not the case. The child greets the father in the morning by kissing his hand, and then usually stands before him in a respectful attitude, with the left hand covered by the right, to receive any order or to await his permission to depart; but after the respectful kiss, is often taken on the lap. After the period of infancy, the well-bred son seldom sits in the presence of his father; but during that period he is generally allowed much familiarity. A Syrian merchant, who was one of my near neighbours in Cairo, had a child of exquisite beauty, commonly supposed to be his daughter, whom, though he was a most bigoted Muslim, he daily took with him from his private house to his shop. The child followed him, seated upon an ass before a black slave, and until about six years old was dressed like most young ladies, but without a face-veil. The father then thinking that the appearance of taking about with him a daughter of that age was scandalous, dressed his pet as a boy, and told his friends that the female attire had been employed as a protection against the evil eye, girls being less coveted than boys. This indeed is sometimes done, and it is possible that such might have been the case in this instance; but I was led to believe that it was not so. A year after, I left Cairo: while I remained there, I continued to see the child pass my house as before, but always in boy's clothing.
It is not surprising that the natives of Eastern countries, where a very trifling expense is required to rear the young, should be generally desirous of a numerous offspring. A motive of self-interest conduces forcibly to cherish this feeling in a wife; for she is commonly esteemed by her husband in proportion to her fruitfulness, and a man is seldom willing to divorce a wife, or to sell a slave, who has borne him a child. A similar feeling also induces in both parents a desire to obtain offspring, and renders them at the same time resigned to the loss of such of their children as die in tender age. This feeling arises from their belief of certain services, of greater moment than the richest blessings this world can bestow, which children who die in infancy are to render to their parents.
The Prophet is related to have said, "The infant children [of the Muslims] shall assemble at the scene of judgment on the day of the general resurrection, when all creatures shall appear for the reckoning, and it will be said to the angels, 'Go ye with these into Paradise:' and they will halt at the gate of Paradise, and it will be said to them, 'Welcome to the offspring of the Muslims! enter ye Paradise: there is no reckoning to be made with you:' and they will reply, 'Yea, and our fathers and our mothers:' but the guardians of Paradise will say, 'Verily your fathers and your mothers are not with you because they have committed faults and sins for which they must be reckoned with and inquired of.' Then they will shriek and cry at the gate of Paradise with a great cry; and God (whose name be exalted, and who is all-knowing respecting them) will say, 'What is this cry?' It will be answered, 'O our Lord, the children of the Muslims say, We will not enter Paradise but with our fathers and our mothers.' Whereupon God (whose name be exalted) will say, 'Pass among them all, and take the hands of your parents, and introduce them into Paradise.'" The children who are to have this power are such as are born of believers, and die without having attained to the knowledge of sin; and according to one tradition, one such child will introduce his two parents into Paradise. Such infants only are to enter Paradise; for of the children who die in infancy, those of believers alone are they who would believe if they grew to years of discretion. On the same authority it is said, "When a child of the servant [of God] dies, God (whose name be exalted) saith to the angels, 'Have ye taken the child of my servant?' They answer, 'Yea.' He saith, 'Have ye taken the child of his heart?' They reply, 'Yea.' He asketh them, 'What did my servant say?' They answer, 'He praised thee, and said, Verily to God we belong, and verily unto Him we return!' Then God will say, 'Build for my servant a house in Paradise, and name it the House of Praise.'"
To these traditions, which I find related as proofs of the advantages of marriage, the following anecdote, which is of a similar nature, is added. A certain man who would not take a wife awoke one day from his sleep, and demanded to be married, saying as his reason, "I dreamed that the resurrection had taken place, and that I was among the beings collected at the scene of judgment, but was suffering a thirst that stopped up the passage of my stomach; and lo, there were youths passing through the assembly, having in their hands ewers of silver, and cups of gold, and giving drink to one person after another; so I stretched forth my hand to one of them, and said, 'Give me to drink; for thirst overpowereth me;' but they answered, 'Thou hast no child among us; we give drink only to our fathers.' I asked them, 'Who are ye?' They replied, 'We are the deceased infant children of the Muslims.'"[224] Especial rewards in heaven are promised to mothers. "When a woman conceives by her husband," said the Prophet, "she is called in heaven a martyr [i.e. she is ranked, as a martyr in dignity]; and her labour in childbed and her care for her children protect her from hell fire."[225]