What is the ruling on cooking food and distributing it to relatives and neighbors on the fortieth day of a newborn's birth, and is it considered a Sunnah or an innovation (Bidʻah)?
It is prescribed, upon the birth of a child, to slaughter an on the seventh day: two sheep for a male and one sheep for a female. Its meat can be distributed raw or cooked. If slaughtering on the seventh day is not possible, then it can be done on the fourteenth or twenty-first day; otherwise, on any other day. As for celebrating the fortieth day of a newborn or deceased person, it is a Pharaonic custom that holds no validity in Islam and is an innovation (bid'ah) that a Muslim is not permitted to do. This is based on the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "Whoever introduces into this matter of ours anything that does not belong to it, it will be rejected," and "Beware of newly invented matters, for every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance."
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