If a child dies before circumcision, he is not circumcised
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Q: I was a Bedouin man living in the desert about thirty years ago. At that time, Allah blessed me with a son, but the boy did not live to be more than one year old, and Allah took him. The issue is that I did not perform his ritual purification. After his death and before I buried him, I feared that I would be sinful for not purifying him, so I personally performed his purification. I want to know, from your eminence, the validity of what I did, and whether I would have been sinful if I had buried him without performing his purification?
A: If a person dies before being circumcised, he is not circumcised, according to the correct opinion of the scholars, and this is the view of the majority of scholars. Al-Nawawi said in *al-Majmu'*: "The correct
position is to assert that he is not circumcised in any case; because it is a part, so his hand is not cut off for the right to cut it for theft or retaliation, and they have agreed that it is not cut off — meaning: if he dies before the execution of the hadd for theft — and this differs from hair and nails, which are removed in life for adornment, and the dead person shares in that with the living, and circumcision is done for the sake of being obligated to it, and that obligation is removed by death. And Allah knows best. End of quote. Accordingly, what you did in circumcising your son after his death is contrary to what is preferred, but there is no sin or blame on you for it; because you are excused due to your ignorance of the ruling in this matter.
A: If a person dies before being circumcised, he is not circumcised, according to the correct opinion of the scholars, and this is the view of the majority of scholars. Al-Nawawi said in *al-Majmu'*: "The correct
position is to assert that he is not circumcised in any case; because it is a part, so his hand is not cut off for the right to cut it for theft or retaliation, and they have agreed that it is not cut off — meaning: if he dies before the execution of the hadd for theft — and this differs from hair and nails, which are removed in life for adornment, and the dead person shares in that with the living, and circumcision is done for the sake of being obligated to it, and that obligation is removed by death. And Allah knows best. End of quote. Accordingly, what you did in circumcising your son after his death is contrary to what is preferred, but there is no sin or blame on you for it; because you are excused due to your ignorance of the ruling in this matter.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.