Not Cutting Hair and Nails During First Ten Days of Dhul Hijjah

Assalaamu Alaikum Mufti Saheb,

1) Is abstaining from trimming nail, cutting hair etc for the one who is doing Qurbani Sunnah? Or Mustahab?

Jazakallahu khairan

Wa ‘alaykum as-Salām wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuhu,

1) It is Sunnah for those who intend to slaughter that during the first ten days of Dhil Hijjah they should not cut their nails or hair. It is narrated in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim,

قال الإمام مسلم حدثنا ابن أبى عمر المكى حدثنا سفيان عن عبد الرحمن بن حميد بن عبد الرحمن بن عوف سمع سعيد بن المسيب يحدث عن أم سلمة أن النبى –صلى الله عليه وسلم- قال « إذا دخلت العشر وأراد أحدكم أن يضحى فلا يمس من شعره وبشره شيئا » (أخرجه مسلم في صحيحه

(83ج 6 / ص)

“When the ten days of Dhil Ḥijjah set in and any of few wish to make Qurbāni, then he should not cut his hair or nails.”

Commentators of Ḥadīth suggest that the primary reason for this is that we can resemble those who are in Iḥrām.