By our Shaykh, the ‘Allaamah, the Trustworthy Adviser, Abu ‘Abdirrahman Yahya bin ‘Ali Al-Hajoori – may Allaah preserve him –
Tahneek of a Baby?
حَدَّثَنَا حَجَّاجُ بْنُ مِنْهَالٍ، قَالَ: حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ سَلَمَةَ، عَنْ ثَابِتٍ، عَنْ أَنَسٍ قَالَ: ذَهَبْتُ بِعَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ أَبِي طَلْحَةَ إِلَى النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَوْمَ وُلِدَ، وَالنَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فِي عَبَاءَةٍ يَهْنَأُ بَعِيرًا لَهُ، فَقَالَ: مَعَكَ تَمَرَاتٌ؟ قُلْتُ: نَعَمْ، فَنَاوَلْتُهُ تَمَرَاتٍ فَلاَكَهُنَّ، ثُمَّ فَغَرَ فَا الصَّبِيِّ، وَأَوْجَرَهُنَّ إِيَّاهُ، فَتَلَمَّظَ الصَّبِيُّ، فَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم: حُبَّ الأَنْصَارِ التَّمْرَ، وَسَمَّاهُ: عَبْدَ اللهِ.
Anas bin Maalik رضي الله عنه said, “On the day he was born, I took ‘Abdullah ibn Abi Talha to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. I found him wearing a woolen robe while he was marking one of his camels with tar. The Prophet said, ‘Do you have any dates with you?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied. I gave him some dates. He chewed the dates and opened the child’s mouth and put some chewed dates into the child’s mouth. The child licked his lips. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘The Ansar love dates,’ and gave him the name ‘Abdullah. Sahih (Al-Albani), Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 1254
Abu Talha’s newborn son Abdullah would go on to have 10 children whom all go onto become huffadh al- Qur’an (memorizers of the Qur’an) this is considered to be from the blessings of dua the prophet ﷺ made for the parents of Abdullah.
AT-Tahneek is rubbing a bit of honey or the sweetness of dates. And ‘Hanak’ is the upper & inner part of the mouth, so the parent places their clean finger and rubs it gently in the upper inner part of baby’s the mouth.
Some people (in today’s times) restrict this action to be done specifically by the Imams of masajid but this never occurred amongst the companions that they would carry their new born to Abu Bakr or Umar or Uthman or Ali رضي الله عنهم but rather the companions used to bring their newborn to the prophet ﷺ to seek Allah’s blessing.
As for tahneek then the parent should do this themselves and not go and take their baby to so and so to do tahneek. Tahneek is legislated Whether it’s done by the father or the mother.
Be mindful as you do tahneek and dont give the baby too much since it can cause the child undesired effects for them such as diarrhoea, and fevers and you will be the cause of this.
Transcribed to Arabic and summarized : By Abu Nu’aym Abduraheem Bin Ali As – Somali
Click on the link to view the Arabic : https://t.me/sh_yahia_duroos/5577