Just hair cutting

Some call it ‘cukur jambul’ and some just call it just ‘bercukur’. I don’t really know which is the correct version or the correct term. To me it’s only the first time that one cuts the newly born baby’s head hair. And I also do not know how it all started; some said it has got religious implications but I am not that knowledgeable in this religious thing. Some said that it should be done within 2 weeks of the baby’s birth, and some added that it should be done with the ‘aqiqah’ ……. that is first sacrifice of animals for the baby, supposedly to be Prophet Muhammad’s PBUH tradition.

What ever it was, I felt that I should do something with my newly born 3rd grandson’s hair (Not really newly, he was born about 3 months ago). If not for anything, it was a way of cleaning the birth dirt on his head. So on the Saturday morning the 26th of July 2008, I decided that, with the agreement of the baby’s parents and my wife, to have a sort of ceremony to have the first cut of my grandson’s hair. After the Subuh prayers on that days I had my surau (small mosque) crowd (those who were in the surau that morning for the Subuh prayers) come to my house to have the ceremony done. And of course we have to have a good ‘eat’ for the crowd as well.





Here is what they did during the hair cutting.



(The youtube video may not be that good when first downloaded but improves on another playback normally).

But before that we said some prayers,



followed by the ‘selawat’ (in praise of Prophet Muhammad PBUH) during the hair cutting ceremony, as in the video.

My grandson’s hair all looked good the previous day,



That how it looked on the Saturday morning prior to the ceremony.



And my grandson’s head looked like after (a close view).



My grandson is now hairless, until the hair grow again.

What did we do with the hair that had just been cut? We buried it in the ground behind our house.

Letters to Sam

I have just finished reading this book "Letters to Sam" by Daniel Gottlieb, published by Sterling New York/London; the book I bought last week, started reading it before mid-night last night and just finished it late this afternoon.

Its a wonderful book, Sam is the author's grandchild. The book is recommended to be read by all grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the advice given by the grandfather to his young grandson Sam.