Are the practices of natural disposition (sunan al-fitra) five or ten, and what are they?

A question about reconciling the hadiths that five, or ten, practices belong to natural disposition (fitra), and about listing the practices with the ruling on each, in which IslamQA answered that the number is not a limit and that the practices mentioned total fifteen, then set out the ruling on each, obligatory or Sunna, with the views of the schools and the hadith scholars. ¹

The questioner asked: Abu Hurayra's hadith says the practices of natural disposition are five and Aisha's hadith says they are ten; how are the two reconciled, and what is the full list of these practices, with the ruling on each one, whether obligatory or recommended? ¹

The site began by setting out the hadiths: Abu Hurayra's hadith in Sahih Muslim that five things belong to natural disposition, circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, trimming the nails, plucking the armpits and trimming the moustache; and Aisha's hadith in Sahih Muslim, through Talq ibn Habib, that ten belong to it, trimming the moustache, letting the beard grow, the tooth-stick, sniffing water into the nose, trimming the nails, washing the finger joints, plucking the armpits, shaving the pubes and cleansing with water, the narrator having forgotten the tenth unless it was rinsing the mouth. ¹ It noted that Aisha's hadith is disputed in its transmission from Talq ibn Habib: Mus'ab ibn Shayba traced it to the Prophet, while Sulayman al-Taymi and Abu Bishr reported it as Talq's own words, and Ahmad, al-Nasa'i and al-Daraqutni faulted it because Mus'ab ibn Shayba's hadiths are rejected, though Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (10/337) graded it good; the preserved version is Talq's saying and its attribution to the Prophet is anomalous, as al-Dubyan's encyclopaedia of purity says. It added the hadith of Ammar ibn Yasir in Ahmad, Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah, listing rinsing the mouth, sniffing water, the tooth-stick, trimming the moustache, trimming the nails, plucking the armpits, shaving the pubic hair, washing the finger joints, sprinkling water and circumcision, and the report from Ibn Abbas, not traced to the Prophet, of five practices all concerning the head, among them parting the hair. ¹ It then ruled that the number in the hadith is not a limit and its implication is not binding, quoting al-Nawawi in his commentary on Muslim (3/147) that 'natural disposition is five' means 'five belong to natural disposition', not confined to ten, and Ibn Daqiq al-Id in Ihkam al-Ahkam (1/124) that the version implying a limit must be taken away from its apparent sense; the practices mentioned total fifteen, as Ibn Hajar says: circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, trimming the nails, plucking the armpits, trimming the moustache, letting the beard grow, the tooth-stick, rinsing the mouth, sniffing water, expelling it, washing the finger joints, shaving the pubes, cleansing after relieving oneself, sprinkling water and parting the hair. ¹

The site then set out the ruling on each. Circumcision is obligatory for men and an honour for women, as Ibn Qudama says in al-Mughni (1/64), a view chosen by Ibn Uthaymin in al-Sharh al-Mumti (1/164); it lapses for one who fears death from it, such as an elderly convert, according to most Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis and a Maliki view, as al-Sawi says in his gloss (2/152), and the Permanent Committee's fatwas (5/136) say circumcision is among the practices of natural disposition and that preachers should refrain from raising it when inviting non-Muslims if it would put them off. ¹ Shaving the pubic hair is Sunna by the agreement of the four schools, reported as consensus, as al-Nawawi says in al-Majmu' (1/289) and al-Iraqi in Tarh al-Tathrib (2/71); trimming the nails and plucking the armpits are Sunna by agreement, Ibn Abd al-Barr in al-Istidhkar (8/336) reporting no disagreement on them or on circumcision except that some made circumcision obligatory; trimming the moustache is Sunna by agreement, reported as consensus by al-Iraqi and al-Shawkani in Nayl al-Awtar (1/109), though Ibn Hazm in al-Muhalla (1/423) made it obligatory, Ibn al-Arabi held all five practices obligatory and was answered by Abu Shama, as in Fath al-Bari (10/340), and Ibn al-Qayyim in Tuhfat al-Mawdud (p. 257) held that the evidence requires trimming it once it grows long, by the hadith of Zayd ibn Arqam that whoever does not take from his moustache is not of us; a Muslim may choose between trimming its edge, as the majority hold, and cutting it very short, as the Hanbalis prefer, in the light of Shurahbil ibn Muslim's report of five Companions who trimmed their moustaches level with the lip, Ibn Umar's hadith 'cut the moustaches short', and Ibn Uthaymin's statement that shaving it is not the Sunna. ¹

Letting the beard grow is obligatory and shaving it forbidden according to most scholars, Ibn Hazm in Maratib al-Ijma (p. 157) even saying they agree that shaving the whole beard is a disfigurement that is not allowed, and Ibn Abidin in al-Uqud al-Durriyya (1/329) saying no one permitted taking from the beard below a fistful, while taking what exceeds a fistful is well known from the early Muslims. ¹ The tooth-stick is Sunna, never obligatory in any state, by the consensus of those whose consensus counts, as al-Nawawi says in his commentary on Muslim (3/142); washing the finger joints is recommended by agreement, as in al-Majmu (1/288); rinsing the mouth and sniffing water are obligatory in ablution according to the Hanbalis, as in Kashshaf al-Qina', and only in the ritual bath according to the Hanafis, while Ibn Taymiyya in Sharh Umdat al-Fiqh (1/178) held them obligatory in both purifications because the Prophet never omitted them in any ablution; expelling the water is Sunna by agreement of the schools, by al-Bukhari's hadith that whoever performs ablution should put water in his nose and then expel it, with agreement that one rinses and sniffs with the right hand and expels with the left; cleansing after relieving oneself is obligatory when its cause exists, according to the majority; sprinkling, that is sprinkling the private parts with a little water after ablution, is recommended for one troubled by the devil's doubts according to the Hanafis and Malikis and unconditionally according to the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, the sound view being that it is for one afflicted with drops, by the hadith of al-Hakam ibn Sufyan that the Prophet urinated, performed ablution and sprinkled his private parts, with the report of Ibn Abbas and the practice of Ibn Umar; and parting the hair is Sunna and better than letting it hang, being the last practice of the Prophet, as Ibn Abd al-Barr says in al-Tamhid (6/74) on the strength of the agreed-upon hadith of Ibn Abbas. ¹ It closed with the question of timing: Anas's hadith in Sahih Muslim that a limit was set for them in trimming the moustache, trimming the nails, plucking the armpits and shaving the pubes, not to be left more than forty days; scholars differ on leaving them beyond forty days, between dislike according to the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, as in Rawdat al-Talibin and al-Furu, and prohibition according to the Hanafis, Ibn Abidin (6/407) saying it is disliked to the point of prohibition and there is no excuse beyond forty, a view chosen by al-Shawkani and Ibn Baz in his collected fatwas (10/50), and a strong one. ¹

IslamQA published this answer on islamqa.info as no. 640660, dated 25 Dhu al-Hijja 1447, 11 June 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.