Salaams,

I am new to free-minds and progressive Muslims and wanted to ask what you know about Qur'anic teachings regarding Islamic birth rituals; i.e. shaving the baby's head and giving it away in gold, reciting adhan in its ear, sacrificing a goat for a girl and two goats for a boy, etc etc? Where are all these from? I would like to learn as much as possible as I am pregnant with my first child. Also, we are thinking of a joint surname for the child - i.e. the child will carry both our forenames as its joint surname - i know this is not very traditional or patriarchal but i dont want my child to carry either my surname or my husband's (one because they are from our fathers and not our unique identity and two because neither of us changed our surname at marriage). I don't see why lineage should be determined by the father's surname as is still tradition here in Britain - I don't agree with it as that child does not belong to either of our father's so shouldn't have any of their names - what are your views on this??

Thanks!