As salaam o alaikom. Thanks for answering my previous question. I am presently pregnant Alhamdulillah and would like to do the aqiqah of my child on the seventhth day Insha allah. Can the meat be preserved and used for giving a feast after a couple of weeks, as I will not be able to attend to guest due to ill health? It is a practice in our family to give gifts to newborn irrespective of the fact that the aqeeqah is performed or not. So they inquire if aqeeqah will be done or not. If done they bring gifts along with them in the invitation and if not done they come and give anyday. So I will not be able to stop them bringing gifts. Can the gifts be accepted for the fact that it is given out of love and not as an exchange of aqeeqahs invitation? Please answer as soon as possible as there is only a month left for my delivery. Jazak Allah Khair.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is permissible, Allaah willing, to slaughter an ‘Aqeeqah on the seventh day after the birth of the child and serve it at a Waleemah (banquet) on another day; the matter in this regard is flexible. It should be noted that it is permissible to distribute the ‘Aqeeqah as meat, and it is also permissible to cook the meat and invite the people to it. Ibn Qudaamah said: “If one cooks it [the ‘Aqeeqah] and calls his (Muslim) brothers to it, then this is good.”

On the other hand, it is permissible for you to accept the gifts on the occasion of the birth of the newborn whether or not the ‘Aqeeqah is held, as the teachings of Islam urged people to accept gifts and to recompense for them. Abu Hurayrah said the Prophet said: "Exchange gifts, as this removes the spite from your hearts towards one another; and a Muslim woman should not look down upon the gift sent by her she-neighbor even if it were the trotters of the sheep.” [At-Tirmithi]

Allaah Knows best.