If a child is born very premature and the father is unable to perform most of the sunnah actions such as tahnik and saying adhaan into the child ears when the child had just been born and a while after, can the father still perform these actions when the child is better and the Doctor allows him to do so? Even if the time of performing the sunnah actions as above is after the child is for example more than 1 month old? Awaiting your advise.

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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

It is evident from the Hadeeth reports and statements of the scholars that Tahneek (rubbing a piece of softened date on the roof of the mouth) of the newborn child and calling the Athaan in his ear are among the Sunnah acts that are performed at the time of birth, so that Tahneek is done before the child is fed anything else and Athaan is called in his ear before he hears anything else.

The evidence for this is that Al-Haakim recorded that Abu Raafi’ said: “I saw the Messenger of Allaah calling the Athaan in the ear of Al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali when Faatimah gave birth to him.” [Abu Daawood and At-Tirmidhi who said that it is a Saheeh (sound) Hadeeth]

An-Nawawi said in Al-Majmoo': “The Sunnah is that the Athaan is called in the ear of the new-born baby at the time of his birth, whether it is a male or female.”

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen was asked: “With regard to the Athaan in the right ear of the newborn and the Iqaamah in his left ear, is it a Sunnah and is there any evidence for it?” He answered: “There is evidence for the Athaan, and its Hadeeth is Hasan (good) and quite acceptable, but the Athaan should be right after birth before the baby hears anything, so that the first thing that he hears is the call to prayer and success. As regards the Iqaamah, the Hadeeth for that is weak.” [End of quote]

As for Tahneek, An-Nawawi said in Al-Majmoo’: “The Sunnah is that Tahneek is done to the newborn with a date. A person chews it first and then puts it in the mouth of the newborn, and opens his mouth so that something of that date gets down to his stomach, and our scholars said, if it is not with a date, then let it be with something else that is sweet.”

Evidence that Tahneek is done with a date is the authentic Hadeeth which the author mentioned and it is also in Sunan Abu Dawood with a Saheeh chain of narrators that ‘Aa’ishah said: “Babies used to be brought to the Messenger of Allaah and he would perform Tahneek on them and supplicate for them to be blessed.”

Also, Asmaa' bint Abi Bakr said: “I was pregnant with 'Abdullah ibn Az-Zubayr in Makkah and I came to Madeenah. I gave birth in Qubaa’ and then I came to the Prophet so he put the baby in his lap and called for a date and chewed it and then he blew into the baby’s mouth, so the first thing which entered his stomach was the saliva of the Messenger of Allaah and then he rubbed the inside of the baby’s mouth with the date and supplicated for him and asked Allaah to bless him.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] [End of quote]

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said: “Tahneek should be at birth so that the first thing that the baby gets fed with is that which he was given by Tahneek.” [End of quote]

Allaah Knows best.