Umar bin Nafi reported from Nafi, the freed slave of Abdullah, that he heard Ibn Umar say, "I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbid qaza."Ubaydullah said, "I asked, 'What is qaza?'"Ubaydullah then demonstrated it for us, saying, "It is when a boy's head is shaved and a tuft of hair is left here, and here, and here." Ubaydullah pointed for us to the front of the head and to the two sides.Ubaydullah was asked, "Does this apply to both girls and boys?"He replied, "I do not know. He only said, 'the boy.'"Ubaydullah said, "I went back and asked him again, and he said, 'As for leaving the forelock and the hair at the back of the neck for a boy, there is no harm in that. Qaza is rather to leave hair on the forelock with no other hair on the head, or likewise on this side of the head and that.'"
أن عمر بن نافع، أخبره، عن نافع، مولى عبد الله: أنه سمع ابن عمر يقول: سمعت رسول الله ﷺ ينهى عن القزع. قال عبيد الله: قلت: وما القزع؟ فأشار لنا عبيد الله قال: إذا حلق الصبي، وترك ها هنا شعرة وها هنا وها هنا، فأشار لنا عبيد الله إلى ناصيته وجانبي رأسه. قيل لعبيد الله: فالجارية والغلام؟ قال: لا أدري، هكذا قال: الصبي. قال عبيد الله: وعاودته، فقال: أما القصة والقفا للغلام فلا بأس بهما، ولكن القزع أن يترك بناصيته شعر، وليس في رأسه غيره، وكذلك شق رأسه هذا وهذا.
Bukhari related it in the chapter on Clothing (5920) through Ibn Jurayj, who said, "Ubaydullah bin Hafs informed me," and he related it accordingly. This is the wording of Bukhari.Regarding his statement, "Ubaydullah then gestured to us," there is an ellipsis here, its meaning being that Ubaydullah gestured to us, relaying from the words of Umar bin Nafi, who said, "Qaza is when a boy's head is shaved and a bit of hair is left here, and here, and here."As for his statement in the second instance of gesturing, "Ubaydullah then gestured to us, pointing to his forelock and the two sides of his head," this is from Abdullah's own words, as stated by Ayni (58/22).The explanation may in fact belong to Nafi, as it appears in Sahih Muslim (2120), narrated from Zuhayr bin Harb, who said, Yahya bin Saeed told me, from Ubaydullah, Umar bin Nafi informed me, from his father, from Ibn Umar, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade qaza. He said, "I asked Nafi, 'What is qaza?' He said, 'Part of the boy's head is shaved and part is left.'"So the one who asked the question may have been Umar bin Nafi, his son, or it may have been Ubaydullah, with the question posed at a different time, and the narrator combined the hadith and its explanation into a single account.The explanation of the hadith has also come directly from Ubaydullah himself, as related by Ahmad (4973), from Muhammad bin Bishr, from Ubaydullah bin Umar, from Nafi, from Abdullah bin Umar, who said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade qaza." Ubaydullah said, "Qaza means leaving patches on the head."So Ubaydullah bin Umar would sometimes attribute the explanation to Nafi, and at other times attribute it to himself.Nawawi said, "Qaza, with a fatha on the qaf and the za, and what Nafi or Ubaydullah explained it to mean is the more correct view, namely that qaza is shaving part of the head in a general sense. Some said it means shaving scattered spots on the head, but the correct view is the first, because it is the narrator's own explanation, and it does not contradict the apparent meaning, so it must be acted upon." End of quote.Hafiz said, "However, restricting it to the boy is not a binding condition," meaning that the ruling is general and also includes men and women.As for the statement, "As for the qissah and the qafa hairstyle for a boy, there is no harm in them," Hafiz said, "Al-qissah, with a damma on the qaf followed by a plain sin, here refers to the hair of the temples, and al-qafa refers to the hair of the nape. What follows from this is that qaza is specific to the hair of the head, and the hair of the temples and the nape is not considered part of the head in this ruling."