I seem to have a problem concerning birthdays. It is indeed haram to celebrate birthdays and it is equally bad to wish and gift freinds and others on their birthdays as it is the practise of the Christians, it is their culture and their tradition to celebrate birthdays and pass around b'day wishes as it is thought that the more wishes a person gets, the more he is protected from the so-called devils. I'm only recalling what I once read from the newspaper; an article about how celebrating b'days and wishing them came to be (forgive me if there're any errors).
This tradition has influenced the Muslims so much that it has become, like, an OBLIGATION to wish your freinds and relatives, "Happy b'day! Happy b'day!" or else they feel bad and offended...I don't now about the others, but where I live, you really have to wish them, it's absurd I know, but the influence is so STRONG!!!
so my question is, what am I supposed to do when it's my friend's b'day and everyone has wished her, except me...?what if she's my best friend and has given me a present on my b'day, and now it's her b'day, should i do the same to her, that is, give her a present too? what if she gets hurt if i ignore?
Please be kind enough to leave a good reply,,,, so many b'days coming up on December!!!!!
I seem to have a problem concerning birthdays. It is indeed haram to celebrate birthdays and it is equally bad to wish and gift freinds and others on their birthdays as it is the practise of the Christians, it is their culture and their tradition to celebrate birthdays and pass around b'day wishes as it is thought that the more wishes a person gets, the more he is protected from the so-called devils. I'm only recalling what I once read from the newspaper; an article about how celebrating b'days and wishing them came to be (forgive me if there're any errors).
This tradition has influenced the Muslims so much that it has become, like, an OBLIGATION to wish your freinds and relatives, "Happy b'day! Happy b'day!" or else they feel bad and offended...I don't now about the others, but where I live, you really have to wish them, it's absurd I know, but the influence is so STRONG!!!
so my question is, what am I supposed to do when it's my friend's b'day and everyone has wished her, except me...?what if she's my best friend and has given me a present on my b'day, and now it's her b'day, should i do the same to her, that is, give her a present too? what if she gets hurt if i ignore?
Please be kind enough to leave a good reply,,,, so many b'days coming up on December!!!!!
Salams.
Asalaamu Alaikum Wr Wb, then why do you not then break this evil trend and false practise? If someone actually takes the steps to eradicate it then it may catch on and people may be more aware. What we have to realise is that a lot of our Muslim brothers and sisters are just Muslim by name. A lot of our brothers and sisters just don't posess much knowledge of they're deen and it is because they don;t make the effort to. If one does not posess knolwedge then surely one is much more vulnerable and more easily led astray and get confused about what is right and wrong. They end up accepting whatever wrong they are doing as right. We have to educate them and teach them what is right or wrong because it is upto us as Muslims to enjoin good and forbid evil.
"You are the best ummah singled out for mankind: you enjoin what is right (ma'roof), forbid what is wrong (munkar), and believe in Allah." [Al-Imran:110]
If most Muslims knew the origins of birthdays, halloween and Valentines day for example then they would keep away from it but many of us are unaware and are living life imitating the kuffar.
Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه reported that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said: "He is not one of us who imitates other than us. Do not imitate the Jews or the Christians."
At-Tabarani and Abu Dawud narrated that Ibn Umar and Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه reported that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said: "Whoever imitates a people, he is one of them."
So if we imitate the kuffaar then surely we will be like them. We should stop these non Muslim practises and eradicate them from our daily lives. Only the unknowledgable and misled will think of them as being 'innocent'.
It is upto you now to educate your friends and people you know about the dangers of these forbidden non Muslim celebrations.
Just mention it to them whenever you get a chance like "oh i was looking up the origins of birthdays today and this is what i found out about them". Then after you finished telling them about it then mention how we should all keep away from celebrating these non Muslim occassions and the consequances if we do etc.
We should give our families and friends presents on our celebration occassions whch are on Eid or we can give gifts at ANY time but NOT a specific time of the year especially not on non Muslim occassions and holidays.
Here is information about the origins of birthdays and St Valentines day:
Origin of birthdays
In the pagan culture it was believed that evil spirits were attracted to people in their birthdays to protect them from harm.
Family and friends used to go to the house of the birthday person to be with them and bring them good thoughts and wishes and give gifts to ward off evil spirits. The bigger the gifts the bigger the spirit that will be warded away. Only kings were important enough to have birthday parties but in Germany they were started and firstly called kinda fests.
The tradition of the birthday cake was started by early Greeks who used to take round or a moon shaped cake to temple of Artemis - the Goddess of Moon.
The popular custom of lighting candles on cake is said to have originated because Greeks used to light candles on the cake taken to Artemis to make it glow like a moon. Some though believe that custom originated because of a religious belief that gods lived in the sky and lighted candles helped to send a signal or prayers to the god. Germans are said to have placed a big candle in the centre of the cake to symbolize ‘the light of life’. Even today people make silent wishes as they blow out candles. It is believed that blowing out all candles in one breath brings good luck. Also the candles on a birthday cake represent the worship of fire.
Saying “happy birthday” to friends and loved ones was society’s superstitious way of protecting them from evil spirits. Birthday thumps, bumps, pinches, etc., were said to bring luck and send away evil spirits. Party snappers, horns and other noisemakers were also intended to scare off bad-luck spirits.
This has been originated from the pagan culture which will not be accepted in Islam and the purpose was to ward of evil spirits which is also not allowed in Islam.
The Prophet s.a.w did not celebrate his birthday neither did he imitate the disbelievers instead he commanded us not to imitate the disbelievers and to be different to them. In the same way we do not celebrate Christmas or Easter as these also have non Islamic origins.
We have been gifted three occasions of celebrations by Allah s.w.t
These are the two annual Eids and the weekly Fridays. Except these, there are no other celebrations in Islam.
This information has been taken from the dictionary and the encyclopedia.
History of Valentine's Day festival traces its origin to the custom of celebrating 'Feast of Lupercalia' prevalent in the ancient Roman empire. Lupercalia was named after a pagan diety Lupercus.
It has been originated also from a pagan believe that if you gift your spouse’s on this day the spirit of each other will connect you together. This is a spiritual supernatural believe which is also forbidden in Islam.
It is sufficient to know that this celebration has also been originated from a pagan culture and should also not be celebrated.
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