• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Celebrating Non-Religious Festivals
 
–
by Abuz Zubair
-----------------------------------------
Although, reading this thread on multaqa, it seems that the brothers condemn any and every celebrationother than the two Eids, be they religious or not, and as far as my understanding goes, Ibn Taymiyya inhis iqtida particularly speaks about religious celebrations and not all types of celebrations in which there isno element of taqarrub or 'ibada involved. His entire argument is based on taqdis and tafdil given to a dayor a place without any authority from Allah. On this basis, celebrating birthdays wouldn't be a bid'a, just ascrowds coming together at yearly JIMAS event wouldn't be bid'a, because none of that is done in order torecognize tafdil of time/place. Birthdays, despite of their disputed origin, are no longer part of anyparticular culture or religion, but its something that happens in all cultures just to feel happy the daysomeone was born; it's a bit like honeymoon which all Salafi brothers go on, under the guise of a trip toEgypt for Arabic! JIMAS is also organized at a particular period of the year and place, not because of anytafdil given to that day/place, except that it's convenient.
 
As far as the national day is concerned, then the whole idea of it is based on nationalism which runscontrary to Islam as an 'ideology', as opposed to a narrowly defined word 'religion'. On that basis,
celebrating the national day would be similar to celebrating Christmas, Allahu Alam… I would like to know
what others have to say on this
 ------------------
I se
e your point, but the hadeeth does not mention that ‘Muslims only have two Eids’. All that the hadeeth
points to is that the Prophet
 –
 
SallAllahu ‘alayhi wa
-sallam
 –
came to madina, and saw the peoplecelebrating days of eid from jahiliyya. So he cancelled them out and informed them that those days have
been replaced with ‘eid al
-
fitr and and ‘eid al
-adha.Now, Shah WaliAllah says in Hujjat Allah al-Baligha that it is said that the jahili celebrations referred to inthe hadeeth are al-Nayruz and al-Mahrajan. Let me quote to what he says in full:
د: لف ، ٌا ف ٌف ب: او؟ نوٌاذ' : لف ، ٌف نوٌ نوٌ مو ، ٌددو دإو ، نراو . زورٌا : لٌ' رطا موٌو ا موٌ ارٌخمدأ
 
ف دٌنمرنٌا شخف ، كذ ٌ ءش وأ ، بذئأ فاووأ ، نٌد رئشٌوهدوو بو إ سارئشٌوٌف نٌوٌدف ، فأ جٌوروأ ، ٌا رئشٌوك نوٌ نأ مدوذ ٌف لٌا  موٌٌا ا ، با ضنٌا نوٌ ئ، طا ناوأو رءإ نمعا اوخٌ ئو
.Again, what seems to be the understanding here is that what the Prophet
 –
 
SallAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam
forbade were actually religious jahili festivals, and not merely because they occur once a year on a
specific day. Yes, linguistically, ‘eid refers to a day or even a place where people get together. So it isapplicable to time and place, and hence, the Prophet’s statement: do not make my grave a
 
place 
of Eid.
He didn’t mean that people shouldn’t choose a specific day of the year to visit him, but that the place itself should not be turned into an ‘Eid environment. This is why the Salaf, even though they would pray inthe Prophet’s mosque five times a day, they wouldn’t repeatedly go to send salam upon the prophet.Also, linguistically speaking, as I said, JIMAS conference is also an ‘Eid, since it happens, though not on
a particular day but surely in a particular month, and on a yearly basis. Yet
, this wouldn’t be considered abid’a, because we are not giving any tafdil or taqdis to that day or month. Similarly, a company might liketo organise a get together party for the staff at the end of every financial year. Again, that wouldn’t be abid’a j
ust because it happens on a particular day of the year. A husband might decide to take his wife out
for a dinner on their wedding anniversary, and again, that wouldn’t be an ‘eid –
 
shar’an, even if it be a
little celebration. Similarly, some parents might feel delighted (as we all do) that their son/daughter has
 
 just turned five, so they might like to buy some cakes and biscuits. That would be a small celebration, but
not an ‘Eid, because none of these celebrations have any religious significance at all, an
d none of thesecelebrations necessitate taqdis or tafdil of a day over other days.
On the other hand, ‘eid milad al
-nabi would be wrong on two counts; a) it is a newly invented religiousfestival and b) it is a blatant tashabbuh with the religious festival of the kuffar, i.e. Christmas.Some may argue against birthdays on the basis of tashabbuh, but we can reply to that by saying: a)birthdays are not particular to the kuffar, but the entire world celebrates them, including the Muslims; so itis like Muslims wearing suit and ties; and b) the prohibited tashabbuh is with respect to religious matters,and since birthdays are not religious, there remains no mahdhur of tashabbuh.
These are just some of my thoughts by the way, and I am still playing devil’s advocate (don’t take thatliterally!)… I haven’t made up my mind about it, but I do want to look at this issue objectively, because my
understanding of iqtida al-sirat does not correspond with the usual Salafi position on the issue.
 -------------Not all birthdays must be accompanied with cakes and candles, etc. There is nothing wrongwith birthday songs if birthday itself is ok.The argument of people like Ibn Bayyah or Salman al-'Awdah is essentially the same as itappears in iqtida al-sirat al-mustaqim. The problem with the former (not sure about thelatter) is that he does not regard nationalism, and therefore, nationalistic festivals to be atodds with religion.The issue is that of fiqh and surely not something over which Ahl al-Sunnah have ijma' on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
abu hafs
 
thats how they started in the first place...can u compare it to wearing pants ...? 
Yes, there might be some places where it isn't celebrated. The point being made here that itisn't a 'Western' celebration as such. It is celebrated in many Muslim countries, Buddhistcountries, etc, etc... It isn't something that typifies the West or Christianity. A cross, forinstance, does. The robes that Roman Catholic wear, do.Suit and tie also originate in the West. But now it has become the norm for all cultures todress like that, and it isn't considered tashabbuh anymore.It one time, wearing a tailless turban was the sign of Ahl al-Dhimma, about which IbnQudama says it isn't permissible to make mash over it since a Muslim isn't allowed to weara tailless turban in the first place. Now the times have changed and such a turban does not
 
typify Ahl al-Dhimma. The Azharis wear a tailless turban.At one point in history, it was typical of Ahl al-Kitab to wear a cap we know as taaqiya, andhence, the Muslims were ordered not to wear those caps. Now it is normal for the Muslimsto wear Taaqiya and it isn't anymore considered tashabbuh.The same argument could be used for Birthdays. Even if they were originated in the West,they are no longer only associated with the Western culture or religion.ibnislam, nice points but it seems history does not record anything about celebratingbirthdays, and the fiqh books mention nothing about it at all. I guess, it is only now thatbirthdays have become globalised. Secondly, even if the companions or the tabi'un were tocome across it and ban it due to it being tashabbuh, then at a time when birthdays do notidentify a particular religion, they wouldn't be considered tashabbuh anymore; as is the casewith taaqiya or tailless turbans as I pointed out.What sister Iqra mentions seems like a bid'a because of the religious element attached to it:group dua, etc... it is a religious ritual.But what if the parents only wanted to throw a party for the kids to cheer them up once ayear?
Quote:
Yeah, I mean people often celebrate birthdays not because they're necessarily 'older' butbecause to them the day is special, they have the mindset that it's not just
any 
day -it's
their special day 
hence feelings that harbour some 'tafdhil' (albeit on a personal level)?Well, I as a parent, feel happy when my daughter turns six and not because I believe that aparticular day of the month is special. She could have been born in month at any date, thatdoesn't bother me at all. What concerns me is that my daughter is a year older today, so Inaturally feel happy. And on that day, I decide to buy her some gifts out of love andcompassion.Also, the tafdil we are talking about is in terms of taqdis, i.e. giving a religious basis for aday to be more important than others. In this vein Ibn Taymiyya speaks about the 15th of Sha'ban, etc, and other days where people believe that those days are religiously significantsuch that they should either make pilgrimage to some grave of some saint, or fast, or makeqiyam, etc. None of this takes place on a birthday, simply because it has absolutely noreligious significance.Yes, the Prophet - SallAllahu 'alayhi wa-sallam - abolished the eids in Madina, but as ShahWaliAllah says above, that it is very likely that those Eids were connected to Jahiliyya andthe Prophet wanted to efface all the religious customs from the Jahiliyya. Mind you, there is
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...