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So there's nothing wrong with personally remembering the Prophet (S), privately, or
perhaps fasting on that day, or trying to read extra durood that day. The problem
is when the mawlid becomes a public, societal ritual. There's also nothing wrong
with thanking Allah on the day of your birth for the life and religion that He gave
you.
Islam tells us that the public, social, ritual celebrations are the two Eids. In
addition, Islam also tells us about having reasonable feasts on weddings,
distributing food on the birth of a child, and then every Friday too is a special
day, where men are expected to dress well, perfume themselves, and there is a lot
of virtue in extra worship that day. In addition, the best days in the year for
extra worship in the eyes of Allah are the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah, and the
best nights - the last ten of Ramadan. All things worth celebration/appreciation
that humans require have already been dealt with, and this is all they are. Islam
has the right to tell us only these things are worth celebrating, and that if we
create a new, regular community celebration, they automatically fall under "not
worth the celebration".
We need to see our collective lives through the lens of what encompasses
"religion", in order to understand this. You already agree that religion is not
confined to five pillars, but that it defines how we feel, think, walk, talk, and
so on.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) came across some companions indulging in a
celebration that they were used to from pre-Islamic times. Referring to the two
Eids, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Allah, the Exalted, has replaced these
days for two days better than them: the day of breaking the fast and the day of
sacrifice." (al-Nisaai) In other words, all other ritual celebrations have been
nullified.
(This is not to say that if we randomly feel like throwing a party and inviting
some friends over for any personal reason, then this is not allowed. Remember,
we're only discussing *community-wide* *officially accepted* celebrations).
The difference between a minaret and a regular ceremony is that the former is a
structure on a building with little consequence to human society, while the latter
is a ritual celebration that does affect people directly and alter their behavior
and religious commitments. Which brings me to the next point.
As you know, Allah had stipulated different days of importance for different
religions. Today, those religions been corrupted over time, and several other man-
made religions also cropped up, but they all have their own various celebrations -
Judaism, Christianity, Hindusim, Satanic cults, and pagan religions (in which the
birthday has its roots). The "New year" celebrations are still celebrated twice a
year in China, even though after the Communist revolution Chinese today are
generally distant from any religion, but the roots of these celebrations remain
religious, grounded in legends of great heroes and dragons and what not, and based
on faulty calculations of time. (Allah specifies in the Quran that there are
exactly twelve months in a year, the way He created it to be, and so a year cannot
be over before a cycle of twelve months). The point I'm trying to drive home is
mass celebration/apprecation is a religious concept, a social ritual, whether or
not the people celebrating realize it or are even religious themselves. This should
be easy to understand when we believe that "deen" does not cover the five pillars,
but defines our entire lifestyle, everything down to the way we walk and talk. So
if you claim to be a Muslim, and then observe the Christian Sabbath, are you
correctly being Muslim? (The idea behind Sabbath was that it was the day that God
"rested", but Muslims know Allah never tires). Celebrations have a spiritual
essence and ideological background, they symbolize something. Birthdays are the
leftovers of other religions too, and pagan religions at that, which indulged in
Shirk outright. So when we belong to one religion and follow the rituals of another
religion, aren't we introducing elements of other religions and spiritual ideals
into our lives? We may question why Mother's Day and Father's Day should be
included in this list - they're simply a product of a different culture. But
remember the breadth of "deen" is everything you do, your entire way of life and
thinking. Anyone's entire way of life. And the Western way of life is its own
"deen", with its own celebrations.
To illustrate the vastness of the word "deen", remember that in advising people to
choose their close friends carefully, the Prophet (S) said "A person is on the
*deen* of his close friend", and he was referring to Muslims befriending other
Muslims, not people of other religions.
So even if Mother's Day was invented by an atheist, it doesn't stop its celebration
from being a religious issue.
Giving flowers to moms on Mother's Day is not a small deal. Islam is meant to be
simple, not for you alone individually, but for all of society collectively.
Approximately $2 billion dollars of mother's day flowers are bought on a single
weekend in America alone. This is a big deal. It is an artificially imposed
expenditure that Islam, being simple and convenient, never made mandatory for us.
And we are not allowed to mandate new things on ourselves that Islam did not say
was worth it. Whoever came up with Mother's Day was not God and did not decide to
fix the date for Mother's Day to be according to the laws of human psychology, for
all people, calculating what pros and cons the economy would face if everyone were
to buy flowers that day, whether or not flowers were available in their country or
if they were going to have to be mass imported, and what not. The Islam that Allah
has created however, has been created with His complete wisdom and consideration
for every aspect of human life. And how can it not be like that? When it comes from
the same Creator who made sure to provide us with rich hydrating melons in the
summer, and heat-producing nuts in the winter. Everything is precisely designed to
be its simplest and most productive for human life, and the Shariah complements
this entire design, it doesn't oppose it. Nothing in Islam is random, and public
holidays affect masses of people at once.
3. Muslims are commanded to maintain their own Muslim identity, distinct from
others. The Prophet (S) said in reference to the Jews and Christians: "Be different
from them" (Sahih Muslim).
To the extent that when the Prophet (S) found the Jews to be fasting on Ashura to
celebrate the day the children of Israel were rescued from the enemy, he said as
true followers of Musa (AS), we too should fast on the same day, however, in order
to be different from the Jews, he instructed us to fast not only on the day of
Ashura, but on two days - the day of Ashura itself, and the day before or after it.
Allah's Messenger (S) said, "The Jews and the Christians do not dye (their grey
hair), so you shall do the opposite of what they do (i.e. dye your grey hair and
beards)." (Bukhari)
This does make sense when you understand that a Muslim carries Islam both inwardly,
as well as outwardly.
This Hadith refers to social customs, not things like using a plane instead of a
camel. (There are proofs for this point as well but that might be another topic and
this is getting long as it is).
When people are celebrating Meelad collectively, and expensive Nasheed-singers are
hired, and loads of money is spent in the party set-up and extravagant food and the
lavish dressing up and several things that are entirely opposed to Islam - are they
really respecting the Prophet(S)? Isn't true respect of the Prophet(S) to follow
his Sunnah? he asked that his grave not even be made conspicious, and "Do not
eulogize me as the Christians eulogized the son of Maryam". (Bukhari, Muslim). This
same money could be better spent feeding the poor.
Flowers on Mother's day, gifts on Father's Day, kites on Basant, birthday bashes
and wishes on candles and so on - these are all good things for fun and gifts and
parties, but they are formalities that distract from the purpose of our lives. And
if we were allowed to come up with celebrations for whatever we feel are good,
who's to put a stop on how many celebrations we're going to invent over the
centuries? If such things were allowed in Islam, then who's to say that people
would stop at celebrating the birthday of the Prophet(S)? Why not the rest of the
Prophets, if we managed to trace their birthdays, and why not a multitude of
saints?
Islam tends to the nip the evil in the bud. It prohibits not only things that are
in themselves Haram, but also those which lead to deterioration.
All the additional wedding celebrations from Hinduism has turned marriage into an
unnecessarily expensive headache that creates problems. There is only one banquet
in a wedding according to Islam, and that is the Walima. Anything more causes
prolems for the less well-off in society. Marriages today are started out in debt
in order to fulfill the unnecessary social obligations borrowed from other
cultures/religions.
Take the idea of "jehez" for another example - where a valid question is - "So
what? The girl's family is giving these as gifts out of their own happiness!" But -
you may be aware of this - this whole concept of Jehez, which is Hindu, has created
many problems in marriages, in the lives of the brides, and has in fact reached a
point where many girls simply can't get married because of the demands of Jehez,
and if they do get married, their husband's family is a constant source of
financial stress. The bridegroom's family today thinks it has the right to make
demands of "jehez" from the bride's family. What must have started out amongst
Indian Muslims as an innocent exchanging of gifts, just to share little extra
happiness, or maybe, just to respect the customs of Hindu relatives - has today
reached a point of being dysfunctional and outright oppressive to entire segments
of society.
We need to understand that an encompassing Shariah that was created for all people
in all times and cultures, must include mechanisms to maintain its purity and
benefit over time, across generations. Maybe some celebrations are truly harmless
at the moment. But who's going to sit down and decide? How are people going to draw
criteria of what type of celebration is harmless, and what isn't? It's very likely
that when the bride's family started giving Jehez out of their own happiness to the
groom's family, it looked harmless at that time. Only Allah knows the consequences
of rituals over generations of human life. No one in their current generation can
accurately predict the future social, functional, spiritual consequences.
Islam is supposed to be simple. If God had created 10 Eids a year for us, would all
parents in all levels of society be able to afford that many gifts for their
children?
As for a child's birthday. Your child wouldn't be robbed of a fun day of gifts. You
can make any day important for him and invite his friends over whenever he wants.
Islamically, the problem is not in giving him a party because you love him, the
problem only lies in following the public (foreign) ritual of dedicating a specific
day for it to commemorate his birth.
If you lived in a society where no one celebrated their birthdays and this was the
social norm, would you still think your child was being robbed of such happiness?
If you think about it, maybe not. Maybe it's not the lack of a birthday itself
that's the problem at all. It's just the lack of a birthday *while being surrounded
by a culture that celebrates birthdays* - that contrast is the thing that creates
an issue.
Many people think that these issues make Islam look harsh and unloving, and a turn-
off for non-Muslims. Not at all. It's only when we've grown so accustomed to the
humanly-decided imoprtance of a given social custom that we think that not giving
it due importance is a bad thing. But where did that importance even come from?
Back to the first point. If Allah didn't make it so important, it's not.
In referring to the Persians of that time, Abd-Allaah ibn Amr said in Sharh Sunan
Abu Dawood, Whoever ... celebrates their Nawroz (new year) and Mahrajaan
(festival) and imitates them until he dies will be gathered with them on the Day of
Resurrection.