Celebrating holidays or personal events

What is the ruling about partaking in holidays such as Christmas or Halloween? Are birthdays, anniversaries, etc. in the same ruling?

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الجواب حامدا ومصليا ومسلما

From the outset, it should be understood that there are many factors and details which would affect the ruling of celebrations and holidays. Therefore, it is imperative for one to understand the underlying principles to be able to adequately understand the subsequent rulings. In principle, Islam is not against celebrating personal events or moments of happiness. However, there are certain factors which generally lead to the prohibition or discouragement of such events:

1- Any event which contains any impermissible element would render the event impermissible. Such as: music, dancing, etc.

2- In Islam, unnecessary formalities have been discouraged. Consider the following hadith:

Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) has said, “We have been prohibited/discouraged from engaging in formalities”

(Bukhari)

One major reason why we have been discouraged in engaging in formalities is because it leads to becoming an unnecessary burden on others who are unable to do so. For example, in anniversaries since it has become a norm to spend extravagantly on gifts for one’s spouse, this has led to difficulty for others who are not financially able to do so. Thus, while giving a gift to one’s spouse is generally rewarding and the one doing so on their anniversary may have good intentions, unknowingly this leads to unfair pressure upon others.

3- Such events and celebrations should not be treated as necessary. In Islam, there are only two celebrations which have been legislated by Shari’ah. Consider the following hadith: 

Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and give him peace) came to Madina and there would be two days where people would celebrate. The Messenger (may Allah bless him and give him peace) asked, “What are these two days which you celebrate?” The companions informed him that these were two days which we celebrated before Islam. Upon hearing this, the Messenger (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Verily Allah has given you two better days in lieu of them: ‘Eid al-Fitr and ‘Eid al-Adha.”

(Abu Dawud)

While other forms of celebrations are not impermissible, they should not be treated as something which has been mandated. Often, such celebrations start off as voluntary, but end up becoming treated as necessary. Thereafter, when such events are not celebrated, it leads to disappointment and sometimes even anger.

4- Adopting practices specific with non-Muslims or resembling them in such celebrations is also discouraged by Shari’ah. While not all forms of resemblance are impermissible and the level of prohibition differs from case to case, at the very least, it would be best to avoid such practices.

With the above details in mind, it becomes clear that although most of these holidays and celebrations are technically in themselves not impermissible, however due to the external factors mentioned above, they would become impermissible or at least better to avoid (depending on the exact details of each case).

والله اعلم

Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala knows best.

Taha Abdulkareem

Approved by Mufti Husain Ahmad Madani