For all muslims, celebrating any of the kufr celebrations is not allowed; even passing a christmas greeting to a fellow friend is forbidden. The celebrations include big ones such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Holi, Diwali, and small scale stuff such as birthdays and anniversaries.
Until a short while ago I used to be in favor of celebrating Mother's Day, and even now I think there's nothing extremely seriously wrong with it. With the day coming up closer I was searching the net for new ideas for my mom, when I called up my younger bro and asked him to help me out too. He just looked at me dead serious and told me: "We're not supposed to...".
Let me tell you, I've exhausted myself by taking favorable views on Mother's Day when "discussing" with people. So I finally turned the search direction to Islamic views on Mother's Day, and some good discussions have changed my mind.
It turns out that popular theory behind the day is that it was invented to make youngsters realise the importance of parents in their lives, and how they should be treated, how special they are. Our religion, Islam, already teaches us all that. We should be grateful to them all our lives, no matter what their behaviour is; we should talk to them in a nice manner, refrain from being disobedient. So all in all, there is no necessity for a western specialised day; instead (i know how cliched this sounds, but...) every day should be treated as a Mother's day.
To combat this thought, some brothers and sisters follow say that Mother's day can be celebrated other days than the one decided by the Western Soceity. I sort of follow this thought as well, and to be fair, the Middle Eastern and many Muslim countries do follow this rule; The day is celebrated on March 21st.
Some follow the thought that it is a worldly celebration, and not a religious one. Again, I agree to this, perhaps more than the point mentioned above. As everyone loves their mother dearly they hold a right to treat her specially, whether it be forever or forever and one day specific. The day muslims in ME and most of the muslim countries celebrate is different to the one for the Western Society as well. And after all, don't we celebrate National and Liberation days as well? These days are also celebrated by many non-muslims, and may fall the same days as many muslims celebrate it!
However, during my search I came to some interesting information: The origins of Mother's Day. It is a rather long and tedious article, so I'll spare the lengthier details and bring out the facts:
-Some historians suggest Mother's Day started with Ancient Greeks devoting festivals to mother goddess Rhea
-Ancient Rome also celebrated a day for their mother goddess Sybil
-Sunday in England: This day used to be call "Mothering Sunday"; This custom began with some people encouraging people to visit the central church in their locality, bringing offerings. In 1600 young men and women of simple professions and servants started to visit their mothers on “Mothering Sunday”, bringing gifts and food.
-USA: Anna M Jervis had the idea of making Mother's Day an official holiday in the US; She had a very strong relationship with her mom, and after her mother passed away she launched a campaign to declare Mother’s Day an official holiday in the country. She felt parents were not appreciated enough and hoped to strengthen family ties.
-The Arab World: (This is a long one)The idea of celebrating Mother’s Day in the Arab world began in Egypt, and was started by the two brothers Mustafa and ‘Ali Ameen, the founders of the Akhbaar al-Yawm newspaper. Ali Ameen recieved a letter from a mother declaring the bad behaviour and mean attitude of her children towards her causing her suffering.Another mother visited the office and told her story of how she had been widowed but never remarried, instead focusing her time devoting her life to her small children until they grew up, left for university and got married; they only visited now on rare occaisions.Mustafa Ameen and ‘Ali Ameen wrote in their famous column Fikrah (“Idea”) suggesting that a day should be set aside for mothers, to remember their virtues. They pointed out that the west did that, and that Islam enjoined taking care of one’s mother. Many letters were sent to the newspaper, supporting this idea. Some suggested that a whole week should be devoted to mothers, not just one day, and others rejected the idea, saying that every day of the year should be for one’s mother, not just one day. But most readers agreed with the idea of setting aside one day, and they voted to choose March 21, which is also the first day of spring, to be Mother’s Day and a symbol of open-heartedness, purity and beautiful feelings. Egypt celebrated Mother’s Day for the first time on March 21, 1956. From Egypt this idea spread to other Arab countries.
The shar’ia viewpoint concerning Mother’s Day:
Islam has no need of things that are innovated by others, be it Mother’s Day of anything else. Its teachings on the honouring of mothers mean that it has no need for an innovated Mother’s Day.
Fatwas of the scholars
The scholars of the Standing Committee :
Praise be to Allaah Alone and blessings and peace be upon His Messenger and his family and companions.
Firstly: Eid is a name given to a recurring occasion on which people come together, whether it is annual or monthly or weekly and so on. Eid combines a number of things: a day which recurs, such as Eid al-Fitr and Friday (Jumu’ah); gathering on that day; acts or worship and customs which are done on that day.
Secondly: whatever is done on that day as a ritual, act of worship or act of veneration that is done in order to seek reward, or that involves imitating the people of the Jaahiliyyah or similar kaafir groups is a forbidden act of innovation (bid’ah) and is included in the general meaning of the hadeeth in which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours (Islam) that is not part of it will have it rejected.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari and Muslim). Examples of that include celebrating the Mawlid (Prophet’s birthday), Mother’s Day, and national days, because in the first case (Prophet’s birthday) that means worshipping in a manner that Allaah has not prescribed, and because it involves imitating the Christians and other kaafirs, and in the second and third cases (Mother’s Day and national holidays) it means imitating the kaafirs. As for occasions which are intended to organize work, for example, in the best interests of the ummah, such as traffic week or training sessions for employees and so on, which are not intended as acts of worship or veneration at all, these are customary innovations which are not included in the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), “Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours (Islam) that is not part of it will have it rejected,” so there is nothing wrong with such things, rather they are prescribed in Islam.
And Allaah is the Source of strength. May Allaah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions.
Standing Committee for Academic Research and Issuing Fatwas, Fatawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 3/59, 61
-Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan said:
Matters which involve imitation of the kuffaar include imitating them in matters of worship, such as matters of shirk like erecting structures and shrines over graves and exaggerating concerning them. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “May the curse of Allaah be upon the Jews and the Christians, for they have taken the graves of their Prophets as places of worship.” And he said that if a righteous man among them died, they would build a place of worship over his grave and put images in it, and they are the most evil of mankind. There occur many actions which are tantamount to major shirk because of exaggeration concerning graves, because of that imitation of the Jews and Christians.
That also includes imitating them in mushrik and innovated festivals, such as the Mawlid celebrations on the birthday of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) or the birthdays of presidents and kings. Some of these innovated or mushrik festivals may be known as “days” or “weeks”, such as the National Day or Mother’s Day or Cleanliness Week and so on. All of these occasions have been imported to the Muslims from the kuffaar, because in Islam there are only two festivals: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Everything else is an innovation (bid’ah) and imitation of the kuffaar. The Muslims must beware of that and not be influenced by the large numbers of so-called Muslims who do that and are ignorant of the true teachings of Islam, and who do such things because of ignorance, or who are not ignorant of the true teachings of Islam but do these things deliberately, in which case the matter is more serious.
“Indeed in the Messenger of Allaah (Muhammad) you have a good example to follow for him who hopes for (the Meeting with) Allaah and the Last Day, and remembers Allaah much”
[al-Ahzaab 33:21 – interpretation of the meaning]
From a khutbah entitled al-Hathth ‘ala Mukhaalifat al-Kuffaar (Urging the Muslims to be different to the kaafirs)
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen was asked about the ruling on celebrating so-called Mother’s Day. He replied:
All festivals that go against the festivals that are prescribed in Islam are bid’ahs and innovations that were not known at the time of the righteous salaf, and they may have come from the non-Muslims, in which case as well as being innovations they also entail imitating the enemies of Allaah. The Islamic festivals are well known to the Muslims, namely Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and the weekly festival (Jumu’ah or Friday). There are no other festivals in Islam apart from these three. All festivals which have been introduced apart from these are to be rejected and are false according to the law of Allaah, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours (Islam) that is not part of it will have it rejected,” i.e., it will be thrown back at him and will not be accepted by Allaah. Once this is clear, it is not permissible to celebrate the holiday mentioned in the question, which is known as Mother’s Day, and it is not permissible to introduce any of the symbols of that holiday such as expressing joy and happiness, giving gifts and so on.
Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research
Dutifulness to parents, especially the mother, and treating them kindly is an act of worship enjoined in both the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Being dutiful to parents is not confined to a specific time. It is an obligation that should be observed every time, as all people commonly know.
Yet, the Mother's Day, as it's known nowadays is a Western habit. The Westerners specified a day and called it the Mother's Day. On that day sons and daughters show gratefulness to their mothers and offer them presents. It has become part of important feasts in the West, whereas we Muslims have no other festivals except the Lesser and the Greater Bairams. Any other celebrations are deemed mere occasions or anniversaries; and this is applied to the Mother's Day.
The Mother's Day implies paying more attention and exerting more effort in expressing gratitude to mothers. So there is nothing wrong in that.
However, there are two reservations worth mentioning; first, considering the Mother's Day a feast; second, confining the task of showing dutifulness to mothers to that specific day, giving implication that throughout the whole year, just only one day is for showing love to parents. If such two anomalous points are addressed, then there is nothing wrong in considering the Mother's Day a chance to give more care to mothers.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) told us that his ummah would follow the previous nations, the Jews, Christians and Persians, but this was undoubtedly not praise for their actions, rather it is by way of condemnation and a warning. It was narrated from Abu Sa’eed (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “You will certainly follow the ways of those who came before you, handspan by handspan, cubit by cubit, until even if they entered the hole of a lizard, you will do so too.” We asked, “O Messenger of Allaah, (do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?” He said, “Who else?” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3269; Muslim, 2669).
Thus, we may take the Mother's Day as a chance to lay more emphasis on our duty towards our mothers, as Islam enjoins us, because dutifulness to parents is a genuine Islamic teaching. But Muslims, in doing that, should never deviate from the Islamic teachings, they should do things in Islamic manners, not in Western manners. Hence, they would not be imitating the non-Islamic habits of the West.
And Allaah knows best.
So after all these discussions, what do you think? Since it has been mentioned time and again that the only Eids for muslims are Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha, the question crosses my mind-- what about smaller non-kufar copying celebrations such as Eid-ul-Watani? Every proud patriot celebrates their country's national day. Some people might also want to put in that muslims celebrate the day on a seperate date as to those of the kuffar, and that the reason it started being celebrated in the Arab world is heartwarming and has nothing wrong with it.
As for me, I think I'm going to refrain myself from celebrating the day from now-- however I may just surprise my mom here and there on a non specific day... a small gift, beautiful flowers or a cake would make anyone's day special, don't you think? :)
Take care, MaSalama!
P>S>> Some links I took a look at:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070508030949AAOPhil
http://soaljawab.wordpress.com/2007/05/15/mothers-day-from-islam-perspective/
http://www.gawaher.com/index.php?showtopic=8475
http://www.yussamir.com/2007/05/mothers-day-from-islam-perspective.html
http://www.yussamir.com/2007/05/mothers-day-from-islam-perspective.html
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