By: Maryam Hedayat (LIBYA)
New Year is the only occasion on which the whole world unites together and celebrates irrespective of any culture, religion or country.
“Happy New year!” I greeted warmly to one of my friends.
“What are you saying! Wishing New Year is haram (forbidden)”, came her shocking reply to my address.
“Haraam! But why?” I spoke surprisingly.
“Because it’s the culture of the west, and we as Muslims should avoid adopting other culture.”, she expressed with confidence of Islamic belief in her heart.
“I see.”, came my tame response.
A few seconds passed in a moment of nervousness.
“Well! What is the date today?” I enquired.
“Oh! You forgot…it’s first January 2018 ?”, my friend frankly told me.
“No, I mean according to our Islamic calendar”, I argued.
“I am sorry I don’t remember the Islamic date.”, my friend answered.
At the end of every year, many Muslims say that it’s ‘haraam’ to wish New Year. But in reality, all our daily activities are controlled by the English calendar itself.
Our date of birth, our school and office timings, our banking system, prayer timing, and almost all our official and non-official works are done by English calendar.
We all have that English calendar hanging around, in our homes and offices. Most of us don’t even know the names of the Arabic calendar properly. We teach our kids January, February, instead of Moharram and safar.
Apparently, the whole year we follow the English calendar, but when it comes on wishing New Year, some Muslims start arguing about its being western way and its history, and some clearly declare it as ‘haraam’.
It is truly hypocrisy of us to deny to wish New Year while following the same calendar year throughout the 365 days in our life. Frankly! The whole year we submissively follow it without any argument, suddenly if someone wishes New Year, we become conscious of it being ‘haraam’ or begin to think of it otherwise. Perhaps it means the whole year we are following something which is ‘haraam’.
Merely wishing someone New Year is just like that of wishing good morning or good evening, it’s always lovely to receive greetings and wishes. In fact, there is nothing wrong in wishing someone good health and well-being every year and that Allah bless them altogether.
Simply wishing is acceptable, but something which is weird is partying whole night, mixing males and females together, dancing and singing etc. In fact, these immoral activities are not even allowed on Islamic festivals like Eid-ul-fitr and Eid-ul-adha.
Wishing someone is obvious, a year has completed and we are going to start another new year, wishing someone does not mean that we are following the kuffars.
New Year is the only occasion on which the whole world unites together and celebrates irrespective of any culture, religion or country.
Wishing New Year is a bit controversial issue among the people of Islamic faith. However, some Muslims think that we can wish each other on this day of starting the New Year.
The fact of the matter is while our operations of routine life are guided by the English calendar throughout the weeks and months, is it not unworthy on our part not to wish back those who wish us on the occasion of New Year? It is better to wish rather than be psychologically divided between celebrate or not to celebrate the arrival of a new year.
