Is it permissible to celebrate our children's birthdays?

Annual birthday celebrations have no basis in the Sunnah, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever introduces into this affair of ours something that is not part of it, it is rejected" (Sahih al-Bukhari 2697, Sahih Muslim 1718). When he arrived in Madinah and found the people with two days of play inherited from Jahiliyyah, he did not simply regulate them but said that Allah had given them two better days in their place: the Day of Sacrifice (ʿId al-Adha) and the Day of Fitr (Sunan Abi Dawud 1134). On this basis many contemporary scholars — among them Ibn Baz, Ibn ʿUthaymin and the Permanent Committee — held recurring birthday celebrations to be an innovated festival and an imitation of a non-Muslim custom; a number of other contemporary scholars treat a simple family meal with no ritual and no festival framing as a permissible custom (ʿada) rather than an act of worship. This is a genuine difference among scholars, not a question of anyone's Islam. The safer and more cautious position is to leave it, while being generous with gifts, outings and affection for your children at any time of the year so they never feel deprived.

Ask your own question → All questions