Nothing un-Islamic about Mother’s Day

To tarnish such a pure, love-filled celebration with accusations of sin is an utter disgrace.

COMMENT

Mother’s Day has always been a special day in my house. This is the day mom, my kids and I spend quality time together over a nice halal dinner at a special halal place as we rekindle old memories and express how much we love each other.

Sometimes we exchange halal gifts, sometimes halal cards but almost certainly there are lots of hugs and kisses thrown around – all halal, of course.

So when I heard of a certain Ustaz claiming that Mother’s Day is haram, I was very much appalled.

For as long as I’ve known, Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate that special person in our life. To tarnish such a pure celebration filled with so much love with sinful accusation is an utter disgrace.

According to the Ustaz, Mother’s Day is a celebration to commemorate Mother Mary of Christianity. As such, he has concluded that any Muslims celebrating a Christian event would be directly disobeying Allah.

Excuse me, Mother’s Day is a religious celebration? I wonder where the good Ustaz got his information – Wikipedia??

Based on my research and conversations with members of the church, the earliest history of Mother’s Day dates back to some 250 years BEFORE Jesus Christ was born. It was an ancient annual spring festival which the Greeks and Romans dedicated to their mythological goddesses.

In the early 1900s, during the time of war, a social worker and an activist got the inspiration of celebrating Mother’s Day after the demise of her own mother. She thought there was a growing negligent attitude of adult Americans towards their mothers and started the celebration to honour all mothers, living and dead, by paying tribute to them.

That was the origin of Mother’s Day.

I don’t know about you, but I see nothing un-Islamic about Mother’s Day, especially since mothers are given such high status in Islam. Like all other religions in the world, Islam commands every Muslim to show kindness, respect and obedience to their parents, especially their mothers. This is proven by the repeated verses throughout the Holy Quran and the Hadith.

“Worship God and join not any partners with Him; and be kind to your parents”

(Al Quran, 4:36)

“A man came to Prophet Muhammad and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your father.”

(Narrated by Bukhari/Muslim)

It baffles me as to why our religious scholars and preachers nowadays are getting overly excited in declaring so many things un-Islamic. What do they get in return for creating this conflict that results in one believer turning against the other?

Perhaps instead of brainstorming on new things to declare haram, our Ustaz, Mufti and those of similar thinking could advise us on un-Islamic activities going on during Islamic festivals. Now that would be very beneficial for the Muslim community.

Islam has always stressed ‘nawaitu’ (intent). If our ‘nawaitu’ is right and our conscience is clear of any wrongdoing, I believe not only Mother’s Day but Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Halloween and even Thanksgiving would be fine by Allah.

Loving and cherishing our mother is a 365-day celebration. I have faith that Allah wouldn’t mind us picking one special day to pay tribute to our wonderful mothers, even if it falls on the second Sunday of May.

In fact, in my honest opinion, I believe if there was such a celebration at that time, I am most certain that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself would celebrate Mother’s Day to remember and pay tribute to his own mother, Aminah, who passed away when he was just six.

All in all, Mother’s Day isn’t about celebrating Jesus Christ or His mother. It is about celebrating MY mother and YOUR mother. And I will have no one telling me how un-Islamic Mother’s Day is, especially not someone who was caught with his pants down for doing something un-Islamic.