Mother's Day

Society Religion & Philosophy
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Given that Mother’s Day is just around the corner I decided to do some research., as I didn’t have any idea about its origin. To the best of my knowledge, we’ve been told not to follow the festivals and celebrations other than those that are Islamic.

By skimming through a few websites, I learned that:

** -**Mother’s Day was celebrated by the ancient Greeks to worship the mother of gods and goddesses

** -**It was also celebrated by the early Christians on the 4th Sunday of Lent to honour Mary (AS) and it was known as the Mothering Day

** -**It was also a day where people who have moved elsewhere would come back home to attend their local church (or the mother’s church)

** -**Anna M. Jarvis, to an extent initiated this day in the US to honour her mother, which eventually included all mothersSome of these reports are conflicting and may perhaps not even be very accurate. However, this is what I could, so I decided to share.

References:

Mothers Day Origin

Mother’s Day, Its history and origin, and early celebrations.

Mother’s Day History

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Re: Mother's Day

Thanks :) Islam tells us it should be mother's day everyday..

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Re: Mother's Day

I am sure you will not be a lesser Muslim, if you did give your mother a gift this 'Mother's Day"

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Re: Mother's Day

^ Thats what commercialization really tells us ;)

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Re: Mother's Day

Thanx for info sadiyah.I did'nt know that it belongs to Greeks.I don't want any gift from my kids on that day but what if my mum expect a gift on mother's day from me.........?What should I do?(she dont have much knowledge about Islam)

Keep a spare key hidden!
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Re: Mother's Day

^ You're supposed to inform her and educate her, regarding this issue.

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Re: Mother's Day

so...is mothers day actually unislamic?

GAME: Guess the Guppy!!
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Re: Mother’s Day

:smack: <---------- smiley. guys give it a rest on mothers day atleast.

Weirdest thing that you ever ate
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Re: Mother's Day

^ there are some who give it a rest 365 days a year...and then there are some who dont give it any rest.

the case is clear :)

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Re: Mother's Day

The case is as clear as mud. :-)

IMO I dont think gifting your mum can be unislamic in any sense of the word, infact it would most likely be rewarding in the light of islam the status it gives to mothers.

but...to each his own i guess.

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Re: Mother's Day

^ gifting ur mom cuz west says that on this particular day mothers need to be loved (and they can be thrown back to old people's homes the rest of the year) is very unIslamic....

u need to love ur mom cuz Allah says so, not cuz of some stupid day fixed by non-muslims....

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Re: Mother's Day

well lets not lump mothers day with throwing folks in to old people's home together. thats not always the case, and its not really relevant either.

I think your missing the whole concept behind it. Just because the greeks initiated it, we should disregard it altogether? well theres plenty of other things we shud be disregarding if that is the logic we're using. It doesnt really flow..

Using one day to appreciate your mother by no means signifies you hate her for the rest of the year. Infact it brings people together even more.. Its not just about loving, its about appreciating..

by all means if its possible for you however, gift her everyday of the year. but for the average person, that isnt really practical, nor would it be appreciated as much on a daily basis.

All it does is bring a parent and their offspring together.. and i dont think theres anything remotely unislamic about that..

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Re: Mother’s Day

The origins of a holiday are not nearly as important as the rational invoked for celebrating the event in modern times.

Mothers day was introduced in America at the time of the civil war,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother’s_Day](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother’s_Day)

Mother’s day only reached international consciousness after it was heavily marketed in America.

No one, and I mean NO ONE, is invoking pagan deities now days….well, except maybe pagans…

And for clarification, we are not to partake in religious celebrations of other people. Secular events are okay…every Muslim country has some kind of national holiday, and that is fine weather it is a bank “holiday” or a national day.

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Re: Mother's Day

No, that's not how it works. Mother's day = sales. Sales = excuse to buy a present. That's why gifts are bought.

The idea that Mother's day is intended to be the sole day a person is supposed to love their mother is quite frankly lame. You know better than that...

If we have a problem with the commercial aspects of it, that's fine. But we don't need to misrepresent the holiday (or even lie about it) in order to critique it.

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Re: Mother's Day

Is it perscribed by Islam? No.

Is it forbidden by Islam? Only if you contort the nature of the event (it's not even a 'Holdiay') into something it is not.

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i don't see any wisdom celebrating mother's day nor i see any harm except follwing greeks footsteps.

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Re: Mother's Day

I always thought the origin matters.

Given that we've been told to not to imitate and be different from other faiths, I'd rather give my mother a present on a random day, which would really surprise her than to go with the flow and get her something on the Mother's Day.

Anyway to each his/her own.

I had never really known about the origins, so I decided to look it up.

While trying to look up some material from an Islamic perspective, the following is what I came across that I thought is worth sharing.

[QUOTE]

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).

It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The Hour will not begin until my ummah follows in the footsteps of those who came before it, handspan by handspan, cubit by cubit.” It was asked, “O Messenger of Allaah, like the Persians and Romans?” He said, “Those are the people?”

(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 6888)

*Definition of the word ‘Eid *

[as Mother’s Day is known in Arabic as “Eid al-umm” or “mothers’ festival”; the word Eid is derive from the root ‘aada/ya’ood meaning to come back or return]

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said:

“ ‘Eid (festival) is a name that is given to an occasion which returns, when people gather in a festive manner, whether that is annual or weekly or monthly and so on.”

(Iqtidaa’ al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem, 1/441).

Ibn ‘Aabideen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “ An ‘Eid is so called because Allaah repeatedly bestows blessings, i.e., kinds of blessings that come back to His slaves on these days, such as breaking the fast after refraining from eating, sadaqat al-fitr (obligatory charity paid at the end of Ramadaan), completing the Hajj by doing Tawaaf al-Ziyaarah, the sacrificial meats, and so on; and because the tradition on such occasions is to express joy and happiness, and to be energetic and happy.”

(Haashiyat Ibn ‘Aabideen, 2/165)
[/QUOTE]

Ref: www.islam-qa.com

GAME: Guess the GUPPAN!!!
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Re: Mother's Day

what can we say then.........

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Re: Mother's Day

I dont think it is sinful to celebrate mothers day, or any other festival that promotes good will, as long as it does not contain elements that oppose Islam (gratification of idols or flase Gods, drinking etc). If it does contain such elements, then celebrate it in an Islamic way by only celebrating the good parts :) Its the intention and the actual action that counts, not the name or origin of a tradition. :D

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Re: Mother’s Day

It does, but then so does intent.

As for immitiation, we can get carried away with that. I mean, all Kafirs drive on either the let or right side of the road…therefore we should drive in the center. See what I mean? Now, if we drove on either left or right because we thought that’s what “good people” do, then we would be guilty of immitation. We do it strictly as a matter of convention for the sake of order.

It would be sufficent to rename the holiday, and put it on a different day to avoid “immitation” anyway.

As for traditional scholarly opinion, they are too far removed from the notion of modern commemorative days to even understand the rational behind mothers day.

Earth day, mothers day, etc. are all for social awareness of one cause or another. Mother’s day was originaly intended to make women’s concern a topic of open conversation.

Some of our scholars make the fundemental mistake of putting religous overtones on these events, like calling them “Christian” holidays (when they are not). Consider earth day. Now, again, if people want to mark this day because it’s the “in-thing”, then they are blind immitators. If they want to do it to raise awareness over environmental issues, then guess what: it’s now a Muslim thing too. Good ideas are in fact to be immitated, and nothing prooves this more than the imitation of how governments and armies were structured by the early Muslims.

As Muslims we have only two eids. That’s it. No more, no less. That is what is reliigously mandated. The opinion among some traditionalists seems to be that no other festival is allowed, as all festivals must be religous by nature. They have yet to support their position without a) relying on the weak “immitation” argument, b) invoking other sunnah, and c) prooving that all celebrations are religious, keeping in mind that obviously any event needs to abide by Islamic strictures.

This may be of interest:
http://www.islamhouse.com/en/books/pdf/en3098.pdf