So what do you do when there is no reference to a current practice/tradition in Islam?
Do you consider it okay to participate in such activity since there is no mention forbidding it or declaring it a sin?
For example:
Birthdays and the ritual of
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
^^^ Does anyone do what you mentioned as ‘Ibadah’ ordered by Allah in Quran?
If yes then it is Bidah … and if not, then what is the problem?
If you would make that a problem then go on, make travelling on car, watching TV, wearing high-heel shoes, wearing glasses, eating ice-cream, using currency notes, using computers, having heart surgery, speaking English or Urdu, traveling on air-plane for Haj, using or flushing the toilet … well, whole your life, whatever you might be doing, would be Bidah, sin and problematic … as none is mentioned or have reference as forbidden (or allowed) in Quran or hadith, just like what you mentioned about birthdays acts (without considering them as any link with order of Allah in Quran or hadith) by some have no reference in Quran or hadith.
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
excellent thread Muzna, I am keen to read people's opinions on this ...
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
if this is done as a fun thing then there is no gunaah but if it's done as an act of Ibaadah [doing it fetches you sawaab and NOT doing it ensues azaab]then these acts are bid'aat. i'm sure no one does that as an act of Ibaadah. it's NOT part of your faith to begin with.
i do it and ai don't see anything wrong with it.
i would be cautious in spending enormous amount of money because Allah doesn't like the ones who indulge either in extravagance or underspending...one may do things according to their financial and social status. Allah like median path.
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
Sa1eem,
No....I would say that nobody that I know participates in any of these activities with the intention that it is ibadat or a part of their deen.
Some, however, would say that simply by adopting "rituals" that have no source in Islam, we are inventing something that is today innocent and in "fun" but will, by it's repetitive nature, generations down the line become a part of deen.
I am curious to explore if this has happened in the past and whether or not such activity should be avoided.
If anything is not specifically prohibited in Islam, then it is allowed. Islam's rulings do not work on what is allowed but what is not, and outside that set of what is not allowed everything is allowed by default.
Definition if biddah is anything whose means and needs were avaliable in the days of prophet and sahaba, and it was not practiced by them - now if we do it to attain sawab, then it's biddah.
Re: “Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam”
I had one woman teach/declare in a dars that if you use one of those “counters” to do your tasbeeh then it is biddah because this means of hisaab was not available in the time of the beloved prophet and sahaba. She insisted that everyone use the regular tasbeeh with beads. 
That is why the definition has means and needs both stated. People like to make things unnecessarily complicated.
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
Ok I have had a good think of it.
My thoughts , I might be wrong, but this is what i think so far, Quran, hadith and then the qualified Scholars are our three sources of attaining perfection in Islam. When something is not mentioned directly, we look at the essence of the issue and see if it clashes with any of the teachings and if it does then we stay away from that element , if it doesnt clash , then we are allowed to do it.
For example, IVF , intially caused confusion amidst the scholars who declared it haraam . Later it was established that in essence if the egg and the sperm of the Nikkah'ed couple is used , its allowed , but donor egg or sperm will in essence cause alot of issues in relationships and bloodline and hence was classed haraam.
Re: “Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam”
First of all, There is nothing that is out of the reach of ISLAM, QURAN and USWA-E-HASANAH of Our Beloved Prophet Hazrat Muhammed (S.A.W.) throws the light on each and every part/segment of our life…
Secondly Islam have it’s own traditions and practices, any other tradition/ocassion donot fall in the category of ISLAM.. SO these activities or what, are not included in ISLAM and this is clearly/definitely the waste of money…
Instead of IBADAT, we celebrate birthdays, but we have to think that we should be sad that we have wasted our 1 whole year and did nothing to make ALLAH happy…
Deen donot permits for these things by the way if we go on DEEN’s path then everything is prohibited/MAMNU…even hamara yahan chat kerna bhi, ye waqt IBADAT me guzarna chahiyeey aur hamari family ke sath…
Khair leave it, the point is, this is not at all Ibadat and nor did Hazrat Muhammed (S.A.W.) did that or told us to do…unki life me bhi Saalgira aati thein, but HE spend normal days in the Ibadat of ALLAH… kon kehta hai Hazoor-Paak(S.A.W.) ko kisi cheez ki khabar nahi thi… HE knew date, time, year everything…
Celebrating Birthdays,Mehndis,Muqlawas,Basants ETC are all waste of Time & Money…
Quran says:
“Give the kinsman his due, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and squander not (your wealth) in wantonness. Lo! the squanderers were ever brothers of the devils, and the devil was ever an ingrate to his Lord”
Reference: [Quran: 17:26-27]
“O Children of Adam! wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters.”
Reference: [Quran: 7:31]
Narrated Abu Musa (Radi-Allahu 'anhu):
The Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wa Sallam) said, “Help the poor, feed the hungry, free the captives and pay a visit to the sick.”
Reference: [Bukhari Vol. 4 : No. 282]
and dear friends Biddat ye hai hi nahi, ye to rasmein hein duniyawee jo khud hum hi ne banai hein aur ziadatar Angrezon ki dein hein.. these things are way off and out of ISLAM… biddat to ISLAM ke sath kisi cheez ko attach kerna hai like Qabar pe ja ke rona/batein kerna as it is prohibited in Quran clearly…
So we are wasting our money, and we should stop this, because promoting these activities are taking us away from DEEN…seriously we are all into it today,
ISLAM me Aajzi-o-Inksari hai, which has likely to be vanished from our society.. this is the only reason we see poor and needy out there everywhere…Equilibrium has been disturbed…
May ALLAH help us to understand the concepts of ISLAM and to live our lives like Uswa-e-Hasanah (Aameen)…
Re: “Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam”
Peace Muzna,
Well said above 
and i completely agree with what you said 
Few months ago, Brother teggy opened a thread about a hadith: "**Narrated Abu Said: The Prophet PBUH said, “You will follow the wrong ways, of your predecessors so completely and literally that if they should go into the hole of a mastigure, you too will go there.” We said, “O Allah’s Apostle PBUH! Do you mean the Jews and the Christians?” He PBUH replied, “Whom else?” (Meaning, of course, the Jews and the Christians.) **Book ‘Virtues and Merits of the Prophet (pbuh) and his Companions’ of Sahih Bukhari, Hadith No. 662.
If we read our history, then we’ll came to know that there is no celebration of birthday ever recorded during the time of Prophet 
and His PBUH Companions r.a. However, the celebration of birthday if ever celebrated/commemorated then it is for the Pharaoh, a long time before the Prophet and arrival of Islam. Also the Jewish celebration on the occasion of “bar and bat mitzvah for 12 and 13 years old Jewish boys and girls”. Since then, may be the celebration of birthday slowly but effectively emerged into different cultures and religions then through that to our cultures/religions.
On the issue of celebration of birthday, different scholars have different opinions. Some says it is totally forbidden (Haraam), some other says not forbidden (haraam) etc., etc., but so far non provided any solid reference whether it is allowed or not. In such situation, Almighty Allah says in Holy Quran: "Say, “Have you seen what Allah has sent down to you of provision of which you have made [some] lawful and [some] unlawful?" Say, "Has Allah permitted you [to do so], or do you invent [something] about Allah ?” Chapter 10 verse 59.
and "And do not say about what your tongues assert of untruth, “This is lawful and this is unlawful,” to invent falsehood about Allah . Indeed, those who invent falsehood about Allah will not succeed". **Chapter 16 verse 116.
**Means the above verses includes everyone who comes up with an innovation (Bid’ah) for which he has no evidence from the Shariah, or whoever declares something lawful that Almighty Allah has forbidden, or whoever declares something unlawful that Almighty Allah has permitted, only because it suits his opinions.
So my answer will be “I don’t know, Almighty Allah know best”. I won’t say it is allowed or not allowed, but I prefer not to celebrate because of two reasons:
1- I haven’t read that it was celebrated by our Prophet PBUH or by His PBUH Companions r.a., and
2- As per above quoted hadith, I don’t wish to be the followers of Jews and Christians in any way.
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
So all of ur questions r related to celebrating birthdays or events n having fun ?
**Some, however, would say that simply by adopting "rituals" that have no source in Islam, we are inventing something that is today innocent and in "fun" but will, by it's repetitive nature, generations down the line become a part of deen.
I am curious to explore if this has happened in the past and whether or not such activity should be avoided**.
.
^ Ahan the point frm the halloween discussion, I agree with this n its true
Der aayad, drust aayad
Re: “Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam”
TLK , IF it clashes is the thing to consider .. coz I still believe Halloween majorly clashes with multiple teachings of Islam and that why it cant be a fun activity 
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
Sa1eem,No....I would say that nobody that I know participates in any of these activities with the intention that it is ibadat or a part of their deen.Some, however, would say that simply by adopting "rituals" that have no source in Islam, we are inventing something that is today innocent and in "fun" but will, by it's repetitive nature, generations down the line become a part of deen.I am curious to explore if this has happened in the past and whether or not such activity should be avoided.
It may or may not become a part of deen but it does become a part of culture. Islam has a disinct identity of its own but we have added so much into our daily lives that we recieved from our times of united india that its really hard to purge our living style of the traditions and rituals borrowed frim indo-pak age. shadi culture for example, mehni.ubtan saga and the mazar culture, rituals observed there are v sadly noway islamic and yet most of the pakistani nation naively and proudly follows that. thr confusio. the dominance of culture over deen is sad indeed.
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
Ok I have had a good think of it. My thoughts , I might be wrong, but this is what i think so far, Quran, hadith and then tthe qualified Scholars are our three sources of attaining perfection in Islam. When something is not mentioned directly, we look at the essence of the issue and see if it clashes with any of the teachings and if it does then we stay away from that element , if it doesnt clash , then we are allowed to do it. For example, IVF , intially caused confusion amidst the scholars who declared it haraam . Later it was established that in essence if the egg and the sperm of the Nikkah'ed couple is used , its allowed , but donor egg or sperm will in essence cause alot of issues in relationships and bloodline and hence was classed haraam.
i believe a learbed and honest imam/religious scholar will definitely guide you in the light of islam. and its better to seek.guidance from them instead of creating our own version of islam making it my thing my property.
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Excellent thread and responses. I don't like birthday celebration for the same reasons as LK has mentioned. But I am forced to celebrate of my own kids from all sides. Its like not celebrating birthday is like not giving food to your children. Don't know why people like make idols in their chest out of culture and traditions and cling to them till their death. If we have seen something stupid happening in our childhood, do we need to keep it embrace the whole life even after getting education and all? I am rebellious at core and that is why it looks childish for me to cling to the things my fore fathers or relatives or friends do that has no basis in (i) Islam (ii) that reminds me of 200 year of colonial era. It really makes me angry when I see people trying to gorafy in every aspect of life and distance themselves from roots and religion. It happens in the transitional society such as ours, but for God sake, Arabs, African and far East was also colonized, why only we have become so obsessed with gora sahab and not others. Such an orphan child of rich fathers, thats how I describe our slave mindedness and the past glory that we lost because of the same reasons as being discussed here. Islam gives us identity, since we have lost half to Hindus and half to our masters, it makes totally sense now to celebrate Birthdays. We are lost anyways.
Re: "Not Mentioned/Addressed in Islam"
Sa1eem,
No....I would say that nobody that I know participates in any of these activities with the intention that it is ibadat or a part of their deen.
Some, however, would say that simply by adopting "rituals" that have no source in Islam, we are inventing something that is today innocent and in "fun" but will, by it's repetitive nature, generations down the line become a part of deen.
I am curious to explore if this has happened in the past and whether or not such activity should be avoided.
Sister, sorry for late reply.
Anyhow, we should understand that adding things to deen (Biddah) is haram only if one starts considering whatever added as fard (order of Allah to do or to avoid).
On the other hand, if one does something as good deed, or just deed, without considering them fard OR do something (deed or an act) that one do not even consider as something related to Islam, then as far as Islam is concern, such deeds could be good, bad, or irrelevant … such deeds or acts itself would not be addition to deen (biddah).
What you mentioned is an act that has insignificant value as far as Islam is concerned. Islam does not ask for such act nor forbid such act, hence by default, Islam allow such act.
[You should know that any act that harms other is forbidden in Islam, but what you mentioned do not even harm anyone … so, by default, it is allowed … as it is Islamic rule that what is not allowed, by default is allowed].
As for your curiosity that if such act or for that matter any deed, if become practice, than it could become part of deen (biddah) tomorrow, so one should avoid them, then such thinking or curiosity is not only ridiculous but against Islamic principle. When Allah allowed an act (by default) then to have doubt on that act is disbelief.
You should remember that Muslims at various places across the globe, following customs of the land they are living, have made some acts or deeds as part of their life (without considering them fard), still after 1400 years of Islam, have not made a single act as part of deen (do as if it is fard), then I could not see why you should worry that such could happen in future?
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Peace Sa1eem,
Will you please be kind and explain this part i.e., “harms other”. 