Is celebrating birthdays un-Islamic – even wishing a person or sending him/her a card?
Answer
Birthdays have nothing to do with Islam. Therefore, if somebody celebrates without giving it a religious content, it would be considered as one of those activities that an individual has a right to undertake.
I personally don’t like the idea of birthdays, because I think it is a foreign custom. I don’t want any of the Western occasions celebrated in my society because their celebrations show a mentality of subjugation on our part. I also don’t like the idea because it causes unnecessary burden on the parents who can’t afford such celebrations every year. It is also a waste of time and a cause of diversion from the real purpose of life. I also sometimes have a feeling that we should be more concerned our accountability after death, rather than celebrating an occasion which brought us into this world for trial. However, all these thoughts are my very own, and I don’t claim them to be originating from the Islamic sources directly.