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Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti #196 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth · 5 Jan 2021 › Segment 23 of 35

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Is it haram to celebrate my birthday?

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Is there a basis for not celebrating birthdays? And turning forty

QuestionLive chat · questioner not identifiedAnswered 5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu LaythSegment 23 of 35 in the recording2021-01-05-S23

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This segment1:45:33 to 1:50:48 · 5 min 15 sGeneral teaching

The answer in brief

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Celebrating birthdays is fine and entirely your choice; he also recommends older friends for perspective when age brings anxiety.

In more detail

Asked whether there is a real basis for not celebrating one's birthday, Mufti Abu Layth says it is absolutely fine to celebrate if you want to: these are worldly things with no religion attached, and it is entirely your choice. He says he has not properly celebrated his own, which falls in January, since childhood, but finds it fun for children and useful as a landmark. He says birthdays can be daunting, recalls the unease he felt approaching forty, and how an older friend's advice while travelling soothed him. He recommends having friends a decade or so older for that reassurance, and closes with a saying from his madrasa teacher about crossing bridges when one gets there.

Question as read aloud · questioner not identified

Is there a real basis to not celebrating one's birthday?

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says it is absolutely fine to celebrate your birthday if you want to, since there is no religion attached to it.

In his words

“It is absolutely fine to celebrate your birthday if you want to.”

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Kind: general teaching

Transcript

machine1:45:33 to 1:50:48 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
1:45:03

Would there be any scenes, people? This is uh you know where you turn up, it's the fatwa and you're like uh so are there any scenes? I don't know. Could there be any scenes? I'm sure I could think of one or two.

1:45:32

Behave. Behave. Right. So this question uh MUI is there a real basis to not celebrating one's birthday? It is absolutely fine to celebrate your birthday if you want to. Um I haven't really celebrated I suppose it depends what you mean by celebrate as in I haven't really celebrated my birthday in a good while actually.

1:45:59

I don't think I have. Um, I mean I get, you know, the family kind of stuff and gifts and stuff like that, but as in properly celebrate like I I did as a kid. It was the highlights. It was the only time of the year. All right. So, um there's nothing haram about these things. These are look worldly things. There's no religion attached to it.

1:46:25

Okay? It's not a religious issue. If you want to celebrate it, celebrate it. If you don't want to celebrate it, don't celebrate it. It's no uh I I think there's nothing wrong in celebrating it. I think um but it's entirely your choice. But I think it's fun for children and you can use it as a kind of um I suppose mine occurs in January anyway.

1:46:53

So it's kind of like at the beginning of the year, but you you can use it as a landmark to kind of maybe see what have you done. And I think sometimes you know you you go through life as well and you know these birthdays sometimes they can be daunting as well because you can kind of think oh my god now I'm almost this many years old. Now I'm almost 30. Now I'm almost 40. Now I'm almost 50. You know, it's like um and I think what's interesting is to have friends who are of different age groups because it really helps.

1:47:27

I think a couple of years ago, um I, you know, if I'm going to be honest, I think a couple of years ago, I was uh I was with a very good friend of mine, Sheh, and and who's older than me and I started uh you know we started talking and and I I got to say I I felt you know I was expressed to him this kind of unease this kind of anxiety that you have that and this was a couple of years ago and I think I had it then before I

1:48:07

was approaching 40 and I I thought you know oh my god God, you know what the hell life and this and what's going on and what about and you know you you have and it's normal. It's natural this this happens. You see and so and sometimes it's difficult if you're all the same age because you're just going through it simultaneously or maybe people are one year younger than you or just one year older than you.

1:48:34

But if somebody is a good bunch of years older than you, it can really be calming and soothing and reassuring and and kind of really helpful taking their import. And I remember we were kind of traveling at the time and uh I remember I call him if he's watching tio uh and I remember he him kind of telling me you know giving me certain words of um of advice and explaining certain things of life and how it's not you know it's just look and just explain and

1:49:12

sometimes it's common sense but you're just hearing it from and it it was really soothing for me at the time I have to say and and the reason I'm sharing that is maybe many people are going through that that you might sometimes feel an unease you might feel an anxiety you might feel this um and it's good to have some kind of a a line to be able to tap into especially people who've got maybe a decade more of experience than you in life and they can kind of tell you and and it really does reassure you and then you kind of feel

1:49:50

yeah actually wow you know but I'm just saying I maybe some this resonates with some of you see this world we're here for a certain amount of time and with it it brings you know each year will kind of unveil bundles and you know and heaps of unexpected happiness but with it will come its challenges but

1:50:21

we'll face it as it comes as the Arabic saying is you know whatever's there they will see it once we get to it as one of our ads used to say in Madrasa used to say you know if you haven't reached the toilet yet no point taking your shelvar off right now he used to say you might as well wait till you get there so cool that's Um, right.

1:50:47

Let me get to it. Right. Mr. That guy, you're doing it. Much love with the super chat. Verbind. You embarrass me. Worldrenowned Muslim rapper Lupe Fias Lupe Fiasco follows your Instagram and seems to be a fan of your work. Have you thought about having him on Mind Trap? Yes, I h I have been in touch with Lupe and I did tell him that look, let's do a um mine trap and he and he agreed.

Paragraphs overlapping 1:45:33 to 1:50:48. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2021-01-05-S23, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eo90sv4jvho/s/23/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2021, January 5). Is it haram to celebrate my birthday? [Video, segment 2021-01-05-S23, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eo90sv4jvho/s/23/
Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2021. "Is it haram to celebrate my birthday?" Video, segment 2021-01-05-S23, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded January 5, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eo90sv4jvho/s/23/
BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2021-01-05-S23,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Is it haram to celebrate my birthday?}},
  year = {2021},
  month = {1},
  date = {2021-01-05},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eo90sv4jvho/s/23/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eo90sv4jvho/s/23/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2021-01-05-S23, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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