Back to search

What is the ruling on congratulating friends on their birthday by saying: "May you be well every year" and exchanging gifts, without manifestations of celebration?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

What the questioner does—gathering, congratulating, and exchanging gifts on the occasion of Christmas—is considered a celebration of the birth of a person. This is an custom alien to Muslims, and it involves imitating non-Muslims.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy