Quora Answer: Is Celebrating New Year’s Day a Sin & Haram?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is celebrating New Year’s Day a sin, and haram, in Islam?” 

How would the commemoration of a new solar year negate the shahadah and our ‘aqidah?  This is a cultural practice, not an act of worship.  If the argument, as some conservatives state, is about “imitating the disbelievers”, then they should cease benefit from all the accoutrements and inventions of “disbelievers” such as medicine, technology, and live in a cave somewhere.  It is this anti-intellectualism and pettiness in Muslim societies that is the reason why Muslim communities are comparatively backward and insular.



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