The Ruling on Congratulating the New Hijri Year
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Many people exchange congratulations on the occasion of the new Hijri year. What is the ruling on congratulating one another for its arrival? Among the phrases they say is “a happy year” or “may every year find you well.” Is this prescribed?
Answer:
This is a bid'ah (religious innovation). This is a bid'ah, and it resembles the Christians' congratulations for the Gregorian year. This is something the Salaf (the earliest generations) did not do. Also, the Hijri year is merely a convention adopted by the Companions of the Prophet for the purpose of dating transactions only, for the purpose of dating transactions only. They did not establish it as a festival, nor as something to be congratulated upon, nor… This has no basis. The Companions established it solely for dating and regulating transactions. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Many people exchange congratulations on the occasion of the new Hijri year. What is the ruling on congratulating one another for its arrival? Among the phrases they say is “a happy year” or “may every year find you well.” Is this prescribed?
Answer:
This is a bid'ah (religious innovation). This is a bid'ah, and it resembles the Christians' congratulations for the Gregorian year. This is something the Salaf (the earliest generations) did not do. Also, the Hijri year is merely a convention adopted by the Companions of the Prophet for the purpose of dating transactions only, for the purpose of dating transactions only. They did not establish it as a festival, nor as something to be congratulated upon, nor… This has no basis. The Companions established it solely for dating and regulating transactions. Yes.
Source
شرح قرة عيون الموحدين في تحقيق دعوة الأنبياء والمرسلين، باب النهي عن سب الريح، وباب قول الله - تعالى - : { يَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ ظَنَّ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ } — islamhouse.com (1:07:05)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.