Questioner: Now there are two questions about birthday parties and one is that Ahmadis are not allowed to celebrate birthdays but can we go to attend our friend’s birthday?
Huzoor (rh): This question has been repeatedly asked of me during my tour of North America. This question is a secondary question, it should not be taken that seriously. Birthday parties are neither mentioned in Islam with you know by promoting them or permitting them nor they have been prohibited as such in Islam.
What Hazrat Khalifatul Masih II said was that there is no evidence of any birthday party during the time of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa s.a.w. during the generation which followed him during the generation which followed him during the generation which followed him and he said basing on that these were the three generations of light then darkness spread.
So during the period of life there is no evidence whatsoever that the birthdays were celebrated of the holiest of the holy men and the other holy people whom he created with the grace of Allah. So if those births were not celebrated why should an ordinary person Tom, Dick and Harry celebrate what is special about that? So he debunked this idea. Having heard that if somebody still celebrates it will be a bad taste all that we can say and expect a more refined taste of Ahmadis. But to attend a party by somebody else is a different story altogether. We do not take this matter so seriously as to not to permit others to to have such function. If what if somebody celebrates this function and he goes there for the sake of socialization or for the sake of gaining more friendship without sacrificing his principles there is no harm. Again there is no harm because he will give some presence if he is forced to be very present. He will not receive so because he will be only on the giving end not the receiving end so it won’t cause any embarrassment to him. If he invited others to birthday and did not go there that would be very embarrassing. You understand?
Questioner: Yes. Thank you very much.
