عَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيِّ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ” لَتَتَّبِعُنَّ سَنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ شِبْرًا بِشِبْرٍ وَذِرَاعًا بِذِرَاعٍ حَتَّى لَوْ دَخَلُوا فِي جُحْرِ ضَبٍّ لاَتَّبَعْتُمُوهُمْ ” . قُلْنَا يَا رَسُولَ الله آلْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى قَالَ ” فَمَنْ
ʾAbū Saʿīd ʾal-Khudrī (may Allāh be pleased with him) narrated:
Allāh’s Messenger ﷺ said, “You will most certainly follow the Sunan (ways) of those before you, handspan by handspan, armlength by armlength until if they should enter a lizard hole you would definitely follow them.”
“O Messenger of Allāh,” we asked, “The Jews and the Christians?”
“Who else,” he replied.
Muslim
As we approach the Islāmic year 1443 there are those who seek to push us ever further into the lizard hole. If our heads are not already squeezed in, these kind folks would push us in all the way to the toes.
Significance of Muḥarram
1st Muḥarram heralds a new Islamic year for our dating purposes. This is significant in itself, as I had discussed here.
Furthermore that date is the first day of a month in which fasting is greater than any month other than Ramaḍān. [Muslim]
The tenth of the month is also of added significance, and I assume that that does not need elucidation.
Beyond these basics, Allāh and His Messenger ﷺ has not prescribed any specific deed and importance to “New Year’s Day”. Festivities and celebrating of a new year have no origin in our Sharīʿah. It is the way of “those before you” and “those before you” were not original in this, but were walking in the footsteps of the pagans before them.
Muslim laity might engage in “Islamic” New Year activities, but at least they do not pretend it is some command of Allāh and His Messenger ﷺ. Of greater concern is when Muslim celebrities/ popstars / entertainers / scholars (the distinction becomes ever more vague in our times) seek to promote their fame amongst Muslims and ingratiate themselves amongst non-Muslims by pushing us ever deeper into the lizard hole. Thus amongst their arsenal of tricks is painting an Islamic veneer over the pagan concept of New Year Resolutions.
Origin Of New Year’s Resolutions
I shall gladly retract if our entertainer-scholars can present a single narration, however weak, that Allāh’s Messenger ﷺ promoted special acts to 1st Muḥarram which can justify their media blitz of New Year Resolutions. Even his teaching us to fast, is general for the month, not specific to the day.
Failing this, can they provide the statement of any significant scholar of the pre-colonial period as the origin of their lizard hole fad? I aver that they cannot. For Muḥammad ﷺ and those who sincerely walk in his footsteps do not teach us the ways of the pagans. New Year Resolutions originate with the pagan Babylonians and Romans and reached us through the western colonialists who still colonise the minds of many Muslims – including the educated (in both secular and religious sciences).
The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations in honor of the new year—though for them the year began not in January but in mid-March, when the crops were planted. During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king. They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor—a place no one wanted to be.
A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.
For early Christians, the first day of the new year became the traditional occasion for thinking about one’s past mistakes and resolving to do and be better in the future. In 1740, the English clergyman John Wesley, founder of Methodism, created the Covenant Renewal Service, most commonly held on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Also known as known as watch night services, they included readings from Scriptures and hymn singing, and served as a spiritual alternative to the raucous celebrations normally held to celebrate the coming of the new year. Now popular within evangelical Protestant churches, especially African American denominations and congregations, watch night services held on New Year’s Eve are often spent praying and making resolutions for the coming year.
https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions
Imitation
So what’s the big deal? Am I just bored and looking for problems? Granted that New Year’s Resolutions will not sink the ship of Islām. However, the phenomenon is symptomatic of greater diseases which we face. Turning our religion into entertainment, seeking the pleasure of the enemies of Allāh, and insincerity of our leaders are but a few related issues which any sincere Muslim should be concerned about.
Of singular significance is the fact that the prohibition of imitating non-Muslims in our religious affairs is becoming an ever more unheard-of topic. The discussion has so disappeared from amongst us, that here I do not have to cite the entertainer scholars, but must confess that I too share guilt in this matter. Our predecessors paid heed to every utterance of Muḥammad ﷺ, including the following narration of ʿAbdullāh bin ʿUmar (may Allāh be pleased with him):
مَنْ تَشَبَّهَ بِقَوْمٍ, فَهُوَ مِنْهُمْ
He who imitates a people is of them.
ʾAbū Dāwūd
Note that the Ḥadīth of ʾAbū Saʿīd ʾal-Khudrī (may Allāh be pleased with him) at the beginning of this article uses the word Sunan (plural of Sunnah) in describing the ways others. A believer is thus presented with a choice between the Sunnah of Muḥammad ﷺ and that of others. The choice is yours. You will win or lose. Choose correctly.
Do We Have Resolutions?
Muslims do in fact resolve to better themselves and avoid what is negative. We do not have a prescribed day for this, because it is something we should do daily, not once a year. Unlike the entertainer-scholars, our spiritual masters have bases for this teaching. For example, ʿUmar bin ʾal-Khaṭṭāb (may Allāh be pleased with him) said:
حَاسِبُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ قَبْلَ أَنْ تُحَاسَبُوا وَزِنُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ قَبْلَ أَنْ تُوزَنُوا فَإِنَّهُ أَهْوَنُ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الْحِسَابِ غَدًا أَنْ تُحَاسِبُوا أَنْفُسَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ
Take account of yourselves before your accounting is taken. Weigh your (deeds) before you are weighed. There will be a lighter accounting for yourselves tomorrow, should you rather (start) accounting yourself today.
Muḥāsabah ʾan-Nafs li ʾIbn ʿAbī ʾad-Dunyā
Should the entertainers argue that they are but making the best of a bad situation, then why do they not teach daily reckoning instead? Less entertaining? Less exciting?
May Allāh grant us sincerity and every form of success.
سليمان الكندي
@Sulayman_Kindi
Kindi's Blog 