A day after a few goons had barged into his Kolkata house, Indian cricketer Mohammad Shami was attacked online for indulging in ‘unislamic’ acts. All he had done was to put a collage of pictures on Facebook, where he and his family were seen celebrating birthday of his daughter, who turned two years old yesterday.
Those offended by this act claimed that the celebration of birthday was not allowed in Islam. They were offended especially by ‘the way Shami celebrated’ the birthday. They were in all probabilities referring to his wife not being in hijab in the pics, as some of the comments suggested:
This is not the first time Shami has come under attack from Islamic fundamentalists. Earlier, he was criticised and abused for sharing a picture of himself with his wife, where his wife was not wearing any hijab or ‘modest dress’, which was argued to be against Islam.
This online attack on Shami comes a day after Facebook Islamists had targeted another Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan for sharing a picture of himself with his wife. Incidentally, Irfan’s wife was seen in hijab in the pic, and she had even covered her face with her hands, but the fundamentalists didn’t like the fact that she was wearing nail polish.
Yes, nail polish!
It now appears that wearing nail polish could indeed be against desirable Islamic practice. The following tweet by a person, who is considered a liberal and moderate Muslim, argues that one should take off nail polish before offering Islamic prayers:
And tho it's still her decision as far as trolling on nail polish is concerned as long as she takes it off before wuzu it's not haram. https://t.co/1SSGQn3tZi
— Rana Safvi رعنا राना (@iamrana) July 18, 2017
So far as celebrating birthdays are concerned, if the preaching of Zakir Naik, who has influential following among Muslims in the sub-continent, is believed, it is undesirable. He declares that celebrating birthdays of dead people (such as celebrating birth anniversaries of historical figures) is entirely prohibited in Islam, but celebrating birthdays of living people is also not desirable.
Zakir Naik also stresses on ‘the way birthdays are celebrated’ these days, which according to him can lead people towards shirk (being irreligious):
