It is customary among Muslims in the West to give money to the children of the family on Eid. For example, if we say that there is a family composed of a husband and wife and five sons, two of whom are married and have children, the husband and wife give the “eidiyyah” (which is the word they use) to their five sons, and they also give it to their grandchildren, and it is expected that their married sons will give the “eidiyyah” to the children of their wives families, and to the sons and daughters of their brothers. Is the concept of giving the “eidiyyah” permissible in Islam, or is it an innovation that must be avoided?
Praise
be to Allah
There is nothing
wrong with giving children and adults the so-called “eidiyyah”. It comes
under the heading of good manners and nice traditions, but we should point
out a few things:
1.
Paying attention
to equity in giving. It is not right to give it to some of one’s children
and not others, or to some of one’s sisters and not others, because of what
that leads to of creating resentment and provoking jealousy and grudges
within a single family.
2.
It is not
necessary to give the same amount of money to each family member; rather
attention should be paid to children’s ages, and one may give to an adult
what one does not give to a child, and to a married person what one does not
give to a single person, and so on.
3.
Small children
should be watched with regard to the ways in which they spend the “eidiyyah”
that they receive from their family and relatives, because on Eid people
often go out to places of entertainment and leisure, and play games that
involve gambling, and clubs and cinemas open their doors. So there is a need
to watch the children and supervise the way in which they spend their money.
In the answer to
question no. 125810 we quoted the scholars of the
Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas as saying that the “eidiyyah” is
permissible.
And Allah knows
best.
