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Culture and Religion
Too often we are asked if a certain festival, custom or practice has or has not the approval of Islam. May be the custom under discussion is a utility necessitated by geographical conditions and has nothing to do with religion. Take the example of Lota. For scaricity of water in Arbia, they invented a utincil (lota) with a small outlet to restrict flow of water. We in India had plenty of water. We preferred Gadvi (a utencil with wide outlet ) and found it more convenitent. These two utencils had nothing to do with the religion but you probably know it very well that Gadvi became the symbol of Hinduism and Lota was coopted by Muslims. Maulvi Sahib of my Masjid is still adamant that Taharat without lota is not valid.
Miswak is a fine combination of brush and cleansing fluid. The purpose is to clean teeth but to use one miswak by dozens of persons and the use of rotton miswak for plugging in the leaking water taps on the wadu pad, which we see in almost every village mosque is hot a healthy practice. Is it unwise to improve upon these practices?
Talking of beard (I have beard) Quran has not said a word about it. Hadith does not enjoin upon Musilms to grow beard. On the contrary it speaks of trimming and proper maintenace of beard for those who happen to grow beared. Dress code is precisely defined in Quran leaving no room for anyone ridiculing others. I know a great scholar of Islam decreed that wearing Kurta of lawn is haram. I wish he spent a hot season in Multan, Pakistan.
Similar is the issue of birthday celebrations. For every year of life we light a candle on our cake and then blow it off with our own breath to mark the number of years we have blown off.
In India, Hindu celebrated birthday to gauge physical development of a Child. For this purpose a thread named Taraghi is loosely tied across belly of the child. With this thread chest of the child is measured on each birthday in presence of the family and measurement is marked with a knot on the thread. The celebration is thus named Saal-Girah ( Annual Knot ). Muslim in Pakistan do celebrate Saal-Girah by marking number of years lived, with candles in a joyful gathering of the family. It has nothing to do with a religion.
The best way is to examine each such practice in its own perspective and leap not for a fatwa from the repository of Islamic Sharyya.
Muhammad Latif Chaudhery