Celebrating daughter’s reaching adolescence

It is not prescribed to
celebrate this occasion, which is a girl’s reaching the age of sixteen,
because that is imitating the kuffaar who hold such parties. The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever imitates a
people is one of them.” Narrated by Abu Dawood (3512); classed as saheeh by
al-Albaani. 

This age does not mean
anything in our religion. A girl reaches puberty and becomes accountable
when certain signs appear, but reaching the age of sixteen is not one of
them. 

The signs of puberty are:
menstruation, wet dreams, growth of coarse hair around the private part or
reaching the age of fifteen. 

The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not prescribe celebrating the reaching
of a certain age, such as puberty or youth etc, for either males or
females. 

Some people nowadays
celebrate the child’s first birthday, then they celebrate when he begins to
walk, then when he begins to speak. But there is no basis for that in Islam,
rather these are customs that have been taken from non-Muslims. 

We should beware of
imitating the kuffaar and we should preserve our Islamic identity, and avoid
blind imitation of others. 

There is nothing wrong,
when a child reaches puberty according to the signs mentioned, with pointing
out the importance of that in his life in general terms, and pointing out
that his Hereafter is strongly connected to his reaching puberty, because he
has now become responsible for his actions and accountable for his words and
deeds. 

“So whosoever does good
equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant) shall see it.

8. And whosoever does
evil equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant) shall see it”

[al-Zalzalah 99:8-9]

May Allaah help us all to
do that which He loves and which pleases Him. 

And Allaah knows best.