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Fatwa CenterAttending birthday parties of non-Muslim colleagues to win them
Question
Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh i m doing job in MNC Company in India & They gave me a gift of chocolates on the festival of diwali. i want to know that can we eat these chocolates or i have to thrown this in dustbin or what i can do with this chocolates? & My another question is in my company birthdays was celebrated by cutting Cakes & Alhumdulillah i dont celebrate my birthday & I already said to my manager that i dont celebrate birthdays & i dont want to celebrate it & they agreed to not celebrate my birthday but the problem is when the company celebrate other peoples birthday all must have to be present while cutting cake & I will be helpless on that time to be present there but Alhumdulillah i dont claps & i dont wish to anyone & i feel bad for this celebrating Alhumdulillah & i dont eat cake also Alhumdulillah & I present there that they will not thing any bad for me & I want to give them Invitation of Islam. What I m doing is correct or not? & I know that it is biddah in Islam to celebrate birthday but this will be biddah when muslims going to celebrate it but when non muslims are celebrating this what this will be called for us or what we have to do? & One more thing my i want to know is Can we take pictures of family(Ladies) on mobile To send to my elder brother who is in Saudi Arabia? Jazak Allah Khari
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Indeed, you did well by not celebrating your birthday and not participating in the birthday of your colleagues or other polytheistic [non-Muslim] festivals. We ask Allaah to reward you for doing so.
For more benefit on the prohibition of exchanging gifts with non-Muslims on their religious festivals, please refer to Fatwa 89254.
However, it is permissible for you to benefit from the chocolates which were gifted to you.
Since you are prohibited from attending their festivals, you are also prohibited from attending any ritual related to such celebrations, like cutting the cake and the like.
The fact that they are non-Muslims does not allow you to attend their celebrations.
Disregarding some of the religious principles by a Muslim is not a way of influencing non-Muslims. On the contrary, if a Muslim holds fast to the principles of his religion, he may influence them better.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 81725 and 86137.
As regards taking pictures of the female members of the family with a mobile phone and sending them to your brother, then there are some prohibitions on this. It might be that the wife of his brother is included in these pictures, and if we presume that every single one of them is a female Mahram of his, then these pictures might fall in the hands of a person who is not permitted to look at them.
Therefore, it is not permissible for you to take their pictures.
Allaah Knows best.
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