What is the status of giving gifts specifically on the 10th Muharram?

Answer

The fatwa is incorrect. Firstly, giving gifts is permissible on any day. There is no specific day for making gifts. Gifts on the days of Eid, Aashura, etc., have no Sunnah significance. The custom of gifts on 10th Muharram has been innovated and elevated to Sunnah significance on the basis of the Hadith which mentions the virtue of providing a somewhat lavish meal for the family. This is a baseless extension and application of the virtue.

Ignorance has encouraged people to extend this virtue to gifts, hence they have fabricated this gift-bid'ah for the Day of Aashura. The Mufti Sahib is short -sighted. What constrained him to say: "provided one does not regard it as compulsory or Sunnah."? Why did he have to add this comment? Despite his fatwa of permissibility, he is aware that this practice has assumed 'sunnah' significance. It has become an ingrained custom for the 10th Muharram. It is a typical zig-zag fatwa to appease a variety of palates.

If someone had to ask this Mufti Sahib: Is it permissible to give a gift because of joy on a Monday?, then the simple answer would have been that it is permissible and virtuous. The 'sunnah' comment would not have featured because there is no such custom of making gifts specifically on a Monday.

The last two sentences in the Mufti's fatwa is indicative of his short-sightedness. Although he understands that 'these kind of actions become custom', he issues a fatwa of permissibility. He also portrays lack of understanding of the principles of Fiqh, hence he incorrectly says in the customary scenario when bid'ah proportions have been attained: "..it is preferable that one should stay away from these kind of affairs."

In fact, it is Waajib to abstain from "these kind of affairs". "These kind of affairs" become embedded bid'ah such as the bid'ah which prevails in the Qabar Pujaari, Barelwi sect, and which is also becoming a norm among so-called 'deobandis' who are mock 'deobandis'.