n37 19 The Truth about Halloween and Other Pagan Festivals

The Truth about Halloween and Other Pagan Festivals

Speaker: Abu Usamah

Opening of the Khutbah

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask for His help, we ask for His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever is misguided, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

Indeed, the best speech is the speech of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad bin Abdullah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

The Importance of Foundations in Islam

Before even dealing with this issue of Halloween, I think it's more important that we try to take this opportunity to lay some foundations. The concern for laying foundations is imperative in the deen and it's imperative in the dunya. If a person doesn't have foundations, then whatever he is going to build upon is going to be a problem.

In the deen and in the dunya, this building that we're in right now, it has a foundation. And what's built upon the building, the foundation, the building that's built upon it, is only as strong as the foundation that it's built upon. Everything in your life is like that. This is not something peculiar or special to Islam.

This is the sunnah of Allah and His creation, and the kuffar know about it as well. You go to the university in the first year, you learn the building blocks that are going to prepare you for the second year, and then they'll prepare you for the third year, and then you'll be prepared for the fourth year. You don't go in studying like you're a PhD recipient. You have to get the building blocks first.

Those of you who are married, if your marriage, which is an institution, it's a building. If your marriage is not built upon solid foundations, when the winds of adversity blow, you don't want to be married anymore. If you're in one of those cultural marriages, forced arranged marriage, and you don't have foundations like love, respect, communication, you don't have that thing, then when the winds of adversity blow, your marriage is going to

crumble and it's going to fall apart. Everything in the dunya is like that. It's the sunnah of Allah that He mentioned in the Quran:

Quran 33:62:

سُنَّةَ اللَّهِ فِي الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِن قَبْلُ وَلَن تَجِدَ لِسُنَّةِ اللَّهِ تَبْدِيلًا

This is the sunnah of Allah with those people who went before, and you won't find in the sunnah of Allah any change.

So in Islam, as Muslims, you young brothers, as Muslims, if you don't have a foundation that you are building your religion upon, you're going to be one of those people who Allah described in the Quran in many ayat, many ayat. One ayah says:

Quran 22:11:

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ عَلَى حَرْفٍ

They are those people who worship Allah and they don't know what they are doing.

They'll do Easter. They'll do Christmas. They don't know what they're doing. The Diwali of the Hindus, he says, my niyyat is clear. I just want to have a good time. I just want to have a party. I'm not making shirk with Allah. If he doesn't have foundations, he's going to be in trouble in his deen. So we have to have foundations.

The Five Pillars: The Foundation of Islam

What are the foundations in Al-Islam? The foundations of Al-Islam clearly are the five pillars of Islam. The shahadatain, the salat five times a day, the zakat, saum, and Ramadan and hajj. The person who doesn't pray, his foundation is jacked up, jammed up. He's going to be in trouble in the dunya before the hereafter.

If he's a person who's lax on salat, prays when he wants to pray, prays how he wants to pray, he's going to have a problem. And we can look at the reality of this when we look at the situation with the Muslims in the whole world.

The Prophet told us, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that Allah will help us and Allah will provide for us this ummah as a result of our weak, as a result of our weak, and as a result of our salat. Allah will help us, this ummah, as a result of our du'afa, those weak ones from amongst us, the youngsters, the sick, those who are weak. And Allah will help us, assist us, because of our salat.

Why is the ummah in the condition that it's in right now? Many people don't pray, and those who do pray, they're not praying the salat that the Prophet brought, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

So, when we want to talk about an issue like Halloween, I can say here today, everybody go back and Google in Halloween, you'll find out what you need to know about Halloween. Go and look at Wikipedia, you'll find out about Halloween, it's not a complicated issue. But before talking about that, which is the secondary issue, the primary issue here, before even speaking about Halloween is, what is your foundation, ya Muslim? What are you standing upon? What is your religion built upon?

Is it built upon the crystal ball, hocus pocus? You rub the crystal ball and it tells you your future? You wear a tamima and it protects you from the evil eye? Is that your religion? Because you'll find the people who this is their religion, crystal ball Islam, hocus pocus Islam, cultural Islam, they're the people who find it easy to do Halloween, to do Christmas. They find it easy, because it's right up their alley. But if the person's Islam is the Islam that the Prophet brought, salallahu alayhi wasalam, then rejecting Halloween and the concept of Halloween and what is built upon is easy for him to say, I don't need that nonsense.

Quran 2:61:

Allah asked me a question in the Quran: Would you people change what is better and take what is worse? Do you want to change what is better, what came from Allah, divinely revealed, what the Nabi brought, salallahu alayhi wasalam, and the other prophets. Do you want to change that for what is worse? Something that kuffar made up, mankind made up, and it is steeped in shirk and kufr and superstition, and that which doesn't even make sense.

So the introduction here is a call to all of you to develop in your religion foundations.

The Foundations According to the Scholars

That's why the scholars of Islam, especially the scholars of Ahlul Hadith, and again, every time I mention Ahlul Hadith, I don't want anyone here to think that I'm talking about the members of this masjid or the jamiat, Ahlul Hadith. I'm talking about those scholars of the past, like Al-Imam Malik, Al-Imam Bukhari, Al-Imam Ahmed, those were the ulama of Ahlul Hadith.

So they wrote books called Asulul Sunnah, Asulul Sunnah, Thalathul Asul, and then they would explain what are the foundations that the Muslim's aqidah is built upon. So the point here, they called it the foundations of the religion, and they talked about what we believe and what we don't believe, about Allah, about his religion, about sins, about Yawmul Qiyamah, different things like that. So the point is, what is your foundation?

Second thing that I want to mention about this foundation is that in the Quran, there are many, many ayahs that deal with this concept. Many ayahs, I didn't come to share all of those ayahs with you, but I will mention one or two.

Quran 9:109 (Surah At-Tawbah):

Before we even get to Halloween, what is your foundation? Allah Ta'ala mentioned in the Quran in Surah At-Tawbah, Allah asked a question, he said: Is the one who builds his foundation, is built upon the Taqwa of Allah, and is built upon the Ridwan of Allah. His religion is about, I have to fear Allah, and I have to make Allah pleased in what I do and what I don't do, what I support, what I'm against. Is the one who his foundation is like that, is he better, or the one who he built his foundation upon an unknown precipice? That's about to fall into the hellfire with him in it. And Allah doesn't guide the people who are disbelievers. He wants to build his house upon something, soil, ground, that's problematic. They're not the same.

That's an ayah of the Quran telling the Muslims, pay attention to what you build upon. Your house, if we're going to go and build a house, you get some money, you come into some money, you want to buy a house, you want to get a car, you're going to ask the pertinent questions about the mechanics of that car, the foundation of that car. How many miles does it have? You're going to ask, what is this neighborhood like? The ground underneath it, the system, the toilet system, all of that, the plumbing, what is it like? The electrical situation, what is it like? You're not going to go into purchasing a house with your eyes blinded, blindfolded.

Similar to your religion, don't be one of those people. Don't be one of those people. You young brothers, when we say to you that Halloween is haram and it's a major sin and it's shirk billah, we're not saying that because we don't want you to have candy, sweets and this and that. We're not saying that because we don't want you to have a good time. We're saying that because the one who believes in that, the one who practices it and he doesn't believe in it, then his religion, there's something wrong with his religion. If his intellect allows him to partake in something like that.

The Three Components of Islam

Third point, let me give you the definition of Al-Islam that one of the great scholars he gave us. And this is really critical in establishing the foundations. And I'm going to say his name because what he said was the truth. His name is Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab and he's one of the great scholars of Al-Islam. He's not infallible. I can't say he's in Jannah, but he was an Imam of Al-Islam and the Sunnah.

When he gave his students the definition of Al-Islam and he writes this many times in his books, he shows that Islam consists of three components. If you don't have these three or if you're compromising one of these three or all of them, then the foundation of your Islam is suspect. And it's no sense in talking about Halloween.

He said that Al-Islam, it is:

الْإِسْتِسْلَامُ لِلَّهِ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى بِالتَّوْحِيدِ، وَالْإِنْقِيَادُ لَهُ بِالطَّاعَةِ، وَالْبَرَاءَةُ مِنَ الشِّرْكِ وَأَهْلِهِ

You young brothers pay attention to this. I'm going to challenge you at the end of the Dars, Inshallah, as I always do, 20 pounds for the one who is able to tell me what I just said in Arabic.

He said that Al-Islam is for you to submit wholly to Allah through Tawheed. That you submit, a Muslim is the one who submits. Al-Istislam Lillahi Bit-Tawheed.

First Component: Submission to Allah Through Tawheed

You submit to Allah with Tawheed. You don't make shirk with Allah in anything. You swear only by Allah. You slaughter only for Allah. You are afraid of only Allah. You make Sajdah only to Allah. You make Dua only to Allah. You practice and you believe only in what Allah told you to practice and believe.

Second Component: Obedience to Allah

The second component is that you obey Allah, you obey Him. And the things that He told you to do, you have to do those things on your limbs. They have to be manifested in your limbs. You have to get up and you have to pray. You have to do the things that Allah made wajib. You have to fast in the month of Ramadan. You have to come to Jummah. You have to be respectful to your parents. You have to make Tawheed to Allah. It's not enough just to say, I believe in Allah and you stop right there. You have to. Number two, you have to do the deeds and the actions and you obey Allah to the best of your ability.

Third Component: Freeing Yourself from Shirk and Its People

Number three, and this is the emphasis about this class. Number three, he said, Al-Islam. Number three, is that you free yourself from shirk and the people of shirk. So with these three, very quickly, because we have a lot to cover with these three issues.

Al-Islam is making your submission to Allah through Tawheed. If you're making shirk, Ya Allah, Ya Muhammad. If you're doing magic, then there's a problem with your Islam. Number two, if you're not praying and you're not doing the actions of Islam, there's a problem with your Islam. If you are a Muslim and you don't draw a line between you and kuffar, you and kuffar, then there's a problem in your Islam.

If you believe that it's okay to bring a birthday cake and put candles on that cake and all of that, the origin of it is shirk and kuffar. That's what it's about. It's just symbols and you blow that candle out. There's something wrong with your Islam. If you take a piece of chicken, the wishbone of the chicken, you take one part, your brother takes the other part and you say make a wish and you break it and you make a wish. There's something wrong with your Islam because you didn't free yourself from shirk and you didn't free yourself from the people of shirk.

Now, I have to make this point very clear. That doesn't mean in the UK that we have to apologize for being British citizens. It doesn't mean that we're going to live on an island by ourselves. It doesn't mean that we're going to subtract ourselves from the non-Muslims. It doesn't mean that the Muslims don't buy into and believe in community cohesion. It doesn't mean that.

Hadith:

The believer who mixes with the people is better than the believer who doesn't mix with the people.

The one who is a Muslim and he mixes with Muslims and non-Muslims. He's mixing with them and he's patient with what he sees from them that annoys him. He's still patient and he's giving dawah. He's better than the one who always wants to run off and live by himself in the mountain or somewhere.

But in living with non-Muslims and living with relatives and living with people who are doing bad things, that doesn't mean that you join in with them. Living with the non-Muslims, does that mean because we live here we're going to say homosexuality is okay? Are we going to say that? We're going to say the imam from the minbar is going to say, Wallahi, homosexuality is an abomination and it's a major sin and Allah destroyed communities as a result of it.

But I'm living here and the law does not allow me to discriminate against homosexuals. The law does not allow me to harm homosexuals and on and on and on. As for do I condone homosexuality? Without biting our tongues we're going to say (لَا - lā), we don't condone it.

So don't get it twisted and don't get it mixed up. When I say being separate from *kuffar*, *shirk* and *mushrikeen*, it doesn't mean go live on a mountain. It doesn't mean that. It means their way of life, those things that are counterproductive and against our religion. You have to take a stance against it. And that's why Allah Azawajal told us in the Quran, Ikhwani, that we had a perfect example in Ibrahim. And those people with Ibrahim, when they said to their people, we are free from you. We're free from you and from what you worship other than Allah.

Allah Owns Your Soul and Your Money

So now let's go to the next point before dealing with the issue inshallah. Dealing with the issue. Something I want to bring to your attention before we talk about Halloween, which is a peripheral issue, secondary issue.

The primary issue is what's your foundation in your religion? Are you one of those people who people can take advantage of you easily and take your money?

You take your wife who you love, your daughter who you love. You take her to the shaykh to read the Quran on her. Although you can do it in the privacy of your own home with Ikhlas, you can do it. But you take it to the shaykh who you have mad respect for. And the shaykh says, leave your wife with me, leave your daughter with me. And you say, OK, shaykh, you take care of the business and then you leave. And your wife and your daughter is there with the shaykh by themselves because you had a good opinion about the shaykh.

No, you're supposed to say in this case, shaykh, I have a foundation and my foundation is I'm responsible for this girl. And I won't leave her alone with you or any other human being other than Isa ibn Maryam if he came back. Because Isa ibn Maryam, he's ma'soom. As for everybody else, I'm going to be there. Someone's going to be there. That's a man who has foundations and he is not apologetic about that. He doesn't feel there's something wrong with the way I'm being.

So let's go to this issue before we deal with Halloween, inshallah ta'ala. Allah has established a number of issues in the Quran. Just one I want to bring to your attention. Before Halloween, Allah said in the Quran: Allah has purchased from the believers. He bought, he purchased their souls, them, themselves. Allah owns you and he has purchased their money. And what he gives them in return is the Jannah. So our souls belong to Allah. Our money belongs to Allah.

We have to do everything in our business to do what we can to please Allah with what and who we are and what we're doing. So in relationship to our money, you have to give Zakat. If you're not giving Zakat, you're not a real Muslim. You're not a full Muslim. You don't understand that that money belongs to Allah and Allah told you, purify your money with Zakat. You have to pay money and make Hajj. Eid al-Adha is coming. You have the money, don't be stingy, go and slaughter. It's from the best Ibadah.

Use your money and support the masjid because Allah owns your money. The decisions about that money, the way you feel about that money, the allegiance that you have, the love that you have for that money, it has to be predicated upon you knowing this is Allah's money. I'm just using it to help myself to get the agenda. He said he also purchased the souls of the people. So the person has to pray. The individual, he has to fast.

Why am I mentioning this? I'm mentioning this because when we come to issues like Halloween, issues that we may not understand, you can't do that. You shouldn't do that. People want to be argumentative in a way that shows, don't you know that your soul belongs to Allah? You belong to Allah. If Allah wanted this thing for you, you would be able to prove it's OK from the religion. But you can't do that, especially once you know what it's all about. No one in his right mind could ever come and say this is OK. No one in his right mind. Something is wrong with him.

Example from the Companions: Abandoning Jahiliyyah Practices

Now, those companions of the Prophet, radiallahu anhum, wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they understood this point. And they were a lot like us, Ikhwan. When the Nabi came to his companions in Mecca as well as in Medina, when he came to them, they had a lot of these issues just like us. They had a lot of celebrations that the *kuffar* were dealing with. And when they became Muslims, the Prophet dealt with it, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. They didn't have any problem with abandoning their culture when Al-Islam went against their culture.

I just give you one example that I'm sure everyone can buy into. And this thing that I'm about to tell you, wallahi, is lesser than Halloween in terms of evil. It is bad, what I'm about to tell you. But it's lesser than

Halloween in evil. When you hear it and you already know about it, you're gonna say those people must have been crazy, Quraysh. And they were crazy in this issue. And this issue is lesser in seriousness and severity than Halloween.

Allah said: Quraysh were told, your wife just gave a baby and she had a baby girl. His face would become black. He would become overwhelmed with grief. And he would walk around hiding from the people. He didn't even want his friends to see him after having a baby girl. He didn't want the people to see him. He was walking around in grief and he was saying to himself, Should I take the baby and keep it and be embarrassed and down in the dirt? Or should I take her and bury her in the dirt? And most of them chose to put the girl in the dirt. Allah said, what a terrible way that they used to judge.

No one here in his right mind is going to have a baby. After nine months, the baby comes out. He takes the little pretty girl and buries her in the sand alive. No one's going to do that. You have to buy into the intellect of the person who would do something like that. That was the pressure of the culture. That was their culture back then. Like our culture right now. Our culture is similar to that. Some things happen in the culture. If you don't do it, there's a problem. So here, listen to this.

This issue is lesser than Halloween. Because Allah will forgive a man for murdering his daughter. He will forgive him. If a Muslim want to kill someone unjustly, he killed his baby, had an abortion. I'm not condoning that. If it happened, Allah Azawajal will forgive him for that. But he won't forgive the person for making *shirk* with Allah. He won't forgive you. He doesn't forgive the person who dies on making *shirk*.

So the point here is, when the companions had this book revealed to them, they stopped burying their daughters. Not only did they stop, but they started to cry, and they were sorry for what happened in the past. Umar said, Ya Rasulullah, Allah blessed me with a beautiful baby girl. When they gave me the baby girl, I took her out to the outskirts of Mecca in the desert. I started digging a hole for the baby. I started digging a hole for the baby. After digging a hole, I put her in the hole. And I started putting the dirt on her. She would get up and she was trying to take the sand out of my lehya. And I kept on burying her until she was done.

Umar r.a wasn't responsible for that because Islam wiped away what he did. But he was crying. He was crying after that. So they got away from their culture when it went against the deen of Allah Azawajal. And they weren't argumentative to the Nabi. They weren't argumentative. What about this? What about that? They just let it go.

So Allah mentioned and described them in the Quran: The believers are men, real men. They took care of the promise that they made with Allah. That contract that Allah brought their souls and their money. They took care of that contract. They took care of their side. Some of them went forward and they gave their lives. And others are waiting to give their lives. And they didn't change anything about the religion. They didn't change anything. This ayah shows anyone who comes and says that the companions apostated after the Nabi died. They're lying. So the companions were similar to us.

What is Halloween?

With that being the introduction and the foundation for this talk, we want to go now into this issue of Halloween. And really it's not a complicated thing. It's easy. It's not complicated at all. In terms of information, Halloween is very simple and it's very easy. But we want to tie it into why and how is it haram in the deen of Allah.

Historical Background of Halloween

Historically, this issue of Halloween is a pagan festival. It was started off in paganism. It is one of the oldest celebrations in the world today. It's older than Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr. It's one of the oldest celebrations Benny Adam knows today. For over 2,000 years, people have been practicing Halloween since its inception. So it's been on the scene for a long time. Over 2,000 years. It comes from the Celtic people. They're called Druids. They up there in Ireland and certain parts of Britain and northern parts of Europe.

And it was originally a festival that they held because of the end of the harvest time. They used to call the festival Samhain. And it is the celebration of the dead spirits. The dead people who died, they used to believe a lot of crazy things that these dead people can come back and they can harm them. So if you did some evil to someone, if you did some evil to someone, especially if he died, whether you knew it or didn't know, those people thought that the spirits on this day could come back and they can harm you.

So they would wear costumes and masks so that when the dead people come back, the spirits, they wouldn't know who you were. That's where the mask comes from. The mother and the father who goes to the store purchases for the child some mask. He wants to go out as a ghost. He wants to go out as Spider-Man. He wants to go out as something. The mother and the father doesn't know and they don't ask the question. Why? Why do they have this costume in the first place? It's because the people believe that those dead spirits will come back and they would harm.

Another issue is that they used to do on the 31st and it was the last day of their calendar. It was the last day of their calendar, the 31st of this month. And then the next day was the new calendar year. So on this day, it was a big issue. They used to believe and they used to think that the harvest, the back of the earth, those dead people has something to do with the harvest growing or not growing. They're animals having babies or not having

babies offspring. They used to believe that those dead people has something with making the babies come out. OK, or not coming out. OK.

As a result of that, they used to be nervous and they used to be afraid. So what did they do to show their dedication to the dead spirits? They used to light a big bonfire. They would dance around the fire. Sometimes they would throw animals in the fire, slaughter animals and give it to the fire. Sometimes they would throw human beings, human sacrifices in the fire a long time ago. That's what they used to do. They used to throw food in the fire for the dead people.

The fire now, after a number of years now, now the fire is symbolic in the jack-o'-lantern. That pumpkin, the pumpkin with the candles inside of it is the symbol of that fire back then. The Muslim doesn't know that. Where does the Christmas tree come from? What does the Christmas tree have to do with Jesus Christ being born? Has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. Just as the Christians borrow from the pagan practices and they introduce Christmas to Christianity.

They did the same thing with Halloween in order to please and appease the pagans of that time. Those people from the Roman Empire and other than them, they made up this Halloween to get the people to believe in Christianity. And that's their religion. But look, there's no difference from what they were doing and what we're doing when our relatives do the Khatam. When our relatives do the Yarmi on the Thursday, last Thursday or whatever it is during the month when we make the food and then the dead relatives come and they eat the food. The dead relatives come and they smell the food. There's no difference between that and the Halloween.

But the Halloween, as I mentioned, it has a lot of symbols. Those people from the Celtics, they didn't have the pumpkin during their time. The pumpkin came from America. The pumpkin came from America. What they used to do is they used to have the tulip. For those of you who know what the tulip looks like. The Americans hijacked the celebration and they made it into commercialism. Like this issue of trick or treat. That's a total absolute American concoction just for making money. And that's it.

As it relates to the people who first started this issue of Halloween, they used to call this day All Hallows Eve. All Hallows Eve. And then they shortened it to the one word Halloween. The people doing that time, as I mentioned before. When they used to have these bonfires, they will leave their doors open and they will leave outside of the door. They will leave outside of the door. Treat snacks, candy, cakes, different things that they actually believe.

Again, when the dead people came, they thought that they were good dead people, spirits, and they were evil ones. So they will leave those things for the evil spirits to come and to take it and they wouldn't harm the people. That's Halloween. That's Halloween. There's nothing more. There's nothing less than that. Different people do different things. Germanic people, they do different things. Germans, they do one thing. People in Norway, they do different things. People in America, anyone they have, they are different things. But that's the

The Symbols of Halloween

Now we come to the issue of the symbolisms and where they come from. And there are quite a few. You have that symbolism, as you all know, of the bats, the gravestones, the skeletons, the broom, the witch, the blood, the spider, the jack-o'-lantern, that pumpkin. All of those things, all of those things, they have their origin in being a symbol of something that those people used to believe in 2,000 years ago when they first started it. 2,000 years.

It has nothing to do with anything that makes sense. The one who believes in Islam, that the plants in the ground, they come up as a result of the evil spirits. Good or bad. That's kofrum billah. Halloween is based on that. The evil spirits are going to come back and they may harm us. So we have to do these types of things to make them pleased. That alone shows the Muslim. As a Muslim, we know who's the one who causes the plants to grow from the ground. Who is that? Allah azawajal. He mentions that over and over and over and over and over in so many ayat. He even caused us to grow out of the ground as he mentioned.

So if a Muslim were to come and he actually thought that he can go to someone in Islam to make dua, to someone who's dead in Islam to ask him, Ya Rasulullah, make the plants grow out of the ground. That's shukr billah in the deen of Allah. What about someone borrowing this concept from non-Muslims? It becomes even worse. Something that's even more unacceptable.

Why Halloween is Haram in Islam

So why is it unacceptable?

Reason One: The Hadith About Celebrations and Oaths

Number one, there was a man, he came to the Rasul sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He asked a simple question.

Hadith - Sahih al-Bukhari:

He said, Ya Rasulullah, I've made an oath to slaughter my camel before I became a Muslim. I made an oath to Allah. Oh Allah, if you do this for me and that for me, I'm going to slaughter this camel at a place called Bawana. Should I go ahead and complete my oath?

Prophet Muhammad said to the man sallallahu alayhi wasallam, that place Bawana. Is it a place where the idols of the Mushrikeen, they have the idols there and they worship in those idols? They said no. He said no. He said, is that a place where they have their celebrations, their Eid? He said no. He said then go ahead and fulfill your oath.

If the man said yes, there's an idol there. There's a cross there. There's something that they worship there. A tree, a rock. He would have said don't do it. If the man would have said yes, they have a celebration. That's where they make the bonfire in that area. That's where they slaughter for their gods in that area. The Prophet would have said no, don't participate with them in that celebration.

Reason Two: Allah Has Replaced Their Celebrations

Another issue. Why is haram? Why is it haram? When the Nabi came to Al Medina, he saw the Muslims and the non-Muslims were doing celebrations. He saw the people of Medina doing a celebration. He said to the Muslims, what is this that they're doing?

And before going on, this is another example of how the Prophet didn't know everything sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Any hadith where you see the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam asking, Whose camel is this? Who said such and such a thing? Whose rope is this in the masjid? What are these people doing? Whose grave is this? That's a proof he doesn't know everything. How is someone going to come and say, Wallahi Rasulullah, he has ilm al-ghayb. Rasulullah is hazir nazir. If he was everywhere, he wouldn't have to ask, what are they doing?

So he came and he said, what are they doing? They told him, Ya Rasulullah, in this case, this is a celebration that they used to do for their forefathers from way back in the day. For centuries, they've been doing this. The Prophet told the companion sallallahu alayhi wasallam, Verily, Allah has replaced this that they're doing with something that's better than it. And then he told them, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.

But in addition to Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr, we have awaqiqa, we have the waleema for the nikah. The person memorized the Quran, so we slaughter, we have a party, so that people can come and partake in the party. It's not like we only have just two celebrations. We have the celebration of Friday. Every Friday is an Eid, the Eid of the week. Every week, we have a party. We have a day to celebrate. So there are many things to celebrate in al-Islam. Many things.

But they've been sanctioned by the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and we don't need non-Muslims introducing things to us that we're going to take and we're going to celebrate with them. The religion is not in need of that. Not this religion. This religion that makes everything clear that we need to know about mundane affairs, like how to relieve yourself when you go to the bathroom. The bathroom in Islam, the toilet, akramakumullah.

The Prophet told us and taught us how the toilet should even be facing. That as an architect, as a builder, as a homeowner in the Muslim country, when you get someone to come to build the toilet, he's going to take into consideration where is the Qibla. And he's going to put that toilet in and fit it in so that when Bani Adam comes to use it, he's not facing the Qibla to the front or the back. He's going to be on the side of the Qibla. Either way.

You think a religion that was that detailed is going to be forgetful about what celebrations are okay and what celebrations are not okay? It's just going to leave it to everybody. Make your own decision. Do what you want to do. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in that hadith, he clearly explained to the companions, it is not permissible for Muslims to take from non-Muslims their celebrations, especially when we find their celebrations are steeped in shirk, steeped in kufr.

Now again, before going on, Ikhwani, I don't want anyone to misunderstand. That doesn't mean that when you go into work in the morning, you can't say to the non-Muslim, Good morning. I hope you're successful in your marriage. You give him a gift. You give him something. You got married. You give him a gift. Someone dies from his family and you give him condolences. I'm sorry for the tragedy of what happened. There's nothing wrong with that.

As for celebrating with them, going to the church for the wedding, going to the funeral and you don't have a reason to do that and you can't validate why you're there. If you can validate being there, no problem. Someone died. They say you come and do the eulogy. You go and you call those people to tawhid. You start telling them everyone's going to die. This is the reality. And you start giving them dawah. You validate it while you're there. As for just going there just to be a nice friend? In the church? Just to be a nice friend? No.

Umar r.a, when they conquered Baitul Maqdis, he went into the church to see. He never saw the church. He went into the church. He was looking around in the church, shaking his head. Couldn't believe all of the statues, all of the pictures, all of the kufr, all the shirk in the church. When the adhan went off in Palestine, our Palestine, when the adhan went off, Umar r.a said, I'm going now. The preacher in the church said, No, no. Stay. Stay. Make the salat right here. There'll be a barakah for the church.

Umar r.a said, I'm afraid if I were to do that, people would think that it's okay to pray in this place. I think that the people may think it's okay to pray in this place. And he left. So, don't get it twisted. When I say to you it's not permissible, not permissible to partake in the holidays, that doesn't mean that you can't be a decent human being. Good morning. How are you? There's nothing wrong with that.

Reason Three: Built Upon Lies and Falsehood

This issue is not permissible, Ikhwani, in addition to that, because as I mentioned to you, it's built upon kevib. It's built upon lies. It's false. And the Muslim has to have a predisposition where he hates kevib. That's part of his religion. He doesn't lie intentionally or unintentionally. He tries to avoid it. And if he does lie, he knows that lying is a problem. He doesn't lie about his dream. It's a major sin.

Allah mentions in the Quran, Allah does not guide those people who waste and those people who are liars. He doesn't guide you. The liars have been destroyed. Allah will destroy those who lie. The Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wouldn't lie even when he was playing around. As a matter of fact, he told the people, woe unto the one who tells a lie to make the people laugh.

Hadith:

Woe unto him. You're going to be in trouble. The comedian who lies, anyone who just lies to pass the time away. In Islam, that's a major sin. We don't condone lying, except in three situations. Their celebrations are built upon lies.

And it's in the Quran even, wallahi. It's in the Quran. You brothers know right now, we're in the month of Dhul-Qi'dah. Dhul-Qi'dah. After Dhul-Qi'dah is Dhul-Hijjah. After Dhul-Hijjah is the first month of the year, Muharram. All three of those months are sacred months. And then there's one more sacred month. Anybody know what it is? Rajab is the fourth sacred month.

Those four sacred months. In Jahiliyyah, the non-Muslims of Quraysh, they used to respect these months. They used to see it as being months where you shouldn't do evil. They tried to be good people in these months. And they would suspend fighting in these months. If they were fighting prior to these months, they would stop fighting.

But what the Kuffar would do when Islam started was, they would suspend the month from being a sacred month and they would fight the Muslims in the month. And they say, we're going to make it up in the month of Safar. In the month of Safar. Allah, Azza wa Jal mentioned this practice of theirs in the Quran. How they played with the days and played with the time and they did with it what they wanted to do. This is something that we find in all of the celebrations of the non-Muslims. All of them. All of them. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, the birthdays, everything that you can think of.

Example: Thanksgiving in America

Let me tell you something in America. You may not be aware of this. There is a big celebration in America called Thanksgiving. You brothers ever heard of Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is a celebration, a big one, a family-oriented celebration. They play special sports, football games, American football on that day, basketball on that day. It's a big family day.

And it's kind of like Christmas in the family orientation of the day. Thanksgiving is the day that the pilgrims of America, the white people who they took from Australia and all these other places from Britain. They went to America. They saw the red Indians, the original inhabitants of America. They saw those red Indians and they decimated them, killed them.

The red Indians offered them hospitality, show them how to live off the land, show them how to adapt to the elements because the Indians, they come all the way from Alaska, all the way down to Florida. They're very resilient. They're all across America. Where it's cold, where it's hot, those people, they were, they knew how to live off the land. When the white man went to America, they went to greet him. And they brought expensive bees and gifts and gave them to the white man. And the white man ultimately killed them.

Now this is not about racism. This is about history. They killed them and took their land. That today in 2011, Indians are living on reservations over there in America. They're drinking khamer and they're on reservations and they are messed up for the most part. I know some who are Muslims. May Allah give all of them Al-Islam.

It does not make sense for me to celebrate Thanksgiving. It is a big day. And most Americans will celebrate this day. The day that we're giving thanks. What are we giving thanks for? The people think they're giving thanks for good health right now. I'm giving thanks because I have a car, I have a house. But that's not the origin of the celebration. The origin of the celebration is that a group of people were killed and their land was taken and they were put on reservations.

How can you allow yourself to celebrate? How would you feel? The Palestinian. The Palestinian. Just think about this. How would the Palestinian Muslim feel? Or Christian. He feels when the Jews make some celebration as a result of bulldozing his land and his property and killing his people and they're going to use that day as a celebration. Everybody's going to say that's something that's not acceptable.

Similar to that, Ikhwani. Similar to that. In Al-Islam, Muslims who have a foundation, we have to ask, what's the origin of that thing? Why is it like that? What does Al-Islam say about that? And don't be one of those people who is very easy for you just to put the thing on the side because it's just about having a good time.

And that's why as parents, Ikhwani, even communities, we have to do a lot. We have to be aggressive. We have to be creative. We have to offer opportunities for our Shabab, our youth, to have a good time on the day of the Eid and other than the day of the Eid. We have to give them some activities at home and in the Masjid and other than that. We have to come up with stuff so that they can go out and they can see that Al-Islam can compete.

Because just on the nature of being mischievous, our children don't believe in these monsters. They don't believe in that. But they just want to go out to have a good time. So they go out and they do what we used to do when we were young on the Halloween's day. Before Halloween, we used to go out and we would throw eggs and hit people with eggs. Wasting money. Although we needed the money. We'd be throwing eggs at people. You ask yourself, why are you wasting all of this money and throwing eggs, getting arrested and knocking people's eyes out and causing car accidents and other than that. Why is that?

Reason Four: Connection to Shirk Through Images

Another issue, Ikhwani, that's really important about this Halloween. Why is Haram? For those of you who know, one of the reasons that pitches are Haram is because pitches were introduced to Benny Adam and shirk came along with it. The only sin that Allah doesn't forgive is shirk. And shirk was introduced through the medium of pitches.

Halloween is a celebration that those people, the powers to be, they use Halloween to keep society afraid of ghosts, the jinn, monsters, evil spirits, all of these programs that we see that make us frightened. When I was young, it was The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby. Now, Halloween. I think they're about Halloween 15 now.

They're about Halloween 15. Michael Myers. What's some of those guys? Jason, that guy with the pinhead guy.

All of these movies that people watch, the terror grips them and people get all of these crazy ideas about the jinn and the ghost, the witches and this.

Even Harry Potter. Why do we say for the Muslim child, no, you should not watch Harry Potter. You should not read Harry Potter. You should not give your mind to Harry Potter. Because inside of the story, inside of the visuals that you see is all of those symbols that help to perpetuate this fear that people have of monsters, the fear that people have unnecessarily. Where in Islam, the message is being built all the time. Fear only Allah. Fear only Allah. Have some foundations.

We believe in the jinn. The Nabi told Abu Huraira radiyallahu anhu. They were in Mecca. He told Abu Huraira, Abu Huraira, they walked outside of the outskirts of Mecca. He said, I'm gonna keep walking. He made a line in the sand. He said, don't go beyond this line. Sit right here and don't move. And the prophet left.

Abu Huraira radiyallahu anhu said, there were a group of people who came. He thought they were people. They came and they sat down. And they were frightening him. The way they looked. Because they weren't people. They were jinn. But because the prophet told him, don't move, Abu Huraira radiyallahu anhu just sat there. But he was frightened. He was afraid. He didn't move though. He listened to what the prophet said. Sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wasallam.

When the Nabi came back, he asked him what happened. Abu Huraira told him what happened. The Nabi told him those were some of the jinn who were traveling in this area. I went and met the other group and I was giving them dawah to Islam. That other group, that party, they broke away and they came to you.

We believe in the jinn. And being afraid of the jinn is natural. Being the natural fear of the jinn is natural. But the person who has Iman and he has foundation, he knows there are certain things that I can do to protect myself. And I know that this jinn won't be able to do anything to me if Allah didn't decree it. If Allah didn't allow it, it's not going to happen.

So that's another reason why we shouldn't give ourselves to that because Halloween is one of the tools that Shaytan uses.

Quran 7:17:

He said in the Quran: Shaytan said to Allah, after he was thrown out of the Jannah, before he was thrown out, he said I'm going to come to these people from in front of them. I'm going to come to these people from behind them. I'm going to come to them from the right, from the left.

He didn't say I'm going to come from above them. Abdullah ibn Abbas said, the wisdom that Allah said that Iblis didn't say I'm going to come from above them is because Allah is above his servants. And the Rahman, the

protection of Allah comes down from where Allah is, from above the seven heavens.

Iblis told Allah, I'm going to come from in front of them. I'm going to make them doubt about their hereafter. I'm going to make them come, I'm going to come from behind them. I'm going to make them doubt about their dunya. Give them shubihat. I'm going to come to the right of them. I'm going to make them fall into sins, bigger. He thinks he's doing the right thing in worshipping Allah. He thinks he's doing the right thing in whatever he's engaging himself in because it doesn't go against the religion. I'm going to come from the side of them.

Meaning the sins that the people do being bad to the parents drink and other issues like this.

Reason Five: Resembling Non-Muslims

Lastly a funny and there are many issues. I'm sure doing the Q&A session. Some of these issues will come to the forefront Is that the issue of resembling non-muslims is serious in al-islam? If you open up this Quran Any page that you turn it to I'm both sides of that particular page. There's something about toheed on every page of this book There's something talking about the toheed of Allah in his Lordship On the fact that he deserves to be worshipped or in his names and his attributes.

It is the most spoken about most mentioned concept of this Quran the oneness of Allah The second the second most mentioned concept in this book Consistently is the issue of al-wala wal-baraa al-wala wal-baraa meaning many ayat That Muslims have al-wala to Islam and the Muslims and al-baraa for kufr and shirk So the issue of resembling the kuffar resembling the non-muslims Some of you are dressed with jeans the way non-muslims dress That's not haram in the deen of Allah To wear a suit is not haram in the deen of Allah To look like a police officer and to wear policeman suit fine men suit. That's not haram in the deen of Allah

What's haram is when a person does something that is he does something that is specific and peculiar to non- muslims They're known by that thing like dressing like a nun Like dressing like the Sikh lady the Hindu lady puts that thing on the head You know, and she's a Sikh or Hindu The preacher wears that thing that collar the collar of the priest Muslim can't wear that because those forms of dress and symbols are Equal to tantamount to kufr and shirk But wearing the clothes that they wear you're not a non-muslim. You're not being like them.

This is the food This is how we are The Nabi sallallahu sallam used to dress the same way Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl used to dress sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa la'anatullah ala ha'ulayh Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl used to wear turbans Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl they used to wear tobes. They used to wear kamees So you can't say that the tobe is the Islamic dress as such No, it's the clothes that the people wore from that particular area and you don't have to wear a tobe You can wear the sirwal kamees from where you come from. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that

But when it comes to their celebrations, they're the people who invented this. They're the people who practice it They're the people who call to it. They're the people who this is what identifies them whereas the Muslim is not identified with that and Spain when the Muslims were being persecuted and they were being killed There were certain things they had to do to hide their Islam.

They started to cut their beards They started to change their names and they made their names similar to the non-muslims so they wouldn't be detected So when the non-muslims saw what was happening, they said, okay, we're gonna take him and they would take the young man in the back They would take the man in the back and they say show your privates Show us your privates when they would show the private they see the man was circumcised. They say you a Muslim That's something that these people are known by That's something that you're known by

So the Muslims and the point here is the Muslims are known by certain things and non-muslims are known by certain things Muslims are not known by these types of celebrations that when you look at them and you study them they are steeped in Koffer superstition shit Disobedience doing evil. They're just nothing for the intelligent person to appreciate nothing Mother's Day Mother's Day The Muslim is going to say yeah, that's a nice idea.

Mother's Day is a nice idea a day I'm going to pay homage to my mother But we have in our religion already. The issue has been addressed that every day is Mother's Day That your mother is a door from the doors of a Jenna The doors of a Jenna are there every single day and you can die at any day at any moment You can check out you want to go to Jenna? There's a door right there constantly with you Don't wait for one day to acknowledge that door Don't wait for one day. You don't have to go to non-muslims to say show me how to honor my mother Our Dean showed us that already There's nothing that those people can bring that the Prophet didn't already discuss explained to us.

So the light is in perfect detail This religion told us about your mother that after the huck of Allah No one has a bigger huck over you than your mother The pleasure of our lives and the pleasure of your mother and your father The anger of our lives and the anger of your mother and your father What are those people going to come and tell us that we have to embrace Mother's Day and then they turned it not into the concept That people think it is. It's just about commercialism It's about buying cars and buying flowers and buying sweets and bolstering the economy and making money. That's all it is

So the point here it funny is as Muslims we have our distinct Unique personalities is not acceptable just to come here and say everything is hard on and then we don't give our children a chance to Outlets no, we have a responsibility to do something about making that aid for an example a big massive day for those kids Making the Juma a big massive day Not just something they go to school and that said the day comes and goes and tomorrow Saturday.

We're gonna watch cartoons They know that this is the day of Friday because we're going to eat together on this day We're going to go out and have dinner in a restaurant for an example on this particular day And then after that we're going to do some other family oriented Activity so that as that child grows up that helps to build his Islamic identity but if he doesn't get that type of Nourishment for his Islamic Identity he's going to look at this other stuff And your child will be in the school Doing Halloween and he'll be making those masks and those cartoons those masks and The things that they draw what they believe in and he wants to go out to get candy from the store as well.

The Dangers of Halloween

Last thing that I want to mention. I don't know how it is here, but in America Halloween is a dangerous time It's a dangerous time. This is the time when people they give your children poison This is the time when in America when they when we were young you don't take chocolates from the people because they used to put in the chocolate chocolate X lax X lax is a the famous If you're constipated a crumble come a lot It's the most famous chocolate laxative.

It tastes like chocolate. That's why people like it They used to put that in the kids give you X lax put rat poison in the candy It's the day. That's known people prey on children doing that time Pediophilic people that's the time so is evil from the beginning to the end and there's nothing But anyway, anyone could come and say this is the positive thing about Halloween that we should partake in or any other Holiday of theirs one of the best holidays in terms of theory is Mother's Day Father's Day.

That makes sense Mother's Day and Father's Day, but when you look at it, what are they going to bring to the table for us as Muslims? What are they going to bring to the table to tell us about our mothers and our fathers?

Conclusion

So would that be in the case the call here is develop for yourselves or ourselves a soul in the religion Fundamentals in the religion by which you have the ability to judge things that come your way you have the ability to know who to be for and who to be against what to be in support of and what you should take as An opponent.

وَاللَّهُ تَعَالَى أَعْلَمُ

End of Khutbah