Abdullah Hakim Quick – The Truth About Holidays
AI: Summary ©
The Christian world is busy with Christmas being a busy season, with implementation of Valentine's Day and the Christmas season. The church of England has a new church called Church ofams, where children wear items depicting evil forces and use them as weapons. The church is used to provide Christmas cards and the implementation of "monorn" in the Christian era is important in maintaining boundaries between men and women. The speakers stress the importance of avoiding false accusations, respecting individual privacy laws, and not being associated with any religion or culture.
AI: Summary ©
The Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. I begin with the greeting words of Paradise Salam aleikum, wa rahmatullah.
And we want to extend special greetings and hopes of peace and understanding to our non Muslim friends who are gathered here tonight.
Those who may be passing through the hallway, those who may look in the window, wherever you are, we also greet you with the greeting words of peace.
It is so important for the people of America
and the West,
to begin to understand the cultures of the world.
And places such as the University of Miami
represent a gathering point. It represents an area where students come from different parts of the planet, where people are able to share information where now with advanced technology, we are able to access information from different parts of the planet, and to bring it together.
And where we are able to do investigations to try to find out that which is true, and that which is false. Also, another one of the great blessings of this technology is that we are able to sift through data, and to find out that information that is causing confusion.
And sometimes historical documentation, or what has come to us as historical documentation is actually more based upon the opinion of the person who wrote the book, as opposed to actual effect.
Also, unfortunately, people are influenced by their religions, by the country they live in, or by their culture.
And so with the bringing together information, we are able to look closer at primary documentation to try to understand what is the actual source of the phenomenon. And then we can sift away the other opinions and the other bits of information that were brought together, as though they were the actual effect.
So tonight, we are looking at culture. We're looking at the culture of people in America and Canada and the Western countries and how this affects people throughout the planet. And we want to do this in the light of this concept of stereotyping.
Because this concept of stereotyping
has had a has had a very difficult or critical effect upon the cultures of the people who lived here in the Americas
over 500 years ago or more the native population.
Also African American people, people of all different nationalities have found themselves at one point and another, being stereotyped for some reason,
based upon the changes going on in the international arena, politically and economically.
For some reason, the Muslim world, Muslims today are being targeted. And even Hollywood itself
is taking on a role and aggressive role in dealing with the name Muslim, or the name Islam.
When I was growing up in America here, the bad guys were usually Japanese,
Germans and Russians in the 70s and the 80s. And of course, the native people that's a given they're always portrayed as being the bad guys in the movies or the Cowboys. And the and the military people had to rescue
Free World from the danger. Today we find that the bad guys usually are Spanish drug cartels, Afro American gangs, Jamaican posse.
But today the most sinister character that you could bring to the screen is the Arab terrorist. He sees us as hostages, and he will not release his hostages unless his comrades are released from the prison.
And so then the forces of good quote unquote good go into action and we have found in the past few years, coming out of Hollywood, that even people like Chuck Norris, in Delta Force,
Arnold swats *, the big muscles and Steven Seagal with a little ponytail on his head, and all types of people are now chasing this new terrorist, this new phenomenon, this evil force, evil empire, seeking to destroy the world.
Recently, unfortunately, we have heard of the coming of another movie called The siege. And in this movie, which will be starring Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington, and others, it is portraying germ warfare, chemical warfare in New York City. And so the FBI and the CIA and the American military are dispatched to try to deal with the new terror. They put their heads together.
And unfortunately, the movie shows soldiers coming in breaking into masjids houses of worship of Muslims, and dragging out women with scuffs on taking people from their worship.
And Muslims are being portrayed now as this dangerous international force.
What is setting a new precedent in this case is that from what we understand, these Muslims are put into concentration camps in America.
This is a very serious issue. For those who have understanding of World War Two.
Understand that when the United States government declared war on the Japanese, and the powers with Hitler, anybody who was from that nationality, who was considered to be a threat to the internal security of the country, could be put into jail and Japanese Americans, Japanese Canadians, even though they may have been loyal to the government, were put into concentration camps. Also, those of us who live during the 60s when the rioting went on when after Martin Luther King had been killed and cities were being burned. also realize that there were concentrations set up for African Americans, that if the riots got out of control, there was a plan that has come forward now. And all
of the nationalist organizations were broken apart, infiltrated, the leaders were killed and sent into exile. And there was a specific plot, that if the African American population became too volatile, and out of control, that they are or at least the more negative, volatile elements within their population could be put into concentration camps in America. So the fact that these concentration camps existed, and the fact now that Bruce Willis After finish, after fighting against aliens and
meteors and comets and fighting everybody and saving America, now wants to save America against the Muslims. This is the furthest thing from reality.
Because the reality is, Muslims are not a tiny group
of people trying to destroy the world. This is a complete stereotype. Muslims make up 23.1% of the earth's population. This is not a tiny cult in the Middle East. This is an international phenomenon. There are over 60 million Muslims in China, over 70 million Muslims in the former Soviet states, millions of Muslims in Europe is the majority religion on the African continent. And Islam is probably the fastest growing religion here in the Americas. There are millions of Muslims throughout the world. And for those who used to take that Islam was was it was a racial religion, in the sense that it was the religion of Africa and Asia. We found out in the Chechen struggle that the Chechen
people, the people of Chechnya, who resisted the Soviet government are pure Caucasian people. They live on the foot of the caucasoid Mountains. And so those anxious are those old outdated anthropological terminologies, how they used to categorize us even here in the University of Miami.
has been negroid, caucasoid,
Mongoloid and so forth and so on. This is outdated. But still if you if you go by those terminologies that don't really make sense, there are Muslims who are Caucasian people who lead one of the strongest resistance to oppression of the 20th century.
And so therefore, this is not a racial religion. This is not a cult based religion. This is it. This is an international phenomenon. And the most important aspect about being a Muslim is not wearing certain clothing.
It's not eating certain food, or speaking any language in particular, Islam is the religion of tawheed, which means the religion of the belief in one God. And we are taught that this belief in one God was shared by people throughout the planet, from the beginning of time. And we are taught that the Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah, peace and blessings be upon him, was the seal of a long line of prophets and messengers, who came to every nation and every tribe, in the Quran, the book of Scripture of the Muslims. And Sir, it's a novel in verse 36. It tells us what occurred. Now frequently oma or azulon, on a Buddha law watch Telly, but Tara hood, and we have said to every
nation, a messenger that they would worship Allah, they would worship the Creator, and they would stay away from false gods.
And so we find that monotheism is not the property of any particular group. But it is the property of the whole of humanity. Those who have had the opportunity to travel have found that monotheism has been shared by people in all countries of all different languages. I had the opportunity to travel in many countries, and I questioned the historians, and those people who were keeping the culture, the local culture. And I found that even in China, the concept Shang tea in Mandarin Chinese, refers to the One God that even the ancient Vedas, within Hinduism, there is a belief in one God because Hinduism itself is not one particular belief in that there is even monotheism in the
early scriptures. In Africa, there were many different nations, who had the belief in one God, one of the pharaohs of Egypt,
and atone, whose wife was Nefertiti, you probably heard of her before they say she was the first woman to be wearing cosmetics. This isn't one of the ancient kingdoms in Egypt itself. History tells us that Akhenaten
was struggling against the myriad of Gods the variety of Gods in ancient Egypt. And he spoke about the power of attune the power behind the sun. Not to worship raw, the sun god, but to worship the power behind the sun. In the Psalms of, of notton. There's very long sound sounds, and one of the sections reads as follows.
It's speaking about the Creator. And it says, How Legion or how varied are your works that are hidden from the face of men, oh soul, God, who is like no other. You made the earth, according to your will alone, men, cattle and all beasts, everything on Earth, that walks upon feet, everything that flies with its wings, foreign lands, Syria, Cush and the land of Egypt, and you set every man in his place and supplied his needs. Everyone has his provisions, and his allotted lifespan and their tongues are diverse in speech, and their appearance. Likewise, their skins are different, for you have differentiated the peoples this sounds very much like cirtl hoogenraad. This is like a
chapter in the Quran. And you will find this and all the scriptures of monotheism, we are not so sure that if not and was a prophet, but we can see within his writings, that tawheed that monotheism was alive and well, at that time in ancient Egypt. In other parts of Africa, you will find like in the case of the sand people of Southern Africa, who are sometimes called the Bushmen, the sand people are intensely sensitive to a governing lifeforce and invisible all present, omnipotent power, beyond the comprehension of people and to this
force is attributed all creation and all manifestations of nature.
The a Can people who live in Ghana, one of their sayings is, God is He who knows or sees all. This is one of the things the Burundi people living in, in Burundi also have a strong belief in the one God. It is part of the Bantu or end to cosmic concept that looks at all the cosmic forces emanating from one point, the closer people of South Southern Africa, they have a word. Kamata, when they use Kamata, it means Allah, or God is the greatest. And they use this concept in their religion. And in many of their ceremonies. The Ashanti people say, no one shows a child, the Supreme Being. In other words, the child knows naturally about the Supreme Being. And so you find that in these traditional
religions, contrary to what is taught in many religion courses, in the traditional religions, if you go back to the root, you will find the concept of monotheism, ancient Egypt is probably one of the best documented areas of the ancient kingdoms before Christ. And you find that the further back you go, that the more that people were involved in tawheed in monotheism, contrary to what is taught, what is taught in many religion courses, is that people first worshipped material things. And then later on Semitic people from the Middle East, taught the belief in one God. And so the religions of monotheism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were developed, and then monotheism spread throughout
the world. The Quran itself
is contradicting this concept, as it says, Well Akbar nafi coonley, oma and we have sent to every nation, not to the Semitic, not a Jesus Assamese
not to Semitic people only, but we have sent to every nation, the belief in one God in the Americas, there is a strong belief in one God and we find the Cherokee Nation and the wolf clan in particular, whose oral traditions are still available to those who are able to access this these traditions. Dr. Robert crane, a former adviser to the President of the United States, and a part Cherokee, was able to go to these oral traditions of the wolf clan.
In it, he found that when they would begin traditionally their prayer, they would begin it by saying, Yeah, Allah. Now he was a Muslim, or he is a Muslim. And for many years, people used to think that this was maybe a Hebrew saying, a Semitic saying it is Semitic, but it is Arabic.
And the Cherokee people look to the east. The Cherokee people recognize there were people coming across the ocean, long before Columbus. They used to have dwellings in America, with over 100,000 people, three storey buildings, we don't understand this about the Americas, we're stuck with stereotyping. That gives us this concept of Native people being savages, who only living in in huts, and had no religion had no concept and needed to be civilized. This is part of the racists imperialistic type of of history that has been taught over the years, which brainwashes people into disrespecting this themselves, and even to look at documentation and not be able to extract
information from this documentation, because their minds are so brainwashed, and they're so paranoid.
The reality is, is that the native people here in the Americas had strong cultures, they had philosophy pyramids, and even within the from the Americas itself, the concept of tau heat, the concept of one God was alive and well. And so it is our belief as Muslims and many historians also take this concept, this belief that when you look at the religions from the beginning of time, we have to recognize that there was a constant struggle going on between those who believed in one God, and those who believed in many gods. This struggle has always existed with human life.
We find it more intense at different points in time. But what is important for us to understand is that in America today, we are sort of a hodgepodge.
Melted
Down mixture of hundreds of cultures, and we call it American, or we call it Canadian. But nobody is really sure what it actually means. And now that we're going into the 21st century, it is important for us to be able to separate the different elements within that culture, and to recognize the roles that these elements play.
In this struggle that went on, from the early days of human life, there were people who put their worship in the natural world. And so those natural objects that were around them, that appeared to be the strongest objects, they would worship through those objects. So in other words, if people living in desert areas, in many of these areas, you find a huge rock, or a huge tree. And so many people would worship the trees, or the rock, or the or they felt they would worship the cosmic forces through that tree or through that rock. In some countries that had large rivers, such as those who lived around the Nile in the Nile Valley, or in the Niger River, or the Congo River, or
the Amazon, those who live around these powerful forces of water, we find that religion was developed around the river.
And in many cases, people would worship manifestations of the river, even some of the animals from the river itself, hoping to appease the power and the forces in the river itself. Probably the most common form of worship in the ancient world was the worship of the sun. And that is, for obvious reasons, the sun is obviously the largest of all of creation. And that when the sun comes out the power of the sun, it gives light, after darkness, it gives heat.
In the cold weather, it brings forth the light the life from plants. And so the sun itself, in a sense, is a life giving form. And so those were trying to figure out what is the source of our life, what is the source of the living beings around us, focused on the sun, as the main object and developed within their religions, a concept based upon the sun. And so we find this concept in all parts of the world. Contrary to some of the beliefs of people, it was even very strong in Europe. I mean, up until now, we still count we still have during our week, at the end of our week, we have Saturday, and then we have sun days, which is the day of the sun.
And this is a concept that they used to have. And what is important for us to understand, especially when we're dealing with young people who tend to be caught up just in images coming at them, that the images within many of the holidays that we have, have got a number of streams. And especially you could say two main streams that are coming in, there is a stream of monotheism. And there is a stream of polytheism of those who worship many gods and those especially who focused on the sun god in the winter season.
around December 25th, the people celebrated the winter solstice. And those of you who have lived in the north, I'm coming from Toronto, Canada, there's four seasons, not two, or three like you have here. There's four seasons. And these four seasons in Canada are very distinct seasons, although el El Nino and La Nina are changing that also. But they're very distinct seasons. And so within the seasons, there are certain high points or low points. And the solstice time is the time when the essence of the season comes about. And so the winter solstice would come about somewhere between December in December from December 21. And it goes all the way to around January 6 or so. And so the
people of the North would celebrate different holidays have different occasions, based upon the winter solstice. Put yourself in the northern countries. I went to Norway and spent some time with the Muslims in Oslo May Allah subhanaw taala help them they're really far up north. And also I had the chance to go to Alaska and there's Muslims in Alaska. Now when we were there in the summertime, and it was time for salata, mothership and we looked outside
And the sun was still out. Somebody looked at his watch. And he said, Well, that's sunset. And it's time to make mothership. So we made a lot of that is normally made with the sunset according to the watch, and the sun was out.
The time for issue, they looked at their watch again, it's supposed to be darkness of night. According to the fifth. They looked at their watch, and they said, it's time for Aisha, we made Isha and the sun was out.
around one o'clock at night, I looked at my watch and realize it's time to go to bed, but the sun was out.
And so in those parts of the world, you are in a situation where for the Muslims, you make taqdeer. And the fukuhara have told us that you can use the closest reasonable city for your base, or you can use Mecca, Tomoko Rama, and some different fuqaha have used different positions where I was, they use Seattle, Washington, as the base of their time where they were in Alaska. What is important, though, is that in the wintertime, there is a period where there is no light, you are literally in darkness, 24 hours of the day.
And this stretches for a period of time. Now, could you imagine if you're living in Alaska, or living in Canada, or living in Norway, and you don't have central heating, and the cold is outside, it's darkness around you. People are dying from disease, it's a terrible time and every family would probably lose somebody, or they would know of somebody dying from the cold and disease during that season. This is the winter solstice. And so when the sun starts to come out,
the people now are looking at the sun as a life giving force. And so during that time, a number of ceremonies were held in northern countries. In the far north, was the feast of the 12 nights, which stretched from December 25, to January 6.
Also in ancient Greece, there was the Bacchanalia which was held for their god Bacchus, the God of wine and sport and play. The Romans had the Saturn allia for their gods, Saturn, their main sun, Gods Saturn. And so you find during these times, that the people held ceremonies in the north, they would burn bonfires, the light was important the fire, because the fire represents the light, the life giving force for those who worship nature. Also in the north, they recognize that there was one tree that even that, despite the cold would still remain alive. The evergreen, the evergreen tree, the first tree. And so in some cases, they would take this for a tree, believing that there was
powers of life within the tree, and they would put it in their homes, set it there and put a light on the top of it, or burn them in the front, or they would make a missile toes and put them over their doorways, a type of what we would call tire wheeze or taneema. It is an amulet. And they would hang the amulet over their doors, hang the amulets in their home, hoping that this for a tree that this so called life giving force would protect them from the danger of the winter.
And so their ceremonies developed around this. And this went on for hundreds of years. We also find in the ancient northern countries, we find
the druids and the druids of the North. And they carried out special ceremony surrounding the mistletoe and surrounding the fir tree and the beliefs and they would meet within circular areas. And they had a secretive cult that spread throughout the far northern countries. One of the interesting individuals and you can look this up, if you can find it in the dictionaries or encyclopedias is a man called Mithra or mithras. This is a very mysterious character.
And when you look at history, you find that this individual called Mithra, was born on December 25.
His day of the week was the seventh day of the week that we still call Sunday.
He was supposed to be the son of the son God Himself. And they had a special sacrament made up a bread and wine and they would make this drink during this time and supposedly he
died for the sins of the people. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But when you try to find Mitra or midrise, in the encyclopedias, they through through state intervention erased the name. Why is this? That is because after the time of Jesus, Isa alehissalaam, when his followers when the message began to spread, and they went north, and you see within historical writings that Barnabas, one of his disciples met a man named Saul or Paul later called himself Paul, Paul said he saw Jesus on the Damascus Road. And he went to the disciples, but the disciples turned against Paul, only Barnabas stayed with him. But when Paul and Barnabas went into Greece, Barnabas left him. Now, what is the
reason why they all left him?
What are the concepts coming through Paul, many people say, well, they left him because he was Sol before and he used to torture, the the early followers of G salicylic. But also you can see and if you look at present day Christianity, that most of the concepts of the trinity
of the blood sacrifice, the original sin, and most of the concepts, which relate to more than one God are coming through Paul, the preachers are quoting Paul sometime more than Jesus during their sermons. And so Barnabas left Paul. And somewhere in the early days in Rome, or Greece, somewhere in that area, those missionaries who were teaching the teachings of Jesus, Isa la Salaam, met with this force coming from the north. And so you will see an ancient Roman history, that in some cases, the Roman Emperor would go out to the Colosseum.
And the gladiators would be fighting each other. And everybody's cheering for the gladiators sounds like one of our football games, they would go to the Coliseum, right.
And the gladiators would fight. And then if one of the gladiators was down, and they would look at the at the Emperor, should I kill them or not? And if he wanted to kill him, he would say, you go like that. Right? You know, that sign down? If he said, keep him alive, he goes like this. You know, we use it today. Yes. Okay, it gives that sign. Okay.
Whatever. One of the terrible things happening during these rituals at the Colosseum, is that they would bring the Christians out, literally men, women and children and feed them to hungry animals. They would take a hyena, or a wolf, or a lion, and get hungry and crazy and beat it, and throw raw meat at it. And then send it out on the people and they would literally chair and watch as the animal rip the bodies apart. This is a terrible culture, tear the bodies apart. And so somewhere along the line, somebody who couldn't take the torture, who felt that maybe we can win these people over, made a compromise. And you start to see changes going on. From the early part of the Christian
era. In southern Europe, where the the major ceremonies held by the nature worshipping people are combined with Christian names and Christian ceremonies. And therefore what comes forth to us is a mixture with the two streams coming together, where you get a monotheistic name, or a monotheistic character with a pagan ceremony.
And so the mixture of this together is what is giving us the present day holidays that we see. Number one, we understand that Isa alayhi salam, according to the different reports of the different scholars, in many religions, he was not born in the cold weather. History shows us that he was born during the warm weather.
Even in even in the Christian traditions, they have the belief that the shepherds were tending their flocks outside and in Palestine, you cannot keep your flocks outside.
In the wintertime in the evening, you bring them in, because it's cool at night. And so it was the warm weather. It was also the time of the taxes in the north.
In the story coming in the Quran, when we see the mentioned in chapter 19, and verses 24 to 25. And we see the mention of the story of Mary, because it is the belief of the Muslims, that Miriam may Allah be pleased with her
was a virgin and she
have dedicated her life to the worship of one God, prayer and fasting, and by the power of a law that the creator breathed His Spirit into her. And she conceived Jesus. He said Be and it is, she can see Jesus easily solemn, without a father without a man. That is a belief of Islam. It is also a belief that when she felt the pain of the pregnancy, that the angel came to her and told her to go outside of the city, she went outside of the city to a remote area. And there she found a palm tree and she found water. And it was speaking about roots of Junya it was speaking about a type of job or a type of dates. And those who know who have lived in the desert area know that when the dates
become ripe, when you start to see the color of the dates change, because dates are not Brown, you know, dates are originally red and the yellow there are other colors, but they turn the brown it's it's at the height of the heat, that the dates become ripe. And so it's at that time that she gave birth to Isa Elisa. So from different points of view, different historical points of view in different religions. We understand that Isa Ali Salaam was not born during the winter season. He was born in the warm weather. So who was it that was born in the winter season? What is that who is that character? Now? Let us become detectives and try to find out the answer to this problem. Number one,
you have to understand this concept of Saturn.
The concept of Baucus when they are portrayed by the different artists to drew pictures of them other sculptures, they're usually portrayed as a heavyset man with a white beard.
And when in the Sistine Chapel chapel, Michelangelo drew his picture, you could see the long flowing beard and there are actually pictures of this man on a sled being drawn by snakes with wings.
Snakes with wings, snakes do not normally fly.
But in this case, the snakes have wings, and the heavyset man is on his sled being drawn by these flying animals sound familiar to you now, doesn't it? He's being drawn by the flying animals. He's before performing miracles.
He's coming out on December 25, which is not the birthday of East La Silla has nothing to do with Christianity is the title of the of the Bacchanalia and and the Saturnalia and he is representing riotous fun, drunken revelry. And so what happens on Christmas, the Christmas season, especially in America, people today I'm not even thinking about Isa lace. Now. They're not even thinking about Jesus. They're looking how they can get drunk on Christmas, what is going on in the Caribbean, and many parts if they offer you a Christmas pudding, or Christmas pie, or Christmas drink, watch out. Because it's probably laced with rum or wine. That's the spirit of the season.
Now this riotous occasion that was going on with so far,
that the Christian church banned it. And the Church of England, according to historical sources, actually banded all the way to 1647. It was prohibited in England to celebrate Christmas, because they saw Christmas as being a pagan holidays. This is an official position taken by the Christian Church, the Church of England were known at that time as Puritans. What happened was an individual was super imposed, a name was super imposed. We hear about the name of St. Nicholas, St. Nicholas. Now, according to some historical reports, St. Nicholas was a Christian Bishop, who lived in the fourth century in Asia Minor, which is now known as Turkey. He was a very thin man, very austere,
used to spend his time in prayer and fasting. And he loves children. And he spent his time dealing with children.
And because of this now, his name, some belief was imposed upon that day, and St. Nicholas or St. Nick comes into that position as being the main man of the day. There's another concept which is even deeper than that. And that is that St. Nicholas himself is actually coming from the anxious writing
have beer wolf. And in these writings which are done in the Scandinavian region, we find the name Nic, or nickel, or Nikkor. He was known as a demon, the demon of the North. He was known as the evil spirit of the North, the name of Odin, the evil principle. And so, in Germany, and in many of the northern countries, the people actually looked upon this so called St. Nick, as being an evil force and they would tell their children in the wintertime, don't go outside because if you do, Nicholas will come along, Nicola will come along, he'll capture you, put you in his bag and take you away.
And so they used it as a negative concept in Isaiah, in what is left of the Bible in chapter 14, in 1413. The devil is known as the prince of darkness, and it is an understanding that his throne, the seat of his power is in the north, somewhere in the North is the seat of power of this evil. And so, the Germans also when they depict it, this Nicolas or this Pels, nickel, as they would say Pels, nickel in German, it means a fairy devil.
When they, when they depicted him, they depicted him as a man with red fur. He had red fur coat,
and he was his base was in the north, and he was the essence of evil.
And the Church of England till 1647 took the position that this celebration could not go on. So what we are actually seeing is that the Christmas occasion was actually the time of evil.
It was the time of the belief in the Saturnalia, and the Bacchanalia. And because of this, they shifted the occasion to New Year's Eve. They shifted all of their feelings and their merriment and their evil to New Year's Eve. Now, before we go to that, looking back back at Christmas, what is happening now and Christmas season? I don't know what goes on in Miami. But in the northern cities, on Christmas occasion, they put lights around and Santa Claus parades Do you have a Santa Claus parade if they have Santa Claus parades and St. Nicholas is outside, and he's in the streets and everybody's talking about St. Nicholas. And the poor children are taught that St. Nicholas is going
to come down your chimney. Most people don't have chimneys in Miami anyway. But a 350 pound man is going to come down your chimney and bring you presence and keep his clothes white and red.
And go to all of the homes in the area and put our presence in your stockings and and put our presence under your tree and then fly back out into space. And the Father, the poor father who sweat and toiled all year to get you the presence gets no credit for the present given to the child. Saint Nicholas comes down the chimney gives you this present flies off into the night.
And many of us were raised, thinking, believing in this. Some of us would sneak into the night and look and see our father putting the president of the tree. We knew what he was doing anyway. But you went along with it. And the people say well, you know it's Christmas. Don't you like to have fun? You want to stop the children from having fun? What kind of people are you? But what is the what are you teaching the children? You are using the name of Jesus using the name of Isa Allah Islam. And you are using a figure who historically is the devil. The devil himself when he has a villa.
They are using his finger and he has now taken over the Christmas season. Christmas now to most people means materialism. You have to buy presents for your cousins and your friends and you got to buy about 34 presents. And you find that most American people are in debt for six months after Christmas.
Now where is Jesus, you get drunk, you fight. You lose all your money. The stores raise their prices.
Isa Li Salaam is described as a very humble person.
Most of the time he didn't wear shoes. Only one or two changes of clothing are very simple person eating very simple food fasting most of the time. You see what is going on. There are two streams now a stream of polytheism a stream of monotheism and now the polytheism the materialism is overtaking the monotheism
and standing in the way and taking over our society and some foolish Muslims coming along from outside
I'm in their country say, Well, I just want to be an American. I want a treat to. So I said one of the brothers said he had a Christmas tree in his house he came for. I said, Brother, do you know what the tree stands for? He said, No. Okay, I'll get a palm tree with dates.
I'll make it halau a halau, Christmas tree. But brothers, you have to understand what it means. You have to understand what it means. Number one, the prophets of Islam when he spoke about he talked about a Rukia what Tamar him what to Allah. He said, all of these things are shirk, that if you hang amulets, thinking that this tower wheeze or this airman is going to protect you from something, then you are actually giving power to the creation of Allah and taking it away from the Creator. If you think that by making some spells going to a magician, and asking them to put a spell on someone, you want to get married. So you go to the site here and say, put a spell on Ali, I want to marry him.
put a spell on Xena. What kind of marriage Are you going to have if you go to the magician?
And so the Prophet peace be upon him name all of these things, the superstitions, the amulets, all of these type of things are the other stream which goes away from monotheism from the belief in one God and takes you into another religion. And so when the Church of England imposed this harsh penalty upon people who practice Christmas, they moved it to New Year's Eve. Now New Year's Eve, historically in the north was known as Hogmanay.
Originally, the new year for the Romans was March 1. That was the New Year, not January 1. So all of you on January 1, where was I on January 1, you waiting for the light to go up in Times Square.
The reality is the Romans For the Romans, March 1 was the beginning of the year. And when you look at the number seven, in Latin, you find September.
So September was the seventh month, October, November, December.
And so you find that the Latin words for these last months, October, November, December eight, nine and 10.
So these weren't the last months of the year, it was eight, nine and 10.
And so what actually happened was, when they impose the new year on January, it is for the anxious God, or their so called God called Janice, the two faced got two faces, who shows you one face, and behind it is another face, the master hypocrite.
And so this is what is going on at this occasion. And we find now that on January 1, right on that evening, December 31. When it changes, you find your people are usually drinking, they're involved in some sexual activity at that time. The whole concept of Jesus and monotheism is lost. It is the other religion. What is also interesting for us to remember is that after January in February,
that somewhere around the middle of February,
there was a there was a celebration that was known and by the ancient Romans as the lupercalia.
And the lupercalia was a ceremonial looper means wolf.
And they depicted a wolf chasing a little girls. And so they had a ceremony. I'm not making this up, by the way, right? If you want to, you can look this up. If you don't believe me, go to the encyclopedia right after we finished
our children's encyclopedia, look up Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, and Halloween and you'll find everything I'm talking about. Okay? You want to go deeper into it, go on the internet. Okay, and look up the pagan roots of all of these holidays. And so the looper cat, the lupercalia was the celebration of the wolf. And the authorities there would gather together young people, and they would put their names into a box, men and women and they would take out the names and whoever was your partner, whoever you pick, whatever name you pick, was your partner for the day, and all types of sexual activity went on during that day they were totally out of control. That is the lupercalia
that's what it really means. Okay. Now,
around February 14,
around to 70 ad of the Christian era.
A Bishop by the name of Valentine.
He was trying to work with the Roman soldiers because the Roman Emperor had imposed upon his soldiers that anybody who joined the army could not get married because if you
You got married you thinking about your wife all the time, and you're useless soldier. But the soldiers wanted to get married, so St. Valentine work with them. And he was captured by the Roman Emperor, he was imprisoned, and he was beheaded.
And so a legend formed around St. Valentine's Day. In one case, it said he even helped a blind young girl, he was trying to help her get married. And so she wrote a note and it was found in his jail cell to my Valentine. And so from that date, somebody making that compromise, brought together the two streams. And so now you have Valentine's Day. So on that occasion, and it's in the school system, if Muslims are sending their children to school, you got a problem on Valentine's Day, because they make them do Valentine's cards, in some cases becomes mandatory in some classes. Now, they even haven't cared I don't know about here, you can buy a Valentine's Day card, somebody will
come and sing, or somebody will bring food and you know, they make it very lavish. And so what happens is young people are forced together on that occasion, and for those who are part of the monotheistic tradition, who understand that that the relationship between men and women should be done in a sacred way within marriage, and not in a loose way before marriage. And we see what is happening in the society itself. We see what has happened to the standards, even in the White House. So we understand what is going on in the society. That's because people have lost their limits to who dude, the limits have been broken up. And so those who are maintaining the limits in the
monotheistic religions, and and those people of consciousness, recognize that say Valentine's Day is really part of a pagan holiday, where people are carrying out the so called wishes of Venus, or Aphrodite, their little son called Cupid. And he shoots you with an arrow, you know that story? He shoots you with an arrow and you fall hopelessly in love. And some Muslims say I want to get married. I'm in love. You're in love, what is love?
There is Kapha In fact, it is Kapha suitability. Yes, there should be an attraction between husband and wife. But the prophet peace be upon him spoke about the dddd beauty about wealth about genealogy right is up and about Dean and he said marry people for their religion for their Deen the tequila, that is the basis of the marriage. And so, st Valentine's Day is another time that we have to take a stand and we can have we will have a question and answer period at the end. But the position we are taking is the young people should have nothing to do with Valentine's Day, you have to step out of that completely.
In Christmas, another problem faces us what do you do?
Do you give presents Do you take presence? What do you do are you involved? One of the one of the one of the greatest benefits after my belief in Allah in accepting Islam was when Christmas season came. And as a Muslim, we don't give any gifts. And Christmas even came we said at hamdulillah. At that time, we have another way of expressing ourselves during that season.
And so Muslims should not be involved.
In some cases, if the person is your neighbor or somebody and they give you a gift, the prophet peace be upon him accepted gifts. So it is possible to accept to accept the gift as long as you're not involved in the ritualistic parts of the occasion. But if you want to give a gift, give it at another time during the year. So they understand that we have other things we have our eat, we have other times let them and invite them for food during the evil oughta give them something at that time give us a call at different points in time. Now as we go toward the spring season, now we're following their calendar, we find that the spring Solstice season comes about. Now this is another
very powerful season. In this time, the darkness and the cold are leaving. And now the spring is coming light has returned. It is the resurrection of life after death.
And so with the light and the water and the rain, life dense becomes and those trees and plants in Canada, we lose all of our trees and plants and then what you probably don't down here in this region, but up in the north, all the trees lose their leaves except for the Evergreen.
And so in that spring season,
the spring Solstice in the northern countries, a fertility celebration came about
and the main figure in that fertility celebration was their goddess Australia. Or Ostern
According to them, she waved her one. And life came back after death.
And so the symbols of that occasion became rabbits, bunny, rabbits, chickens, eggs, you take two rabbits and put them in the backyard. And then after a couple of days, this rabbit jumping around everywhere in the back. It's the fertility symbol. And so therefore, this became the symbol now, the compromise.
The Christians coming in now who want to get benefit from the nature worship people worshipping people, they use that saying, if you can't beat them, join them.
So they came along and they join them. And so now you find Easter, look at it. This is supposed to be the time of the death and resurrection of Isa la Salaam. But it is the pagan rite of the resurrection of death of life after death.
And so they have imposed this occasion on to the spring season.
And you find then both of these celebrations coming about at one time. The reality is and the Muslims understand from the the revelation of the Quran that Allah subhanaw taala tells us what maka Talu, who will masala boo who were lacking should be Allah. They did not kill him. And they did not crucify Him Jesus. But it was made to appear to them that they did.
And so they carried out the celebration.
What happens now
is that people are involved in a series of rituals around an occasion, which never actually came about.
People are in shock. Sometimes you go as to the regular American or Christian person, what does Easter mean? And they say, well, Easter is the time of the resurrection of Jesus resurrection from the dead, they don't realize where it actually comes from.
The reality is, it is a pagan, right. And it is based upon that concept
of looking at the sun as the main aspect of life, because the sun again plays a powerful role during that season in Europe. Also. during that week, you had Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, good Thursday, Good Friday, there's a number of occasions, you can look them up and find them. On good Thursday, you find many of the people what they did is in the north, they wouldn't bathe all winter.
And so when the spring came, they said, Now you got to take a bath. So you take a bath, they literally would go into the stream and take a bath, peel off their clothes, and then put on new clothes for Easter Sunday. And so many people you now see wearing the Easter bonnet, and wearing the Easter suit and putting on the new clothes but it is actually a cultural tradition based upon people coming from a terrible cold season where they were even afraid to take a bath because of pneumonia and other other sicknesses that would hit people who did not have central heating.
And so
it flows it continues to flow. And we begin to understand now that there are actually two streams now going to the fall season. The Celtic people of the North used to believe that during the fall season, the year began. And actually for the Celtics. Their New Year's was November 1, October 31 was the final day of the year for the Celtic people of the North.
And that day was called the day of Sam hain.
And this individual was he
was supposed to be the God of the spirits of the debt of evil again, and according to their belief that evil spirits would rise to the surface and would terrorize people on that evening.
And on that evening, if you did something wrong to a person, they're come back to get you on the night. So some people would put on a disguise. So you couldn't recognize them on October 31 on that evening, and then they would be safe. Also they would burn fires. Now the only thing we find left of that is the jack o' lantern that they will put inside of their winter window made from the pumpkin. What actually happened in Europe is that the church moved All Saints Day a day for the saints. They moved it from May 13 to November 1 in 1834 ad.
And so what they said was that the 31st night is All Hallows evening, All Hallows evening, which in America later on
became known as Halloween,
Halloween.
And they depict the forces of evil. What is happening now is that the children put on disguises.
They dress as little devils, little witches, as goblins, vampires, anything evil, and they go out. And now with the new american way, they do trick a treat.
And they come to your house asking for food. Do they do that here in Miami? Trick or treat? they knock on your door in the disguise and some Muslims thinking they want to be Americans. Or they want to be Canadians. They send their little children and their little disguises. So what are you going to dress them a little angel? What are you going to be? How are you going to dress and go out there.
And so the reality that we recognize that number one, this is the day of Sam hain. And the Quran tells us in shaytaan, a little insanity, I do one more being that the devil is an open enemy to humanity. There is no compromise with the devil. So we don't play around and disguise ourselves as little devils little shale team. We do not disguise ourselves as this because it is an open enemy to the people of monotheism. Also, there are a number of other aspects. What is happening now, as you may know, in America is that there is a new church coming about, which is called the Church of Satan. Well, he has a villa. And in the 60s in San Francisco, the church was initiated. And right
now in the American army, if you are Jewish, and you die, they bring you a rabbi. If you're a Muslim, they'll bring you any mom, if you're a Christian, they'll bring you a priest or minister, if you're registered as part of the Church of Satan. They bring you a priest from the Church of Satan, who is a beloved energy. And he is performing these rites and rituals, calling on the devil to accept his initiate.
And so this is growing in this society. And they actually did a couple movies they did this Rosemary's Baby,
right, they also The Exorcist, and a number of movies they did to frighten people with evil, that you will be so afraid of evil. And they show the priests as bumbling idiots fallen down over their feet, can't do anything running away from the devil. And the devil is a businessman in his suits. He has the power of lightning, and everything. So even though the devil dies, in the end, you end up being more afraid of the devil than anything else. That's part of the plot to brainwash people to be afraid of the shaytaan.
The reality is, is that the problem is up to slam said
that the upper hand is better than the lower hand.
Elliot and earlier, Hayden, middle yet the sofa that the upper hand is better than the lower hand. What that means is you should be the one who gifts and don't beg
that we should not be begging.
And so to send a Muslim child out to chicken tree is a demeaning lowering thing. You ask them to beg people for food, then they're dressed up in it as a way that they're not.
Then when the candies and things come in the bag, how do you know what it is they actually gave you? Is it halau
most of the candies today are made with gelatin with glycerin they made with pork products. We had one person in our area in the Boston area where I grew up one person in our area and I project he he used to sit back and he used to give everybody x lakhs, you know x lakhs you give you chocolate and he puts x lakhs in the thing. And then he goes around and waits the next day to see everybody.
So they can do anything to you, man, you have no control over the situation, you have no control.
And what is also happening is that there are some evil wicked minded people who are attacking children on that night. I don't know about Miami but in Canada now, they openly say on the television, do not send your children trick or treating by themselves. Do not go to in darkened streets. Move as a group. Don't go to a house that you don't know the people on the inside.
And there are literally groups of Satanists who are capturing children and they're performing a right sacrificing the child on that evening of some hain supposedly to get more spiritual power. It's happening right now. And so from so many angles, Muslims should have nothing to do with Halloween and if your children are in school, go to the teacher.
Go to the teacher and make it clear to the teacher we do not involve our children in the ceremonies even the Jehovah's Witnesses
will go to the teacher and tell them take my child out of Halloween. They don't even believe in that. Take my child, even how to your Christmas. They're not involved in that.
What can happen during these occasions, if you want them to draw pictures of pumpkins or, you know, fall plants, okay?
But we don't want to be involved in these confused rituals that are giving signals from many different angles. And so, in conclusion, we recognize the fact that the present system of rituals and holidays in this country and in the Western countries is a confused hodgepodge of cultural rituals. And it is important for Muslims to have basura that they should have the insight to look through affairs, and do not just blindly follow the ways of the Christians and the Jews, the prophet peace be upon him said, you will follow them, you will follow the people who came before you inch by inch foot by foot, even if they crawl into the hole of a lizard, you crawl inside there with them.
And then they said, Who are these people? Are they the Christians and the Jews, and the purpose of them said Who else
and so it has come to pass and you can't Islamic sighs these occasions. You can't use Arabic names and Islamic symbols to make it halau
we have to take a stand. And secondly, it is important for Muslims to cherish their own holidays. When the evil fitter comes, take the day off. There are some Muslims who go to work on eat.
They go to eat prayer and they go to work. So what happens to your children, they don't have a chance to to relax and enjoy themselves, organize an activity, bring the families together, eat together, do things together. remember Allah subhanaw taala together, make it a happy occasion for them. They will remember their eats, even fitter, even
if they don't, then they get involved in Christmas, in Easter and Halloween, where even in the Christian tradition now it is confusing. And many of the Christians now seven Day Adventists Jehovah's Witnesses, and many people are taking a stand and saying we do not want to follow the pagan religion. So what about those who have been blessed with monotheism. And so I want to leave you with these words.
And I pray that Allah subhanaw taala would help the younger generation to be able to take a stand, especially for the Muslims to take a stand. And for those non Muslims to try to understand what Islam really is to try to understand that our society that we what we are living in and our society, our moral standards are being lowered to the point where if people of conscience do not take a stand, then we will be living in a state of confusion in Canada. Common Law marriages practice more than regular marriages in Quebec, in the French Province of Canada, it has the highest second highest rate of common law marriages on earth is in Quebec. And they say these marriages only last
at the most five years. So if the families are broken apart,
if children are being molested,
if women have no
sanctuary or protection in the society, even in the White House, if Nowhere is safe, then the basis the essence of the society itself is become rotten. And this will influence the economic situation, the political situation all aspects of life. So I leave you with with the thought that people of conscience should take time,
study history, go back to the source of the religions. And you'll find that all of the religions are based in tawheed. In the oneness of God, it will take you right back to the source. And when you think about a Muslim now, realize is not somebody who's thinking about blowing up the Empire State Building that stereotype that's Hollywood. That's Hollywood. Islam is based on peace, submission to the Creator. When we meet each other, we say Assalamu alaikum Peace be upon you. And we pray for peace for all people. That's a Hollywood fantasy. And we only hope that they would leave us alone and start chasing the aliens who they believe are their real enemies. And leave our community alone
deal with the aliens. Okay, and let us live as human beings together. In peace and in harmony. I leave you with this Apolo Cody how that was stuck for lolly walakum wa salaamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
Okay, concerning the
Questions. One goes as follows when you said Isa la Salama Jesus was born in the warm weather, could that be warm weather in Jerusalem but winter time and cold weather in the northern Western countries? Please clarify? No that would that is warm weather everywhere because in in drew in Palestine itself it is it is cold in the winter. Many people don't understand that in many of the desert countries, it actually you know, gets cold, there's a change in the season. So the people who are living in Palestine in those regions, they know the difference between the heat of the summer and the winter time. It's not cold like the North, obviously here in America. But But there is a
difference. And the historians
you know, believe that it is it you know, all agree that it was the warm weather sometime in the warmer that means the warm season following the solar calendar, the warm season, anywhere in the world. Also the question concerning the holiday Thanksgiving, there's a number of questions about that.
It says I don't agree with it. However, some of my Muslim relatives practicing karma, what about Thanksgiving? Well, there is some discussion of the fact that the native people here in this part of the world did have some gathering that they had, at some point during that time. And in the northern countries, there's
during that season, it is the time when the plants are getting ripe, and that the harvest is there. And so people normally would take a timeout, and thank the Creator, that they would have some sort of ritual during that time of Thanksgiving. for Muslims, we don't follow any particular ceremonies to actually be following the day as a ceremony itself, because that would then put us into bidda that would be an innovation. So we don't actually follow the ceremonies itself.
However, you know, thanking the creator we do that we try to do that every time you eat you should make to our you know before that you should take a loss of Potala for for giving you the risk or giving you the the provisions of the food he has provided for you. And, you know, to to to for the people who are carrying this ceremony out.
If somebody attends and the family is just having food, it's not really a ritual. Somebody just comes over to eat food and see the family there's nothing wrong with that. What we are against this being involved in the ritual things of giving gifts to taking gifts, you know, the trees and whatever, just coming going over for dinner itself. There's nothing really wrong with with a dinner itself. Now it says during the Christmas season, or during Christmas, could you explain why the complimentary colors of red and green up here together? That's a very good question. The green probably is standing for the life evergreen, it's standing for the green of the plants themselves.
The red, I know again, the image of St. Nicholas himself in the German belief is that St. Nicholas wore red. He had red clothing on I'm not sure of the other concepts why they could use red but the green normally does stand for the green of chlorophyll a plant life stands for life itself. That's probably why they're using that. Another question is about Kwanzaa. This is a ceremony which is being held in the African American community. And those who understand our community know, this ceremony was actually made by
Dr. coringa. I don't want to say molana me on how he got this name. But anyhow, I mean, Dr. coringa, Ron coringa. And those of us who lived in the 60s, know him as a pork chop nationalist, you know, who was involved in a form of nationalism, and he had his organization. And those of us who were involved in the struggle, do some funny things went on in California, actually would bunchy kada. If you know what happened with the panther party, there's some funny stuff that went on during that time. So I mean, even to follow his leadership, even in the community itself. Many people in the 60s would not follow the leadership of Ron carinya. Secondly,
Kwanzaa is just a thought he just brought his thoughts together. And he said, Well, we will, we will mix together, we make the lights and each day we will do a certain thing. And he just, you know, thought up some good principles. And he made a ceremony about so it's not a religion. And it's nothing that we should even have to do or feel that we have to do. Because it's not it's not African, either, by the way, is no part of Africa, they celebrate Kwanzaa. So it's only following around coringa You know, when you're doing Kwanzaa, so as a Muslim, we definitely would not be involved in anything to do with Kwanzaa. And you know, we have better things to do, and we should
give run Kareena Tao and inshallah he should accept Islam.
It says, Can you please explain the difference between Sunday and the so called Sabbath day?
Saturday. Well the Sabbath, you have to remember your must seventh, this is something with the with the children of Benny is so ill, that it is the day you must separate you can look in certain bacara that the second chapter of the Quran in different places in the Quran, which speaks about Benny Israel, and at the Yama Sabbath, that they had to stop work during the day, they had to do that they had to make their prayers, remember the Creator. And they were actually tested on the day of the Sabbath, the Sabbath, when Allah actually sent fish jumping all in the water, and they weren't supposed to catch the fish. And so they use their, their their mind, and their Guile in there. And
so they put the Nets out on Saturday, and then and then brought the nets in filled with fish on Sunday. But according to Quran, they would change it to monkeys and pigs, because of trying to play games on the Creator, and so on. But still, the reality is, we respect the fact that the followers of Moses Musa alayhis salam, that this was a very important occasion. It is the day of Sabbath, the Sabbath. And, you know, it had great spiritual meaning for the children of Israel. And there's a difference between that day they were monotheists to follow up followers of Moses musala Islam, a monotheistic people. And there's a difference between that day and Sunday, Sunday is the other
stream, that's the polar polytheistic stream of the people who are worshipping the sun. So there's a difference. Now, of course, now in our hodgepodge type of culture, we bring everything together. And we just American, Saturday, Sunday, Monday or moon day, everything's all together now. And it's secularized now, so nobody cares about religion anyway. So just thinking about going to work or getting off of work.
So the question surrounding Thanksgiving working in a school of young children, as a Muslim is my duty not to guide these children holiday activities, like Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, when it is part of the curriculum, or when I feed children at lunch, and the meal is pork. Now, what do I do deal? How do I deal with this? Okay, this is a very difficult situation, because there are certain rules within the boards of education that you have to follow. But I think, you know, in the Canadian Board of Education, I believe it's the same here in Miami, you can go to the rules of the Board of Education, you will find that all of the constitutions of the boards protect the religion
of all the people who are in the boat. So as a Muslim, if there is something which goes against your religion, then you are not required to do that thing, if it is against your religion. So the best thing to do would be to go to the Board of Education itself, speak to a higher official, and explain the situation, that the handling of pork, things like that is against your religion, they understand that because of kosher type, you know, concepts and also explained about Halloween and whatnot, that you don't want to be involved in those occasion, do it in a in a very sober, dignified way. And inshallah I believe that they would
they would let you not be involved in that, you know, because of the they really realizing that this is against a religion.
Oh, yeah.
Now that there's another question here,
celebrating birthdays itself. Now, there's a number of discussions surrounding birthdays, I mean, it was the birthdays were not celebrated in the in the time of the properly setosa. They were not celebrated. And actually, when you see the concept of the birthday, with the candles and the light for each of the birthdays, that more than likely goes back to pagan worship, to the fire and the sun god. So therefore, it is not actually an Islamic practice to be celebrating birthdays. And it is nothing wrong with knowing when your birthday is and things that but we don't have ritualistic practices. It's not within our tradition really to have them.
It says there's a question here that says, what about the pagan roots of Muslim holidays like the hatch? Okay, this is a strange question. And I don't know how much the questioner knows about the Hajj itself. But the pilgrimage to Mecca, which is the fifth pillar of the five pillars of Islam, is based upon the Prophet Abraham, the Prophet Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam, who was one of his wives. He was married to Sarah, and she could not have children and he took his servant hajah or Hagar as a wife. And according to our traditions, the three of them went to Mecca known as Becca, and they established the Kaaba, the house of worship. And so, during that time, when Ibrahim Abraham alayhis
salam left Hodges in Mecca and went back to Sarah, who was in the north, and hajah ran in between
two mountains. She was searching for water
It's very hot. And so the rituals, the monastic al Hajj, the rituals of the Hajj are based upon the actual story of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam, what he went through. And also the temptation he was tempted by the shaitaan the devil came to him, and so he stoned the shaytaan. So all the rituals during the Hajj itself are based upon monotheistic teachings, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, who saw himself as the continuation of the message of Moses of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, all of the prophets of monotheism, he confirmed what was brought and through revelation, he gave us the monastic al Hajj, or the rituals of Hajj, which brought back to life, the story of Ibrahim alayhis salam, and so
Muslims come together with all the people of the world, and they recognize their relationship with Abraham, with Moses with Jesus with all of the prophets through that pilgrimage itself. The Black Stone, which, in some traditions are the set that came from gender, this was put in a paradise it was put in by Abraham himself. And there is no worship of the stone itself. Even the Omar bin hottub, one of the Sahaba said to the stone because the Prophet Muhammad kissed the stone or he touched the stone as part of the circumambulation of the Kaaba. And Omar said, you know, you're only a stone and it's only because I saw the Prophet while I knew the purpose of quantum did it that I
would eat that I will even do so there's no worship of the stone itself, and is not based upon any pagan religions that came before. I think that's a misunderstanding. Also, there is a question about you have some non Muslim friends and you go out with them but you're not doing anything haram Is this okay?
We have associates and we have people who are very close to us. And when the Quran is speaking about Olia,
lotta technical yehudah Wanda sada Olia bow the home Oh, Leah about that do not take the the Christians or the Jews, people who believe in you know other religions as your only app. That means your close friends, somebody who you tell your secrets to also because there is some difference in our understanding, because through culture, through people,
the profit some of the profits were not accepted by other believers in the religions. Islam itself accepts Moses accepts Jesus and Mary, and also accepts Muhammad, may Allah be pleased with them all, and send peace to them all. They're all accepted as prophets of God, and that they are and Mary as being a righteous woman. And you know, that they are accepted in the way of their traditions, not as idols or not as gods to be worshipped. So therefore, because of this crucial difference, in belief, we have, we have Association.
But when it comes to certain aspects that deals down with the essence of religion, the Quran tells us that you should, you know, have this close allegiance, your allegiance.
And when I was brought up that this religions should be for those who are following a similar way of life. One of the great blessings that we are
experiencing here in America is the fact that we are able to rub shoulders with people of different religions and different traditions, and that is good, that is fine. But it is important to understand that is not part of American culture. It's not supposed to be part of the culture, that you melt down your culture and you become something else.
This is not the essence of being an American, or a Canadian. What it means is that there are certain laws, you respect the rights of individuals in the society, you do not harm them. You live as a civil person in society, but everybody is allowed to have their religious beliefs and to cherish their beliefs. And nobody's religion should be stereotyped. Everybody has this right, we're supposed to have this right within this society. If you don't have the right then something's wrong.
So we cherish this aspect. However, when stereotyping comes in, the name calling stats, and prejudice begins that is pre judgment. When you see a person and based on their clothing, and based on their language, you will judge them. I hope that from tonight that we can all take these few words, only as the opening of a door that we all need to do some research. And we all need to try to understand concepts and beliefs, our religions, holidays, everything that we're doing, from the source, understand where it is. And don't be fooled by a television commercial by
Bright lights. Don't be fooled by Santa Claus smiling at you.
Don't be fooled by any of those images that are propagated in beautiful ways. Let us go to the roots of the issue and deal with the truth. I leave you with these words, and I asked a lot to give you a safe journey home and May Allah forgive me for any mistakes that I have made. So panic alone will become deca Nash had one La ilaha illa Anta non stop for Luca to bootlegs malaria men Rahim will ask in no in Santa Luffy hos lol Edina amanu Camila salia what was so bellhop what's the wall so the Saba was allowed Allah say that Mohammed Ali he was happy Jemaine aka Donna Al hamdu, lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salaam wa Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
You have rights that women in this country never dreamed of, until perhaps this generation. He said, Prophet Muhammad, do not kill civilians. Virgin Mary is revered in the Quran, she works miracles, prophets, according to the Quran, we're all one brotherhood. Because if you add something that is not essential, you're going to draw them away from the religion
was involved in a form of nationalism. And he had his organization. And those of us who were involved in the struggle, do some funny things went on in California, actually, with buncee. Cada if you know what happened with the panther party, there's some funny stuff that went on during that time. So I mean, even to follow his leadership, even in the community itself. Many people in the 60s would not follow the leadership of Ron carinya. Secondly,
Kwanzaa is just a thought he just brought his thoughts together. And he said, Well, we will, we will mix together we make the lights, and each day we will do a certain thing. And he just, you know, thought up some good principles. And he made a ceremony about so it's not a religion. And it's nothing that we should even have to do or feel that we have to do. Because it's not it's not African either. By the way, there's no part of Africa, they celebrate Kwanzaa. So it's only following around coringa You know, when you're doing Kwanzaa, so as a Muslim, we definitely would not be involved in anything to do with Kwanzaa. And you know, we have better things to do, and we should give run
Kareena Tao and inshallah he should accept Islam.
It says, Can you please explain the difference between Sunday and the so called Sabbath day, Saturday? Well, the Sabbath you have to remember your must seventh, this is something with the with the children of Benny Israel, that it is the de Yama separate you can look in certain Baccarat that the second chapter of the Quran in different places in the Quran, which speaks about Benny Israel, and at the Yama Sabbath, that they had to stop work during the day, they had to do that they had to make their prayers, remember the Creator. And they were actually tested on the day of the Sabbath, the Sabbath, when Allah actually sent fish jumping all in the water, and they weren't supposed to
catch the fish. And so they use their, their their mind, and their Guile in there. And so they put the Nets out on Saturday, and then and then brought the nuts and filled with fish on Sunday. But according to Quran, they would change it to monkeys and pigs because of trying to play games on the Creator, and so on. But still, the reality is, we respect the fact that the followers of Moses Musa alayhis salam, that this was a very important occasion. It is the day of Sabbath, the Sabbath. And, you know, it had great spiritual meaning for the children of Israel. And there's a difference between that day they were monotheists, the follow of followers of Moses musala Islam, a
monotheistic people. And there's a difference between that day and Sunday. Sunday is the other stream that's the polar polytheistic stream of the people who are worshipping the sun. So there's a difference. Now, of course, now in our hodgepodge type of culture, we bring everything together. And we just American, Saturday, Sunday, Monday or moon day, everything's all together now. And it's secularized now, so nobody cares about religion anyway. So just thinking about going to work or getting off of work.
So the question surrounding Thanksgiving working in a school of young children, as a Muslim is my duty not to guide these children in holiday activities, like Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, when it is part of the curriculum, or when I feed children at lunch and the meal is pork. Now what do I do do how do I deal with this? Okay, this is a very difficult situation because there are certain rules within the boards of education that you have to follow. But I think you know, in the Canadian Board of Education, I believe it's the same here in Miami. You can go to the rules of the Board of Education. You
Find that all of the constitutions of the boards protect the religion of all the people who are in the board. So as a Muslim, if there is something which goes against your religion, then you are not required to do that thing, if it is against your religion. So the best thing to do would be to go to the Board of Education itself, speak to a higher official, and explain the situation, that the handling of pork, things like that is against your religion, they understand that because of kosher type, you know, concepts, and also explained about Halloween and whatnot, that you don't want to be involved in those occasion, do it in a in a very sober, dignified way. And inshallah I believe that
they would,
they would let you not be involved in that, you know, because of the they really realizing that this is against your religion.
What would you say?
Oh, yeah, okay.
Now that there's another question here,
celebrating birthdays itself. Now, there's a number of discussions surrounding birthdays, I mean, it was the birthdays were not celebrated in the in the time of the Prophet setosa. They were not celebrated. And actually, when you see the concept of the birthday, with the candles and the light for each of the birthdays, that more than likely goes back to pagan worship, to the fire and the sun god. So therefore, it is not actually an Islamic practice to be celebrating birthdays. And is nothing wrong with knowing when your birthday is and things that but we don't have ritualistic practices. It's not within our tradition really to have them.
It says there's a question here that says, what about the pagan roots of Muslim holidays like the hatch? Okay, this is a strange question. And I don't know how much the questioner knows about the Hajj itself. But the pilgrimage to Mecca, which is the fifth pillar of the five pillars of Islam, is based upon the Prophet Abraham, the Prophet Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam, who was one of his wives. He was married to Sarah, and she could not have children and he took his servant hajah or Hagar as a wife. And according to our traditions, the three of them went to Mecca known as Becca, and they established the Kaaba, the house of worship. And so, during that time, when Ibrahim Abraham Elisa
Lam, left * in Mecca and went back to Sarah, who was in the north, and hajah, ran in between
two mountains, she was searching for water, it's very hot. And so the the the rituals, the monastic al Hajj, the rituals of the hats are based upon the actual story of Ibrahim alayhis salam, what he went through. And also the temptation he was tempted by the shaytaan the devil came to him and so he stoned the shaytaan. So all the rituals during the Hajj itself are based upon monotheistic teachings, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, who saw himself as the continuation of the message of Moses, a of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, all of the prophets of monotheism, he confirmed what was brought and through revelation, he gave us the monastic al Hajj are the rituals of Hajj which
brought back to life, the story of Ibrahim alayhi salam, and so Muslims come together with all of the people of the world. And they recognize their relationship with Abraham, with Moses with Jesus with all of the prophets through that pilgrimage itself. The Black Stone, which, in some traditions are an asset that came from gender, this was put in a paradise it was put in by Ibrahim himself, and there is no worship of the stone itself. Even the Omaha top one of the Sahaba said to the stone because the Prophet Muhammad kissed the stone or any touch the stone as part of the circumambulation of the Kaaba, and Omar said, you know, you're only a stone and it's only because I saw the Prophet
while I knew the purpose upon him did it that I would eat that I would even do so there's no worship of the stone itself and is not based upon any pagan religions that came before. I think that's a misunderstanding. Also, there is a question about you have some non Muslim friends and you go out with them but you're not doing anything haram Is this okay?
We have associates and we have people who are very close to us. And when the Quran is speaking about Olia
latter technical yehudah Wanda sada Olia bow the home Oh Leah about that do not take the the Christians or the Jews people who believe in you know other religions as your only app. That means your close friends, somebody who you tell your secrets to also because there is some difference in our understanding because through
culture through people.
The Prophet, some of the prophets were not accepted by other believers in the religions. Islam itself accepts Moses accepts Jesus and Mary, and also accepts Muhammad, may Allah be pleased with them all, and send peace to them all. They're all accepted as prophets of God, and that they are and Mary as being a righteous woman. And you know that they are accepted in the way of their traditions, not as idols or not as gods to be worshipped. So therefore, because of this crucial difference, in belief, we have, we have Association.
But when it comes to certain aspects that deals down with the essence of religion, the Quran tells us that you should, you know, have this close allegiance, your allegiance.
And when I was brought up that this religions should be for those who are following a similar way of life. One of the great blessings that we are
experiencing here in America, is the fact that we are able to rub shoulders with people of different religions and different traditions, and that is good, that is fine. But it's important to understand that it is not part of American culture, it's not supposed to be part of the culture, that you melt down your culture and you become something else.
This is not the essence of being an American, or a Canadian. What it means is that there are certain laws, you respect the rights of individuals in the society, you do not harm them. You live as a civil person in society, but everybody is allowed to have their religious beliefs and to cherish their beliefs. And nobody's religion should be stereotyped. Everybody has this, right, we're supposed to have this right within this society. If you don't have the right then something's wrong.
So we cherish this aspect. However, when stereotyping comes in, the name calling starts and prejudice begins. That is pre judgment. When you see a person and based on their clothing, and based on their language, you will judge them. I hope that from tonight, that we can all take these few words, only as the opening of a door that we all need to do some research. And we all need to try to understand concepts and beliefs, our religions, holidays, everything that we're doing, from the source, understand where it is. And don't be fooled by a television commercial, by bright lights. Don't be fooled by Santa Claus smiling at you.
Don't be fooled by any of those images that are propagated in beautiful ways. Let us go to the roots of the issue and deal with the truth. I leave you with these words. And I asked a lot to give you a safe journey home and May Allah forgive me for any mistakes that I have made. So panic alone will be home deca Nash had one La ilaha illa Anta Nesta Fukuda to bootlegs Miller of men Rahim. well as in know in Santa Luffy hos Illa Allah Dena amanu Romulus Alia what to also build up with the wall so the Saba was allowed Allah say that Mohammed Allah he was at the edge main, or aka da Juana al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
You have rights that women in this country never dreamed of, until perhaps this generation. He said, Prophet Muhammad, do not kill civilians. Virgin Mary is revered in the Quran. She works miracles, prophets, according to the Quran, we're all one brotherhood, because if you add something that is not essential, you're going to draw them away from the religion