Abdur-Raheem McCarthy – Can We Accept Gifts On These Occasions

			Another question which comes is about the issue of the gifts?
		

			Can we give gifts? Can we accept gifts? There's different scenarios giving accepting gifts. From non
Muslims it can either be on a non religious occasion or during a religious festival or raise
occasion when it comes to accepting the gifts from them on a non religious occasion. The general
ruling here is that the basic principle there's nothing wrong with it. You can accept gifts from
them. And in fact, this is even confirmed in Slate a body where the prophets, the Imam Bukhari, he
mentioned in the chapter title, where he said, accepting gifts from the machete King accepting gifts
from the polytheist. And he mentioned examples such as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam being
		

			given the roasted sheep which actually they put poison in to try to kill him. It is not to a Salam.
But he accepted a gift from the Jews when they gave it to them. And this is the obviously the Shahid
from the story that he accepted this roasted sheep from them, also the king of ALA. When he sent to
the Prophet sallallahu, ala he was selling different gifts, such as the white mule and a cloak, and
he wrote to him, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam accepted these gifts and he used them.
Also, it's permissible for us to give them gifts and this is also confirmed and saleable hoodie that
Omar mo hubbub, Radi Allahu, and he gave a Julio or a suit to his brother who was a mushrik was a
		

			polytheist. During that time in Mecca, he gave him a gift. In fact, the scholars mentioned that it's
actually something recommended to give gifts because as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said
to her do to have boo that if you to give the gifts the will spread the love so we give to our
Muslim brothers and sisters, and also we give to our non Muslim neighbors and colleagues and friends
we give to them as well because it also spreads the love and it makes the relationship stronger with
us. And we see many times when we bring a non a gift to our non Muslim friends, we come back from
traveling or to our neighbors, and how much it touches them. So is that something actually we should
		

			focus on? But now the issue comes about during the religious celebrations, and this is what's
important now, when it comes to the Christmas season. First of all, when it comes to because you
have either you're going to accept gifts, or you're going to give gifts, generally accepting their
gifts.
		

			Even during the religious festivals, it's permissible to accept certain gifts and certain gifts we
shouldn't accept and we're going to explain this in detail inshallah. So there's certain gifts we
can accept and certain gifts we cannot accept so we don't understand it. That's Oh, no all haram and
how do we know that we can accept certain gifts from them. This was told to us obviously in the book
it also brought the Mr. famous chef Islam Tamia. He said as for accepting the gifts and one of the
we mentioned a lot Scheffel Islam Tamia Rahim Allah Tala and Imam even though pain and their
statements why are we focusing on their statements a lot.
		

			Several reasons from them is that shithole Islam in Tamia, and Emanuel claimed they were
specialized, they were from the humbly madhhab. But they were also specialized. And all of the four
schools, they knew inside out the Hanafi madhhab, the Maliki meth head, and the Chevy method and the
humbly method and all the other statements from the early seller from the scholars, they were very,
very well read, and they knew all of these methods. At the same time, you will find that their
quotes are based on I add from the Quran and Hadith from the teaching of the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam. So it has a very strong basis and after that also they based on the statements
		

			they acquired of the Sahaba Radi Allahu Anhu. So here you're going to see and what he's about to
tell us it's all based on Quran, sunnah, and the statements of the Sahaba and that's why we focus so
much on his statements because it's very clear, very strong very well based in what he is saying
Rahim Allah Tala. He said as for accepting the gifts on the day of their festival. He said we have
quoted above that olive Nabi thought it was brought a gift on the occasion of the now rules, which
is the things that the in Persian one of the holidays used to celebrate. And he said he accepted
Ali, or the Allahu and accepted the gift from them on the Day of the Netroots, which is their
		

			celebration. And we're going to mention what type of gifts we can accept in Cheltenham. But we want
to mention a general principle. And this general principle, I want everybody to pay close attention
to, especially us Muslims living in the West, but even Muslims all around the world when it comes to
dealing with non Muslims. And a lot of times when we state certain things like this, like It's haram
to celebrate, and we can't take part in Christmas, they want to label us as extremist, but
hamdulillah we're the ones who constantly talk about the importance of having strong ties with the
local community, with a local government and being in a good and positive members of our society.
		

			And why do we say this? We don't say it because we want to be accepted or we want to fit in. We say
this because it's from our belief. It's what we believe as Muslims. It's what our religion teaches
us that if somebody is good to us, anonymous
		

			Some that in return, we should be good to them. And Islam teaches us that if we're members of a non
Muslim society as well, that we need to be positive members of our society, meaning the best we can
do, and the work that we can do, we want the good for our society. So if I'm a Muslim living in the
UK, I'm living in the US. I have my own belief system. I believe in certain things. I don't do
certain things to get go. It goes against my belief system. But at the same time, I love my country.
I love the UK. I love the US. This is where we're from. I love Ireland. This is this is the
countries that I'm from me personally. So I love these countries. And I want the best for these
		

			countries. And every Muslim in this country should want the same thing. But when it comes to certain
things, certain celebration, I'm not going to celebrate it. But that doesn't mean I don't want good
for my country. And that doesn't mean I can't be good to my non Muslim neighbor. I can't have good
relations with him. And these teachings. It's clearly taught to us here and the Quran and Sunnah.
Tell him to Hannah, when Allah subhanaw taala said in verse eight, Lion Hukam lion her Kamala who
Angela de la la mu, Kati Lou compete Dean, welcome your courage to come in the air you come and our
room are toxic to La him in Allahu Hepburn, Moxie Thien. Allah does not forbid you from those who do
		

			not fight you because of your religion, and they do not expel you from your homes. And if I want to
be honest with ourselves right now, those who do not fight you, and Don't expel us from their homes,
us as Muslims living in the West will find that forget the foreign policies and all of these things
that we might disagree with the general generally speaking, the government's treatment to us, or non
Muslim neighbors are not Muslim colleagues. Do any of them fight us because of a religion? Do they
expel us from our homes that Hamdulillah we say we have freedom without the practice of religion,
that's something we need to be any happy about. And something we need to be proud about? hamdulillah
		

			what Allah tell us about these people, he said it, Allah doesn't forbid you from these people from
being righteous towards them unto the room, being righteous towards them, and acting justly towards
them, and acting justly towards them a lot then said at the end of the verse, In Allaha, you hibel
marks 18 that indeed, Allah loves the ones who act justly. As we know we're Muslims dealing with non
Muslims, we act justly. It's very important and many times people have the the difficulty
understanding their religion, and the issue of the celebrations thinking that if I don't celebrate
that I'm going to be nasty towards them, I'm gonna send them the wrong message. Or it means that I'm
		

			being extreme no hamdulillah and it is the balance that Islam is teaching us to, to have as Muslims
that we don't celebrate Christmas. We don't take part in it, but at the same time, I'm good to my
non Muslim neighbor. I have good relations with my local government local authorities and they know
me I know them. That's what we need to have these. These well established relations in shallow
Thailand. They What about the types of gifts that we can accept shekel Islam is going to mention for
us here. Two different narrations from the sahaba.
		

			I showed the Allahu anha she was asked that one of the
		

			the lady said we have the ones who breastfeed for the breastfeed for us they breastfeed for us from
the the Megan's the ones who are the fire worshippers, the ones who are their polytheist. But yeah,
they have their celebrations, where they said they there's festivals where they bring us gifts, I
showed the Allahu anha she said, What is slaughtered on that day, that do not eat from it. But even
from their vegetables, they bring you something fruits, vegetables, or even like candies and things
like that you can eat from these things. And another aeration that
		

			Abby brought us up. When he was asked the people who live with these Megan's are these Medusa that
he said they bring us gifts on the occasion of now rules and the Maharajah and these two famous
festivals that they had in the Persian culture. And he said that he used to say to his family,
whatever of what He says He will say to his family, whatever is from the fruits, eat it otherwise we
should reject it. So here you have different fruits, vegetables, and even as some of the scholars
mentioned issue of candies and sweets and things like that it's permissible to accept however, if it
comes to certain gifts, which are just for that holiday, like a certain type of sweet that's only
		

			done at that time. And to celebrate that or certain other other things in here we should
		

			stay away from refrain from obviously taking those gifts and we can explain to them if it's
something like sometimes they have like certain eggs or, or palm leaves something give us gifts.
		

			They only come with a small little Christmas tree and they give it to you as a gift. Something like
this. We're not going to our chocolate Christmas tree. We're not going to accept this during those
days because this has the religious significance but they bought you a regular box of chocolates,
then Bismillah you can accept that no problem in shallow Thailand when it comes to giving the gifts.
		

			As we said it's permissible on general days. But during the religious celebrations, it's not
permissible for us to give them gifts, especially obviously for
		

			their religious holidays. In fact, the scholars said that if you're going to give it to them for a
non religious reason, you should wait until after that holiday so it's not misunderstood. So let's
say for example, now I go on vacation with the for example to Dubai, and I'm there with my family we
come back on the 22nd of December back to our home in Ireland, and I have a gift from my non Muslim
neighbor something that I bought from from Dubai there and I want to give it to him. If I give it to
him now, he might understand it as a Christmas gift. So it's better for me now, not to even though
my intention obviously not for that, I would just want to be good to my neighbor. I'm gonna wait
		

			until maybe middle of January 10 of January, something like that. Then I given this Oh, yeah, I went
to Dubai. I bought this for you during that time, and I give them the gift during that time in
general Thailand, it was mentioned the book Elkanah which is a humbly book, it is haram to attend
the festivals of the Jews and the Christians and to sell them things and to give them gifts during
the occasion of their festivals. And in the Hanafi madhhab. They mentioned I want you to pay
attention to this because it shows you the severity and how dangerous it is to you know give gifts
and to celebrate with these type of things during these festivals. It was mentioned by Imam as de la
		

			vie from the head of imams in the book, to be a little happy. He said giving gifts. On the occasion
I'm now rules on the Maharajah and these two non Islamic Persian pagan festivals. He said it's not
permissible a giving gifts on these days is haram and in fact, it is a act of Kufa. Actually it is
Cooper he said. So he has to be very, very careful realize and what it what it implicates and what
it means to give gifts, all these holidays. Then he mentioned that Abu Hafs al Kabir also from the
Hanafi Imams, he said, If a man were to worship a law for 50 years, imagine that 50 years of
worship, worshiping Allah subhanaw taala. And then on the day of the Nowruz, he were to give an egg
		

			that's nothing big and angry to give an egg as a gift to the Mushrikeen intending to show respect
and great greatness for this day, he would have committed an act of Cofer, and all of his good deeds
will be canceled out, Allahu Akbar, this is this is how severe This is and how it affects your crit
as a Muslim, you have to pay attention to this, and also the author of el jem Aswad. Also from the
Hanafi books, he mentioned that to give a gift to even to another Muslim on the day of Nowruz, not
intending thereby to show respect to the day because it's different. If you give it as a as a custom
not to show respect to that day. But he said if it was done, out of habit of giving gifts, it's not
		

			regarded as cool for however, if somebody comes on that particular day, too, so that he imitates
them, and he follows them and gives the gifts out of respect for that day, then he will fall into
Cooper, may Allah subhanaw taala protect us and safeguard us from that. This shows us from the
different methods, the danger of giving gifts with that intention on that day. So if you're going to
give it out of its customer, you give gifts during that time without the intention. It could be
something that's haram and not permissible. But if you're giving it out of showing respect and the
greatness of that day, it can actually lead to disbelief.