Abdur-Raheem McCarthy – Greeting People On Their Religious Occasions
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Mmm no theme Rahim Allah, he said
that it is haram by the consensus, by the consensus, the Imam of the scholars to greet the non Muslims on their religious holidays. It is Hallum by the consensus of the scholars and I want you when we use the word edge map consensus, and the scholars of Islam who have gone back to all of the resources and they study in the format hubs and they go into detail and they find that it is the edge map. It's the consensus, when the word edge mountain consensus is mentioned and take this as a principle. When it's confirmed that there's an edge man, there's a consensus, it is not permissible for me, or for you, or for any Muslims to come down and say, Well, my opinion, or I see it this way.
Even if you're a scholar, even if you're a student of nouns, you can't come and say now you have the scholars who have have come to a consensus agreement. Why because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in the Hadith LaTisha, Almighty Allah, Allah, Allah, that my OMA my nation does not come together on that, which is falsehood. So the fact that the early scholars have agreed unanimously with consensus on this issue, then it's not permissible for us to come and see, well, my opinion is as well, in the days we live, well, the times have changed now, Islam doesn't change Islam was sent. It's clear the ruling. So here the rulings of this, he said it by the consensus that It's haram. And
listen to what even though came to him a long time. He said, When he said congratulating the non Muslims, on the rituals that belong only to them. Only to them, it's their, it's their celebrations. He said It's haram by the consensus haram by Dickinson's by the GMAT as is congratulating them on their festivals. And they're fast by saying and pay attention to the words a happy festival to you, or May you enjoy your festival and so on. Like people say that we just say I can make you enjoy
it have a good Christmas, I'm not I'm not actually telling you to celebrate it when it's the same thing here obviously, these type of the type of wordings that are clearly haram, he said,
and I want you to pay attention to this. Because if I would ask you now, if somebody wants to do something else, if your neighbor was to come home from the bar, and he was drunk, and he was the fornicator, and do all these mischief and be arrested, and then you see him the next day you say, congratulations, man, it was great, great. You did a great job last night was really impressed, you know, gradually is that, you know, have fun and you know do it again been no better luck next next time and you wouldn't you wouldn't congratulate him or you wouldn't celebrate something like that because it's something you say as a Muslim stuff Allah No, It's haram what he's doing. Listen, hear
what you've been saying. I was about to say Rahim Allah. He said, If the one who says this has been saved from Kufa once again, if he hasn't fallen in the Coover by celebrating this, this, this celebration with him, he said is still forbidden. And it's like congratulating someone for prostrating to the cross. Or even worse than that. He said, It is his greatest sin as congratulating someone for drinking wine or murdering someone are having illicit sexual relations and so on. So just so that most of them wouldn't come if somebody were to murder someone, someone were to be drinking and drunk, someone to have some illicit sexual activities. Congratulations, good job. You
know, enjoy, have fun. We wouldn't do that. Why? Because it's something that goes against what we believe but here it's even greater because you're what's being celebrated during these these holidays, even if it's become customary. Now, it goes back to a religious belief. It goes back to a religious origine that's why it's even more haram. And then he said Rahim, Allah Tala, and I want you to pay attention to this as well. Because who are those what is the reality of those who celebrate and those who want to change their religion in the days we live in and say, My fish had this is no big deal. let it slide. Don't be extreme. Even Okay, Rahim. Allah Tala. He said, many of
those who have no respect for their religion, and put a line under that highlight this, have no respect for their religion fall into this error. The ones who are doing this are the ones who either don't understand their religion or they don't have any respect for their religion. He said they do not realize the offensiveness of their action. Whoever congratulate a person for his disobedience, or his Bidda his innovation or his cool for his disbelief, exposes himself to the wrath and the anger of Allah subhanaw taala May Allah subhanho wa Taala save goddess or share Shephard with a mean Rahim al Rahim Allah Tala. He said, similarly, it is forbidden for the Muslim to me
rotate the non Muslims by holding parties on these occasions.
And many people ask, well, what if we, you know, we want to give a party to our colleagues want to attend? We want to give them some gifts, give them some things, what can we, what can we do? He said it is forbidden. It's haram to make parties on these occasions, or to exchange gifts, or to distribute sweets or other foods, or to take time off work and so on. He said, Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Whoever imitates a people, he is one of them. Whoever imitates the people that he is one of them. And this is a important principle that we remind ourselves that if we celebrate these celebrations, and we take part in them, then we are just like these people, man to
show Bobby Holman, for whom in whom Whoever imitates the people, that he is one of them. And then he said, shareholders come to me and said in his book, as the last author, Mr. heym,
imitating them on some of their festivals, implies that one is happy with the falsehood that they are following.
And this is a very, very important principle that we realize, we should want to lay down the foundation to understand these issues properly, that when we take part in these festivals, it implies that we are happy with the falsehood that they are following.
And that could make the non Muslims take this opportunity to mislead those who are weak in their faith, meaning they could take this even as a doubt opportunity to corrupt the Creed and the belief of the Muslims themselves. And then check him out. I mean, he said, that's the end of the quarter boom, Tamia, Sheffield, Sheffield north, I mean, Rahim Allah, then he said, Those who do any of these things are sinning, whether they do it and I want you to pay attention with the Sheikh is about to mention because some people say I just I feel shy, I just want to take part I don't really mean it. My intention is this and that. He said, It's all sitting, whether they do it, to go along
with him just to go with the flow to be part of the you know, being in the in crowd, everybody else in the office is doing it. I do it with him as well. He said are to be friendly towards them. I just want to be nice. I just want to show them that Muslims that we're nice people we're not like they say about in the media. Yeah, okay, they work with you 365 days a year, they know that you're not like the people in the media, they know you'd never, you'd never come in to try to harm them or anything in the office. And you've always been a nice colleague, it's not going to make any difference for for one celebration over a couple of days that you don't celebrate, they're going to
think you're an evil person now, because they weren't, they know who you are, really. And that's why. And this is very important to understand that when we have good strong relationships with our non Muslim colleagues, with our non Muslim neighbors, for us, as Muslims living in the West, that we have good relations with our local government, with our local police force, they know who we are, we have good relations with them. When they come with, we're not going to celebrate these things, they're not going to have anything in their hearts against us anyways, because they know we're part of the community, they know that we're good people, they know that we're not somebody who's against
them. This is very important to understand. So even though we say we say we don't have to do things to fit in with him as the as the check of saying here. So this all is part of the sense. And you're not going to change anything because they know who you are, they know you're a good person, they know you're part of the community know somebody who's for the safety for or for the good of the betterment of the of the of the country and of the community when Hamdulillah He said or because they feel too shy to refuse to join in or for any other reason. He said because it is a kind of compromising of the religion to the religion of Allah subhanho wa Taala compromising the religion of
Allah subhanho wa Taala to please others and it is a mean of lifting the spirits of the non Muslims and making them proud of their religion. So obviously if they see hope all Muslims telling celebrating this the same thing, it's gonna make them proud and happy of what their belief is. And it's gonna make him think that their belief is correct. And obviously, we believe that their belief is not correct. We believe that the last revelation sent to mankind was the Quran, and that Islam is the only true religion. When you hear the statements of the scholars. It's very important because maybe we've heard people say, Boy, that's Shaheed it's a bit harsh. It's a bit extreme. Okay, this
isn't the scholars who understood Islam, who understood the ELA of why these things are haram, they understood and they explained to us in detail, I want you when you hear some people say that this is something that's, that's harsh. I want you to reflect on the ayat in Surratt. Miriam from verse 88 to 92.
Talking about celebrating Christmas, and what's being celebrating Christmas, go back to these ads and reflect on the meaning will call to Tahoe ramen or whether they're, and they say the most merciful, has taken for himself a son. Loco Ji to him che and it there Allah said about them saying Allah, the Romans subhanho wa taala, the Most Merciful Has taken for himself a son louka G tomb che
And it there. You have done an atrocious thing. You have done an atrocious thing.
Then Allah subhanaw taala showed how atrocious this claim is that Allah has taken a son to care do some work to get Bolden Minho. What unshockable outdo what the hero G Bell who had the heavens almost rupture there from and the earth splits open and the mountains collapse and devastation. Why? What did they say? What did they do? And how near Rahmani? What are their, that they attributed to the mercy for the most immersive All right man, a son, they attributed to the rock man a son, while Malian Bobby Little Rock man, a turkey, the water there, and it's not appropriate. It's not suitable for the Most Merciful, the creator of this heavens in the earth Subhanallah what's on that he a
toughy the one that he should take a son. It's not something appropriate for Allah subhanaw taala look at how severe these ayat are and how
clear they are when it comes to this claim that's being made this claim that these people are celebrating, and that is why the scholars of Islam when they look into the Quran and the Sunnah, and they realized the reasons behind what is the end of the what is the reasons? What is the why are these things haram, they spoke in this way to make it very clear. So a Muslim doesn't think that Oh, well. If my intention is this my intention, It's haram, it's clearly something that's not permissible for you to take part in in any way. We said we know now it's not permissible for us to say Merry Christmas and to reply with that. So is there anything that is permissible for us to reply
in return?
You can be polite, you know, you don't have to be like this and someone says Merry Christmas to you too. Because then their intention is good. They want to be nice to you. It's the holiday celebration for them. You can smell you can be polite usually I don't say anything in return as long as you're polite you're not a jerk towards them or you are you become angry that they're not going to be offended if you don't say anything back if you could just be polite you know because you know that's that's their intention. Their intention is not you know, let's you know let's have a you know, the washing shirt upon you and wishing to join your shirt. They just have they have a good intention by
that sometimes you say could you say enjoy your holidays here? I think it's a bit borderline but I would say that you know enjoy your holidays is permissible and shallow Tada because here you're talking about the holiday season because us now in the West for example, I'm telling you in particular in the West, we have
we have with us during this time
you know we have time off from school time off from work, sometimes two weeks or more. So any it is a time of holiday holidays and taking time off and things like that where you're just like you're on a vacation basically not because of a religious holiday pay attention to the difference. So if you were to say you know enjoy your holidays, I think that could be acceptable but like I said it probably if you could find something better just to be polite, but in general the ones the ones who know and this is something very important that we understand once we start to teach our non Muslim friends or neighbors or colleagues that we don't celebrate this eventually when they see Mohammed
and they see sister father Amanda and the Muslim in the committee they're not gonna even say Merry Christmas to us because they know we don't celebrate us now I get no Merry Christmas from from my relatives because they know I don't celebrate it. So why would they you know say something to me. So it becomes something normal but when some Muslims celebrate some Muslims don't we send negative message and they don't know how to act with this. But once it becomes known, then it's going to become easier for us that's why it's important that we teach them that we don't celebrate this we don't take part in these holidays. Like we said using wisdom and being nice and being kind and then
have that will become easy for all of us. We're not gonna even face that and shallow taller, except for very rarely the ones who might not know that were Muslim or what have you.