Mustafa Khattab – Celebrating NonMuslim Holidays
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of participation in festivals and holiday celebrations, as well as the misunderstandings of term-impacted non-M-thosics and negative impacts on religious beliefs and values. They criticize the manners and policies in their community, as well as the acceptance of Islam. The speakers are opposed to the concept of hate towards non-M-thirsty individuals and their values and principles. They also express their desire to love non-M-thirsty people and their desire to avoid hate towards their personal and political beliefs.
AI: Summary ©
So, inshallah, today, I'll be talking about,
participating
in the festivals and the holidays of non
Muslims
and giving them gifts, taking gifts from them,
and congratulating
them on their,
holidays.
And this is a very important topic. I
touched on it a few, months ago, but
today, inshallah will talk in detail.
So about 2 years ago,
when I was in South Carolina,
an Indian brother,
came to me, and he was devastated. He
was mad.
And he said, a few days ago, on
the Halloween,
10, 15 kids came to his door, they
knocked on his door, and they were asking
for candy.
So I said, I mean, you shouldn't be
mad for this. And said he said, this
is not the reason I'm mad. This is
not the reason that they asked for candy,
that I'm mad today.
The reason I'm mad is that these 10,
15 kids, they were all Muslim.
His Muslim neighbors.
And this is why he came to me
and he asked me to give a foodbah
about this.
Some people, they confuse
some terms in in in the Islamic literature.
Things like assimilation and integration
and the cons concept of Alwala and Al
Bara.
Of course, we are asked repeatedly in the
Quran and in the sunnah of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to be kind and
courteous and nice to non Muslims. As long
as they are not fighting us
or abusing us, then you can be kind
and nice to them.
But being kind and nice does not mean
to assimilate
or imitate
and to sacrifice or compromise your religious beliefs
and your values.
So, for example, we are told this in
the Quran, in Surah 60,
ayah number 8, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
does not prevent you, Muslims,
from dealing
kindly
and being courteous
and nice and good to non Muslims who
have not fought against you or driven you
out of your bones. Indeed, Allah loves those
who are courteous, and kind, and equitable.
The next a'ah gives the opposite. You are
not allowed to be good and courteous to
someone who occupies your land or kills you,
or invites them to your house to drink
cappuccino
with with you. They are your enemy. They
are killing you. So you are not allowed
to to take them as protectors or as
guardians.
So I remember many years back, my father
was a trader,
t r a d e r, not t
r
a t e r.
Yeah. So
sometimes some people will come from other places
to buy things from my father,
and that would be in Ramadan.
And these people, the business people who came,
they were non Muslim. They were Christians.
And my father, Muhammadullah, would ask my mother
to make food,
lunch, for the Christian
guests, although everyone in the house was fasting.
And when it was time to conclude the
business transaction, both my father
and the Christian Giz, both of them recite
Al Fazah.
Even the Christian Giz, he would recite Al
Fazah, Bismillah Rahmar Rahim Alhamdulillah Waqala Alhamdulillah Waqala
Alhamin Amin. So they basically call upon Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, both of them, to bless
the transaction and to call upon Allah to
witness.
So those were the manners
back in in the village, in those days.
But of course, if you move to the
bigger cities, there's politics and everything, the relationship
is messed up.
So this past Ramadan, one of the brothers
called he's a nice guy. He said they
had a non Muslim
worker fixing something in the basement,
and he was working for hours. And you
know that Ramadan was in the summer. The
days were very long. It was very hot,
especially in the basement.
So the brother called,
and he said that the guest was asking
for something to drink. It was very interesting.
And he has been working for hours. Can
we give him something to drink? Juice,
water, anything?
Because, you know, it's it's very hot, and
and he's been asking for some time. So
I told him, if he's still alive, then
give him something to drink.
It is not haram to be kind and
to be hospitable to none to to your
non Muslim guests. This has nothing to do
with whatever things in your in your mind.
In
Integration is something acceptable,
something
recommended in Islam. If you live in the
Canadian, for example, and you're a Muslim, there
is nothing wrong if you get the highest
degrees, if you get the highest salaries in
the society,
if you respect the law, if you are
kind and good to people and this is
that one, by the way. So there's nothing
wrong with this.
But the opposite is not acceptable. Assimilation.
That you lose your Muslim identity,
and you follow
what other people do. If they do drugs,
you do drugs. If they drink, you drink.
If they don't go to the Masjid, you
don't go to the Masjid. This is assimilation,
and this is something that is not acceptable.
There are so many decent Canadians, non Muslims.
They They are decent. They have principles and
values.
And many of them, they don't like some
of the social illnesses in this society. Some
of them, they don't like drinking.
They don't like people doing drugs.
They don't like people people being, homosexual, for
example. And this is something that we also
do.
We are opposed to these things. We hate
them in our hearts, and we don't do
them.
So the concept of Wala and Bara'a in
Islam, some people think based on this concept,
you have to hate non Muslims.
And this is not the true meaning of
this concept. There is not a single verse
in the Quran,
and there's not a single hadith that says
hate non Muslims. It doesn't teach this. But
what it teaches is, basically, you have to
hate the evil that some people do.
If people are homosexuals,
then you hate the evil they do. If
they drink, if they do drugs, then you
hate the evil they do, but don't you
don't hate them personally.
The in the same way, if some Muslim
if a Muslim is not praying,
you hate the fact that they don't pray,
but you don't hate your Muslim brother. If
If a Muslim is drinking,
then you hate the fact that they drink,
but you don't hate them as persons.
If
they date, you hate what they do, but
you don't hate them as individuals.
The Quran always talks about 3 different types
of brotherhood.
Brotherhood and faith,
this is the highest one. Then the second
one, the brotherhood, your biological brother and sister,
this is the second type. Then the third
one, your brotherhood in humanity.
So Allah
calls
the the the tribes and the people of
Salih
and Hud and Sha'ib and all the prophets
in the Quran, Allah
calls their peoples
brothers, although they were kuffar, but Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala still called them, brothers. That's Allah
Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
So scholars classify the observances and the holidays
of non Muslims into 4 groups.
Number 1, religious
observances or holidays,
like Christmas for Christians and Hanukkah for the
Jews. And all the scholars of Islam said
we are not allowed Islamically to participate in
these practices. They are not Islamic. They have
their own festivals, and we have our own.
Lagudin, ukumalein.
And all of us know, and all the
people of all the Christians, they know that
Isa Alaihi Salam was never born on the
25th
December.
And as a matter of fact, he was
never born in the winter. He was born
in the summer like myself.
But they have nothing to do with Christianity.
No. So the scholars always say you are
not allowed to participate in these things as
well.
In
So the third type is national holidays, like
Independence Day. And, of course, the scholars of
Islam disagree on whether you should participate or
not, but the chosen opinion in this case,
there is nothing wrong
if you are proud of the fact that
you are Canadian, or Somali, or Saudi, or
Egyptian,
as long as this does not contradict
with your loyalty to Islam. And as long
as participation
does not involve
drinking or mingling with, half naked women and
all that stuff.
The the fourth type is social events.
Your neighbor died, can you offer your condolences
and visit them and join the Janazah? Yes,
you can.
If your no neighbor is getting married, can
you congratulate them and give them a gift?
Yes.
If they got a new baby, a new
addition to the family, can you congratulate them?
Yes.
And so on and so forth. All these
social events, there's nothing wrong if you are
good to non Muslims, and if you congratulate
them, or you, show sorrow for their loss.
There's nothing wrong.
So inshallah will conclude with this regarding
exchanging gifts with non Muslims.
So the scholars say there is nothing wrong
if you exchange guests gifts with non Muslims.
And the prophet, salaam, accepted gifts from non
Muslims, and he gave them gifts. As long
as a gift itself
is not something Haram. They are not giving
you kanzil,
pork. They are not giving you wine, and
they are not giving you crosses or crucifixes,
then you can take it from them. So
the prophet accepted
gifts from non Muslims, and he gave them
gifts.
The last thing is we are not allowed
to congratulate
them on their,
pagan or religious festivals.
But if they tell you, Merry Christmas, for
example, there's nothing wrong if you say, happy
holidays.
It's something,
metaphoric. It's something euphemistic, and there's nothing wrong
with this. That's Allah