Mustafa Khattab – Celebrating NonMuslim Holidays

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