Saad Tasleem – Halloween
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the issue of "imitation" in Islam, where individuals are supposed to be non-Muslim and not allowed to wear clothing that is not specific to their culture. The importance of good clothing for helping people in need and bringing their culture back to their own is emphasized. The speakers also discuss the history of Halloween, a Christian holiday, and the importance of educating people on empathy and connecting with people in order to achieve success. They stress the need to be gentle with people and not be harsh with them, and encourage people to participate in live events and ask general questions.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wassalamu ala rasoolillah, assalamu alaikum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuh to everyone.
So the way this is going to go,
the way we're going to have the session
today is I'm going to do a fairly
brief and I'm going to try and keep
it concise introduction.
I'm going to give you my reasoning why
I don't celebrate Halloween.
I'll break down the issue and then we'll
have a discussion.
So if you think of some questions while
I'm speaking, you can post them.
And then we'll take it from there.
I'll try to do it first come first
serve.
So whoever asks the question first, I'll address
that question first.
Inshallah.
All right, Bismillah, let's get started.
Why I don't celebrate Halloween.
Now, this issue before we get into Halloween,
it's a couple other issues that we need
to break down.
And I don't want to get too technical
here.
And I know sometimes people get bored with
technicalities.
So I'm going to try and like I
said, keep it as concise as possible.
But we have to first go back to
the issue of imitation, imitation of other religions,
imitation of other nations.
This is a principle which is well known
in Islam, that it is not permissible for
us to imitate other nations or other peoples.
Now, what does that exactly mean?
Well, that is what we're going to break
down, inshallah.
So first of all, this comes from the
hadith of the Prophet ﷺ.
One of other hadith is not just one
hadith.
In fact, people think if you quote one
hadith, they think there's only one hadith regarding
this issue.
There's not only one hadith.
But this is the main hadith regarding this
issue.
Hadith of Ibn Umar mentioned in Abu Dawud
in which the Prophet ﷺ said, مَن تَشَبَّهَ
بِقَوْمٍ فَهُوَ مِنْهُمْ Meaning, whoever imitates a nation,
whoever imitates a people, then they are from
them.
Now, why is that serious?
Why is that a big deal?
Well, when the Prophet ﷺ says, فَهُوَ مِنْهُمْ,
they're from them, it means they're not from
us, right?
So a person can no longer attribute themselves
to the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ.
And so that is the meaning here.
That's why it's such a big deal when
the Prophet ﷺ says that they're from them,
meaning they're not from us, they're from them.
And that is why this is a very
serious matter.
Now, once again, what exactly are we talking
about when we talk about imitation or emulating
or copying or resembling another nation?
Now, our scholars break this down into two
categories.
Number one, there is that type of imitation
that is being referred to in this hadith,
which is the haram type, the prohibited type
of imitation, which is not allowed.
Then there is a type of imitation which
is permissible.
And we're going to break that down as
well, inshaAllah.
A lot of times people have this misconception
that all imitation is bad.
Any type of imitation of non-Muslims is
something which is bad.
Some people have this misconception that all type
of imitation is bad, and that is not
the case.
There is a type of imitation that is
bad.
What is that type of imitation?
Well, first of all, even among the type
of imitation, there is imitation that is, or
I should say among the prohibited type of
imitation, there is imitation that is much worse.
And that is imitation where a person desires
to be non-Muslim.
So in their heart, they desire to be
like non-Muslims to the level that they
don't want to be Muslim.
They think other religions are better than Islam.
And so this is the type of person,
may Allah protect us, the type of person
who may be Muslim just by title.
So maybe a person is, they are born
in a Muslim household, and because everyone else
in their house is Muslim, they're like, yeah,
I guess I'm Muslim as well.
But in their heart, they're not really Muslim.
They would rather be non-Muslim, maybe because
non-Muslims have certain things that they desire.
So this could be certain sins or whatever
a person wants to drink and do drugs
or whatever other things that a person may
see that non-Muslims do, and they desire
that in their heart.
And so there is this level of kufr,
this level of disbelief in their heart, may
Allah protect us.
This is the severe type of imitation.
Then there is imitation where a person is
Muslim, but they imitate non-Muslims in those
matters which are haram or impermissible.
And they may imitate non-Muslims in sins.
So this doesn't make a person not Muslim,
they're still Muslim, but what they're doing is
haram or impermissible.
So in general, this is the impermissible type
of imitation.
Now, we said there's impermissible, and then there's
permissible imitation, the allowed imitation.
This is the imitation, once again, you know,
we talked about two levels, the impermissible.
In the permissible type of imitation, there's also
two levels.
The first is the imitation which is allowed,
right, which is simply allowed is mubah, is
something which is permissible.
This would be imitating non-Muslims in things
that are not associated with their faith.
There are no religious beliefs attached to it.
This is imitating non-Muslims in things that
are not identifiers or things that are specific
to non-Muslims.
So, for example, there are certain things that
only a non-Muslim would do, and they
can be identified by it.
So, for example, wearing a cross, right?
So, wearing a cross is something that not
only is it specific to non-Muslims, it
is something that they're identified by.
So, if you see someone wearing a cross,
you're not going to say, well, I don't
know if they're Christian or Muslim or whatever.
You're going to automatically be like, only a
Christian would wear a cross, right?
So, this is the type of clothing or
whatever this action is specific to them.
So, the permissible type of imitation is other
than that, right?
So, for example, the style of clothing, as
long as it fulfills the Islamic conditions of
clothing, the style of clothing is not defined
in Islam, right?
And so, our style of clothing really goes
back to our culture.
We see the Prophet ﷺ dressed according to
the clothing of his people, right?
So, it wasn't that, subhanAllah, the message of
Islam came and the Prophet ﷺ started to
wear different clothing, right?
He changed his clothing.
He said, okay, now I'm Muslim, I'm going
to wear different clothing.
No, he wore what the people of his
time, the people in his culture wore, and
that is why if you were to go
back, if you were to somehow be able
to look at the Prophet ﷺ in that
time, let's say you were to show up
on the day of the Battle of Badr,
on one side you have the mushrikun, the
non-Muslims, on the other side you have
the Muslims.
From a visual standpoint, it would be hard
to tell the difference between the two, between
the non-Muslims and the Muslims because they
were wearing pretty much the same clothing, right?
So, this is the type of imitation that,
once again, is not specific to a faith.
It is not specific that only non-Muslims
wear this particular type of clothing or they're
identified by that.
This comes under that which is allowed.
Then there is the type of imitation that
not only is it allowed, it is something
which is recommended, something which is preferred, and
this is imitating non-Muslims in the goodness
that they do.
As long as it is not, there isn't
any beliefs attached to it as long as
it's not a part of their faith, meaning
it is an identifying matter in their faith.
And obviously, when we say goodness, we mean
goodness as in it is good, you know,
as defined by society, but more importantly it
is goodness as defined by Islam as well.
I'll give you a very clear example of
this.
Let's say down the street there's a church
and every Sunday they go and feed the
homeless.
And the Muslims, let's say the masjid down
the street says, you know, the Christians in
the church, they feed the homeless every Sunday.
That's something which is good, right?
And so, Islamically, is feeding people good?
Absolutely.
Is helping those who are in need good?
Absolutely.
Did we get the idea from them in
this case?
Yeah.
Does that make it okay?
Absolutely.
Not only is it okay, it is something
which is recommended that we see them doing
something good and we want to imitate them
in that goodness.
Maybe we say we're going to do it
on Friday or they're already taking care of
Sunday, we'll pick Friday, right?
The day of Jum'ah, or we have
Jum'ah anyway, so we'll do it on
the day of Jum'ah.
So imitating non-Muslims in something which is
good, something that they do which is good.
As we said, goodness in society, but more
importantly, goodness as defined by the Shari'ah,
defined by Islam as well.
Now, in all of this, one of the
factors that needs to be understood that one
of the goals of our faith, one of
the goals of our Deen, is that we
should be proud of who we are.
And we should not have an inferiority complex.
And that is a very important aspect of
our Deen, because there are some matters that
we may have in our Deen that go
against the norm, right?
And so, if it is something which is
good in Islam, then we should be doing
it, right?
For example, I'll give you an example of
this.
Eating with the right hand.
Now, this is something which is, in terms
of the Shari'ah, in terms of Islam,
in terms of an Islamic ruling, it is
something which is recommended, right?
It is something which is mustahab, to eat
with the right hand.
And it is, on the flip side, it
is makruh, it is disliked to eat with
the left hand.
Now, this may not be the norm in
the society that we live in, right?
So, in the society we live in, you
know, and this is what I've seen at
least, and Allah knows best, if you're right
-handed, you would do right, if you're left
-handed, you would do left.
Now, out of having, being proud in our
Deen would mean that even if, you know,
let's say we're left-handed, and we're left
-handed, and subhanAllah, normally society dictates that if
you're left-handed, you eat with your left,
that we say, no, in Islam, it is
recommended that we eat with our right, even
if we're left-handed, so we take pride
in that, right?
And we find, we say that that is
something honorable in Islam, even though it goes
against the norm, right?
So, that is something to keep in mind
when it comes to imitation and this issue
as a whole.
Now, Halloween, where does Halloween fit in?
Halloween comes under imitation.
Which category?
Permissible or non-permissible?
Spoiler alert, it comes under the impermissible type
of imitation.
Why?
Well, specifically, it comes under the issue of
holidays, and, you know, imitating non-Muslims in
their faith, in their beliefs, in certain traditions
that are specific to them, that would not
be considered a Muslim belief, or Muslim tradition,
or Muslim holiday.
Now, there is a hadith that gives us
some clarity on this issue, the hadith of
Anas radiAllahu anhu, in which Anas radiAllahu anhu
says that when the Prophet came to Medina,
the people of Medina, they had two holidays
that they would celebrate.
Basically, they would, you know, celebrate, they would
have fun, they would have these games that
they would play to celebrate this day, and
the Prophet ﷺ, he said, what is, what
is, what are these two holidays?
And they replied, the Prophet ﷺ said, مَا
هَذَانَ الْيَوْمَانِ He said, what are these two
days?
And they said, كُنَّ نَلْعَبُ فِيهَا فِي الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ
They said, these are two days that we
celebrated in Jahiliyyah.
And then the Prophet ﷺ, he said, إِنَّ
اللَّهَ قَدْ أَبْدَلَكُمْ بِهِمَا خَيْرٌ مِّنْهُمَا He said,
certainly Allah has replaced these two days with
two days that are better than them, يَوْمَ
الْأَطْحَى وَيَوْمَ الْفِطَرِ The day of Adha and
the day of Fitr, the day of sacrifice
and the day of the breaking of the
fast.
And this is what for us, we now
know and understand as Eid al-Adha and
Eid al-Fitr.
So this hadith tells us a few things,
and this is an authentic hadith mentioned in
Abu Dawood al-Nasa'i.
It tells us a few things.
First of all, it tells us that in
Islam, we have our own holidays, right?
So there are holidays that are specific to
Islam.
Second, we learned that these holidays that were
being celebrated were actually religious holidays.
They're not cultural holidays.
They are not holidays that are part of,
they're not national holidays, they are religious holidays.
And so Allah replaced religious holidays with Islamic
religious holidays, right?
So we have, when it comes to, another
way to say that is spiritual holidays, meaning
holidays that are related to our faith.
Holidays through which we get closer to Allah.
Celebrations through which we get closer to Allah.
This is what we mean when we say
religious or spiritual holidays.
In Islam, when it comes to spiritual holidays
or religious holidays, we only have two.
We have Eid al-Adha and Eid al
-Fitr.
Any other day where a person says, you
know, I'm getting close to Allah, by celebrating
on this day, we say, sorry man, that's
not in Islam.
We only have these two days, Eid al
-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.
We celebrate, meaning celebrate as in celebration that
brings us closer to Allah.
These are only two.
Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.
So any other holiday where a person claims
that they're getting closer to Allah, that it
is something which is recommended, you know, in
Islam in terms of their faith, then that
is not permissible other than these two days.
And so looking at this, we can break
down any holiday into two categories.
Either it's a religious holiday, it's a spiritual
holiday, or it is other than that, meaning
it is either a cultural holiday or it
is a holiday that is maybe a national
holiday.
And so when it comes to religious holidays,
then not only do we only have two,
also we're not allowed to take part and
celebrate any religious holiday.
Holidays that have any beliefs attached to it.
And from our perspective, any superstitions attached to
it, we're not allowed to celebrate it.
That's one.
On the other hand, we also have holidays
that are impermissible because of the practices that
take place.
So let's say there is a place in
the world, it's hypothetical, where they have a
holiday, it's not a religious holiday, it's a
cultural holiday, it's a national holiday.
But on that holiday, they go around slapping
people in the face, right?
Now, we would say, well, this is not
a religious holiday, so it should be permissible,
right?
There's no beliefs attached to it, so it
should be permissible.
We would say, no, it's not permissible because
what is being done on this holiday is
wrong.
Islamically, it is wrong to harm other people,
to slap somebody, right?
That's wrong.
So from that perspective, we don't celebrate it.
Now, bringing all of the information that I've
just given to you and applying it and
looking at the holiday of Halloween, we find
that it is impermissible according to the vast
majority of scholars.
And that is why I don't celebrate it.
I don't take part in it for both
reasons.
Not only is it a religious holiday, it
has beliefs attached to it, it has a
religious origin.
It is also impermissible in the sense of
there are impermissible things that take place on
this holiday.
I'm going to give you a little bit
of background on Halloween just to have you
understand why Halloween is impermissible.
So first of all, the origin of Halloween
is actually a, it's a pagan holiday.
I know today, subhanAllah, there are Christians who
celebrate Halloween and it's thought of as a
Christian holiday.
That is because it was brought into Christianity.
So originally, it was a pagan, a European
pagan holiday in which, you know, certain things,
they would, a lot of traditions, which are
actually now, they've been brought back into the
holiday.
We'll talk about that in a little bit.
But as Catholicism spread, they adopted this holiday
and they made it into a Christian holiday.
And so it was celebrated, and there's other
names for it, All Hallows' Eve, All Saints'
Eve, Eve of All Hallows' Day, All Saints'
Day, all this is brought into Christianity.
So this was a day in Christianity where
they would, starting on the 31st of October,
which is today, where they would remember their
saints, they would remember the dead, they would
remember the faithful.
And so it was very much, it became
a part of Christianity, even though the origin
that is pagan.
And it is because of that, because of
its pagan origin, that there are actually some
Christians today who don't celebrate Halloween.
Because they say, look, this is, in Christianity,
it's a bid'ah.
Like in Christianity, it is something that has
been brought into Christianity, right?
So they're like, this is a Christian, this
is a bid'ah, we don't celebrate it,
because it's not Christian.
Actually, it was brought into Christianity later.
And so there are some Christians, and you
may know some people like this, who don't
celebrate Halloween, because they say, look, there's not
a Christian holiday, it was brought into Christianity.
And subhanAllah, as Muslims, that should be a
lesson for us.
We don't want it to become a holiday
that is brought into Islam, right?
So yeah, and we don't want to say,
we don't want to import something into Islam,
and try to make excuses for it and
say, you know, whatever excuses people make.
So that's a lesson for us.
A lot of these traditions that take place,
for example, trick-or-treating, obviously, that's the
big one.
This comes from a practice known as soul
-laying, right?
Soul, as in the soul, the ruh, the
nafs.
This is a tradition where poor people would
go from door to door, and they would
sing, and they would do prayers.
And in response to that, people would give
them some food.
So they would give them sweets, they would
give them cakes, when they would pray for
them, basically, make some prayers, sing some prayers.
And this slowly, you know, has been turned
into this tradition of trick-or-treating.
Interestingly enough, there was a lot more Christian
overtones to this holiday, until capitalism got involved.
So when capitalism came into the picture, basically,
they're like, how do we make money off
of this holiday?
Then more of the pagan traditions were brought
into this holiday.
So the tradition of celebrating the dead, leaning
more towards the horror aspect of it, making
it scary, you know, demons and ghouls and
this and that, because it was a chance
to make money off of this holiday.
And a lot of these holidays now are
really just about making money, right?
So that's why a lot of these traditions,
a lot of the pagan traditions that were
initially taken out by Christianity, have been brought
back into this holiday.
And once again, it's another reason why some
Christians today don't celebrate Halloween.
They're like, you know what, even the traditions
have become pagan traditions.
Nobody is, you know, singing songs of worship
and so on and so forth.
People are just dressing up as, you know,
demons and ghouls and things like that.
And that's a pagan tradition.
So we don't want to have any part
of it.
So that as a Muslim, that should become
very clear to us that because of his
religious origin, we don't get into it, right?
We don't celebrate it.
And by the way, like all honesty, like
just go look at the Wikipedia page for
Halloween.
I don't really understand a Muslim who can
read the Wikipedia page of, you know, Halloween,
its origins and whatever else that goes on.
And even like today and say like, yeah,
as a Muslim, like I'm totally comfortable celebrating
Halloween because it is so far removed from
our deen.
It is so far removed from our morals
and our principles as a Muslim.
Some other reasons why I don't celebrate Halloween.
In essence, you know, a lot of it
is a celebration of evil, right?
And evil is personified in different ways, whether
it be through vampires and ghosts and witches
and so on and so forth.
Demons, right?
So shialteen, subhanAllah, shialteen, right?
The celebration of shialteen, this should be once
again a big red flag that we don't,
even as a joke, subhanAllah, personally, I know
people say like, I'm just joking, like I
don't believe it, you know, I'm just dressing
up.
But even as a joke, like we don't
celebrate something which is evil, something which is
bad, even as a joke, right?
So that's why we don't, and also like
we're talking about joking, scaring people and all
of that.
This is something that even scaring people as
a joke is not something which is permissible
in Islam.
So for all of those reasons and others,
I don't celebrate Halloween as a Muslim.
Now, I know people have been asking a
lot of questions.
Let me just run through some of these
questions and we can get into this discussion,
inshaAllah.
I'm going to take it from the top,
from the questions that I see.
Bismillah, Marwa said, if children have to dress
up or do any activities related to Halloween
in school, is it okay for them to
take part?
Or buying food that has Halloween themed, like
coffee, apples, or cakes, and so on and
so forth.
Okay, so obviously a lot of this goes
back to where you live, living as a
minority in a non-Muslim land.
Obviously, we're faced with a lot of challenges.
As a Muslim, we shouldn't take part in
Halloween, right?
We shouldn't, you know, whether it be school
or otherwise.
What I would recommend is to contact the
school and say, look, this goes against my
religious beliefs, so I'm not comfortable taking part
in it.
And I don't know how the school would
react, it wouldn't depend, you know, from place
to place, this can differ, and every, you
know, place has a different challenge.
And so it's really hard for me to
say, but just from my end, looking at
my culture and my context, if this were
to happen with my kids, I would contact
the school and say, look, you know, as
a Muslim, like I'm not comfortable celebrating Halloween,
so can my daughter or my son be
exempt from this celebration?
Buying food that is Halloween themed, right?
So this is something that scholars differed over,
is it okay to buy Halloween candy, right?
Some scholars say that as long as a
person is not buying that Halloween candy to
give out on Halloween, meaning it is bought
for the candy itself and not for the
celebration, it is okay.
And I lean more towards that opinion, that
as long as that, as long as a
person isn't using that candy to celebrate Halloween,
then inshallah ta'ala it is okay.
If it's just used as food or sweet,
then inshallah ta'ala that's fine, wallahu ta
'ala.
Abdullah said, is it okay to give out
candy but not actually go out?
So when we say take part in a
holiday, it means that we don't take part
in any of the traditions related to that
holiday.
So giving out candy would be considered taking
part in that holiday.
Even though we're not receiving the candy or
we're not going out, we're not trick-or
-treating ourselves, but giving out that candy means
that we're taking part in the traditions or
the rituals, that's a better word I should
say, the rituals associated with that holiday, that
we're taking part in it.
So that would not be okay.
If children knock on your door and ask
for sweets on Halloween, can you give sweets?
Oh, same question.
Yeah, so as a Muslim, as I said,
it is better to not, you should stay
away from taking part in Halloween.
If someone says happy Halloween to you, what
do you say back?
Can you?
Okay, so in general, I don't expect that
the average person or someone says happy Halloween
to them, that they're going to be like,
okay, hold on, I'm Muslim and let me
tell you about why I don't celebrate Halloween
and this and that.
Like you may be at the grocery store
and somebody at the cash register says happy
Halloween and you're not going to, realistically, you're
not going to be like, let me give
you a lecture on why as a Muslim,
I'm not going to say happy Halloween back
to you.
So I would recommend that in a case
like that, don't be rude, just say okay
or just say thank you.
And you're not thanking them for their greeting,
that particular greeting, you're thanking them because they're
being nice to you.
And as a Muslim, that is something praiseworthy
to thank someone for being nice.
So it's not that they want you to
celebrate Halloween and we don't know exactly what
someone's intention is, but we assume that they're
just trying to be nice to you, that's
why they're saying happy Halloween.
You can just say thank you and reply
and say have a good day.
So say something good back to them, hope
you have a good day, thank you, whatever,
thanks for your help, whatever it is, just
be nice.
Okay, let's take a look at some of
these other questions.
Can we go out and get candy if
we don't dress up and we don't have
the intentions?
Yeah, okay, so I mentioned this earlier that
as long as the person not celebrating Halloween,
I mean let's be honest, let's be real,
candy is on sale during Halloween, right?
So as long as our intention is that
we're not celebrating Halloween and we're not passing
it out and we're not saying to someone
like happy Halloween or whatever and we're just
eating the candy as candy, then inshallah, that
is something which is okay.
Can we buy things in shops that are
an offer from a Halloween discount?
Yeah, as I mentioned, inshallah, that is something
which is okay.
Travel lover said Muslims have started to celebrate
in Pakistan and Dubai, shocking.
Yeah, it is shocking and it is not
shocking as well.
What we have to realize is that American
culture, being an American myself, I can say
this, American culture is exported, right?
And American culture slowly becomes a global culture.
And so it's not really shocking and this
is one of the things I did want
to say is that we need to be
very careful when we talk to other people.
We need to be kind, we need to
be gentle when dealing with others because when
it comes to other people, we have to
understand that not everyone is at the same
level of iman, right?
So not at the same level of faith,
not everyone has the same level of knowledge,
not everyone has the same level of understanding,
not everyone has the same level of wisdom,
right?
So there may be some people who simply
don't know, right?
They don't know that it's something which is
bad or it may be that they know
but they don't have proper understanding of the
issue or it may be that their iman
isn't strong enough for them to not celebrate
Halloween and therefore they take part in it.
We should honestly leave the judgment out of
it, right?
I'm not saying that we say that, you
know, that we change the ruling of Halloween.
That's not what I'm saying here.
What I'm saying is that we don't know
what a person is going through, we don't
know what their life experiences are, we don't
know what they've been through, we don't know
how much knowledge they have.
So instead of quickly just judging someone and
saying you're a bad Muslim or you know
yeah this is wrong and don't you know
better and like fear Allah, like how dare
you so on and so forth, like leave
all that out of it.
Instead maybe just educate people, right?
Just talk to them, have a discussion with
them without looking down upon someone, right?
And you know we put away your, I
call it fetwa hammers, right?
If you don't know what a fetwa hammer
is, when you take and you learn a
fetwa, you hammer somebody on the head with
a fetwa, right?
So put away your fetwa hammers.
A hammer is not convincing to anybody.
A hammer just causes pain.
We're not trying to cause pain to people,
we want to educate people, right?
And that happens by softening the heart and
really having just talking to people, having empathy
towards people.
Empathy means try to understand where a person
is coming from, even if you disagree with
the person, right?
Try to understand why they have a certain
belief or why they have a certain view
on a certain matter and that empathy will
help us connect with them.
And the more we're able to connect with
people, the more successful or I should say,
the better, the more success we're going to
have at reaching a person when we're able
to have a connection and empathy builds connection,
right?
The opposite of empathy is to separate ourselves
from others, right?
To put ourselves in a camp and put
them in another camp.
A lot of people they'll go like, good
Muslim, bad Muslim.
So you're bad Muslim, I'm good Muslim.
We're now separating ourselves from them and that
separation means that we're not going to be
able to connect with them and reach out
to them.
And if you look at, this is why
if you look at the sunnah of the
Prophet ﷺ, the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ
was about empathy, right?
It was about reaching out to people.
It was about connecting with people in order
to guide them, in order to educate them.
And we want to very much, you know,
adopt the characteristics and the manners of the
Prophet ﷺ.
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, That
if you were harsh and hard-hearted, they
would run away from you.
And this is who?
The Prophet ﷺ.
Allah is reminding the Prophet ﷺ that if
you were harsh and you were hard-hearted,
that they would run away from you.
Who would run away?
Not average people, the companions.
The companions would run away from you.
And this was a reminder for the Prophet
ﷺ to be gentle with the people, right?
To not be harsh with the people.
And very much the Prophet ﷺ was gentle
in the way that he spoke to people,
the way in which he related to people.
And this is why the Prophet ﷺ had
such a beautiful, beautiful character in how he
dealt with people.
Okay, I'm going to take a couple more
questions.
Any other issues, then we'll call it a
day.
If I celebrated Halloween when I was younger,
should I repent for it?
It depends on how young you were.
If it's before the age of puberty, this
is not something that we are accountable for.
We know that as a Muslim, no, as
human beings in general, but as Muslims, we
understand that we are, our accountability starts when
we reach the age of puberty.
So if it's before that, there's no need
to make tawbah, even though, you know, making
tawbah, there's nothing wrong with that.
But if it happened after the age of
puberty, then yes, a person should repent to
Allah ﷻ, ask Allah ﷻ for forgiveness, and
move on, insha'Allah.
Does the same ruling apply to Christmas celebrations
and so on and so forth?
So any religious holiday, any spiritual holiday would
take the same ruling.
So we have to ask ourselves a few
questions.
Is this a religious holiday?
Are there any beliefs attached to it?
Are there any superstitions attached to it?
And then also, is anything bad happening on
this holiday?
Anything haram happening?
All of those would be reasons why, as
a Muslim, we don't take part in that
holiday.
I have a question unrelated to this topic.
So here's what we're going to do.
I'll do another live session, insha'Allah, where
I will just take general questions, insha'Allah.
We'll do like an AMA.
So if you know an AMA, ask me
anything, we'll do one of those AMAs, where
you can ask general questions, insha'Allah, because
I think this live format, a lot of
people like it because there's that interaction, real
-time interaction, and I think it's good as
well.
Also one of the problems with live is
I see the sun coming in from the
window here.
I don't know if you noticed in this
live session, it's hitting me in the eyes.
That's maybe a sign of Allah that it's
time to call it a day.
So we'll call it a day here.
Jazakumullahu khairah to everyone who joined us live.
It was good to have you here and
seeing people from all over the world.
It's always great.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best.
Take care.
May Allah bless all of you.