Waleed Basyouni – Is Halloween Permissible for Muslim Families
AI: Summary ©
The celebration of Halloween is a popular celebration for children, but there is some debate about its origins. The speakers discuss burying children during celebrations, discomfort in giving children candy, and the use of decorations to avoid imbalances. The speakers also touch on discomfort in giving children candy during Halloween celebrations, and the importance of protecting children from the event. The speakers emphasize giving children candy and mention a model for children to play with, while also asking for guidance and protection for their family.
AI: Summary ©
This audio is brought to you by muslimcentral
.com As-salamu alaykum, Shaykh.
Wa alaykum as-salam.
So we're coming to the end of October,
and you know, this is the time for,
you know, a celebration that the society here
celebrates, which is Halloween.
And so what should we do as Muslim
families, and we have kids that see other
kids go around the neighborhood collecting candy, wearing,
you know, weird costumes, it's all fun and
stuff.
That's how they look at it.
So what is the permissibility of participating in
something like this?
What if you're not participating, but you're in
your home, and kids come and knock at
your door, and they want candy?
What do you do?
And how, if you don't want to do
that, what do you advise?
Very good.
Yes.
Halloween is basically a very well-known celebration,
you know, a season for fun, for costume,
for, you know, in modern days.
And there is a lot of debate on
the original, where it's originally coming from.
It's celebrating the souls of the dead comes
back and celebrates them.
What this has to do with, you know,
some people referring back to satanic worshippers and
things of that nature, and you can see
the amount of images associated with blood, killing,
witches.
Vampires.
Vampires, stuff like that.
I'm always wondering, Shaykh, can you imagine if
Muslims' Eid, associated with blood and killing, and
head chopped off, or like, scallops, like *
stuff like that.
What is going to be the news?
How * Muslims, they love, thirst you for
blood, they are terrorists, they are this, they
are, all the ugly things.
Images of beheading and stuff like that.
All was associated with violence.
Why Muslims are so violent and love blood
and love, like, you know, killing and stuff
like that.
But when it comes to other culture, no,
it is cool.
It is like, you know, it is so
biased.
But anyway, regardless.
So, the question is, is it today is
still associated with this kind of belief, the
Halloween?
Yes, in certain parts of the world, you
know, it looks like Halloween is still associated
with the satanic worshipping.
It is still associated with this kind of
haram and kufr beliefs.
But definitely in the general society here in
America and other places in the world, it
is not.
Like, when kids go out, nobody thinks about
what Shaykh is a satanic worshipper or anything
like that.
Definitely it is not.
So, and I am saying this because not
to say it is halal or haram, but
also because if you do this as a
part of satanic worshipping, it is a kufr.
If a Muslim participates, it is a kufr.
But if it is not associated with that,
it is not related to that, you are
talking about things which is makrooh or haram
or things of that nature, but it is
not a kufr that take the person out
of the fold of Islam.
And by the way, some Muslim country, they
do Halloween, but not the way it is
here.
But they go out for candy.
In some country, they call it gargan and
stuff like that.
And in some Gulf country, it could be
a culture or something that they adopted from
the British when they colonized the east side
of Arabia in the Gulf country.
Maybe, I don't know the root of it.
But it is interesting, like I grew up
in the east side of Arabia, and they
used to have that in Bahrain and Kuwait
and in some areas.
They have that in October.
They bring like candy for kids and stuff
like that.
But it is nice.
They said, Something like that.
The kids make dua for you.
If you give us candy, may Allah let
you go to Mecca to make hajj.
Here, they stone your house if you trick
them and you don't give candy.
But anyway, going back to the topic.
So, also this is something, the way it
is celebrated today, is not part of Islamic
culture, Muslim culture, not part of the religion,
obviously.
So, celebrating it will be something that it
is between something that's haram, forbidden, not allowed.
Or those who will be more lenient with
kind of celebration, non-religious celebrations, and they
define this as a non-religious will be
highly disliked, something that is disencouraged.
Obviously, there is other issue related to Halloween,
which is the concept of how dangerous is
not safe in many times.
Also, the concept of going and begging and
asking people for things, which is not something
in Islam encouraged, a habit, associated with all
these waste of money.
And also, a costume that is not allowed,
the costume of which that's haram, sihr, magic,
killing, and all these things that is not
permissible in Islam, actually, as a costume.
And it promotes and make things which is
kufr, like magics and sihr, as something cool,
which is not right.
Or killing people, drinking people's blood as something
okay, that's not allowed in Islam.
And making it in the mind of the
kids as something that's okay, cool, it's not
something right in our religion.
So, I do believe the Muslims should not
participate in celebrating Halloween, in that sense, in
this sense, by initially going out and putting
costume and going to home and houses and
stuff like that, buying pumpkin and crafting it
and putting it out with candles and stuff.
I don't believe that's allowed for a Muslim
to do that.
But if some kids or people come to
your house and ask for candy and you
happen to have a candy and you give
it to them, is that celebration?
I don't believe it's a celebration.
You are allowed to give them candy if
you have.
People asking you, this is good.
I don't think that's participation from you.
You don't need to give them lectures about
Islam.
Kids, there's little kids, when they ask for
a candy, they don't want you to give
them a book about, you know...
How it's not permissible to...
No, or Islam and how to be a
Muslim, you know, something about Islam.
That's not the right time for da'wah.
It's not a da'wah opportunity.
Yeah.
I think I agree with you.
Yeah, so that's my personal opinion.
It's not about haram, but that's my personal
opinion.
I think it's too much.
Yeah, you know, you don't have almost a
trick.
You can treat if you want, you know,
if you happen to have.
Is that celebration?
I don't believe...
Celebration, if you go and you put a
candy outside in a format, the way we
put it out, the people who are celebrating
Halloween and putting it out.
Another thing will be, I want to mention
this because a lot of people ask me
as well, in businesses, am I allowed to
put this kind of decorations, you know?
If you have employees who are not Muslim
and they do this around their desk or
front desk or that's...
It became part of marketing your businesses.
I don't believe it's in the haram area,
like sin and not allowed.
First of all, this is their space.
This is their...
Yes, you are the business owner, but this
is her desk.
This is her cashier.
This is her clothes that she wear.
And that's part of her culture is not
a Muslim.
It's up to her.
You know, sometimes there is a seasonal, like
there is a pumpkin pies or a pumpkin...
But that's related to the season, not to
Halloween.
Yeah, to the business.
Is it allowed?
Yes, it's allowed to do all this kind
of business related to it, in my opinion.
And part of where the...
Especially, I'm talking about people living in the
West.
But if you're living in, for example, Saudi
Arabia or Egypt, and you do that, that's
not allowed because that's a clear imitation for
the purpose of imitation.
Because that's not part of the culture in
Egypt or in Syria or in Saudi Arabia
or this country.
But being here, that's part of the marketing
season, part of the culture that we're living
in.
You are allowed to allow this kind of
things in your businesses for the need because
it's the purpose of it.
It's a business.
And there is nothing in it haram.
Just avoid the images and the pictures that
it's haram in itself.
But if just a spider and trench coat
and stuff like that, that's fine.
I hope that helps people to navigate the
holidays.
And also, when your kids have this kind
of the...
I just want you to know, for your
kids, it's not a logical thing.
You don't give them a debate or a
lecture about how the original of Halloween is
Kufur and shaitanic worship.
Kids are not going to see that.
They don't understand that.
It's an emotional thing.
For them, it's about fun.
It's for them about having a good time.
So when you lecture them, you don't win
them.
What you need to do, you provide something
else to do fun activity.
Hey, let's do this before or after.
I promise you guys we're going to get
some costume calls when they go on sale.
And we'll do that later on.
We'll have it.
Some masajid do some activity around that time.
I think we have here a click and
treat.
And it's not to celebrate it because...
It's click, not trick.
Click, yeah, not trick.
I think that's something that makes our kids
involved.
And we don't allow costume.
But we do some activity, some work, because
the kids need something to fulfill them.
This model is not needed in a country.
They don't care about Halloween.
They don't know Halloween.
But it is, in my opinion, something that
can help our kids to have fun, to
have a good time.
And I really appreciate that effort put by
parents, organizations, to provide a good alternative, halal
alternative for people.
We're not trying to say halal Halloween or
halal Halloween, whatever.
It's not about that.
Halloween is not about Halloween.
It's about my kids.
It's not about celebrating the Halloween.
It's about protecting my kids.
These people who, you know, like they go
at us and say, oh, you have click
and treat, you might as well call it
halalween.
Yeah, halalween.
No, it's not about the Halloween.
It's about our kids and supporting our kids
and protecting them and providing something for them.
Because, again, it's not a logical debate with
the kids.
It's an emotion.
And you have to make sure that you
win them and you appeal to their emotion
to the fun part that they want without
doing anything haram.
We're not talking about doing anything haram here.
You know, so that's my position in this
area.
And Allah knows best.
And I ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
guidance and protection for all of us and
our family, our children.
So my younger daughter, not the youngest, the
younger one, Zaina, she came to me and
says, I know we don't celebrate Halloween.
We're not going to.
But I'm asking for an avocado costume.
Can you buy me an avocado costume?
I said, yeah, when it gets on sale
after Halloween, I'll buy it for you.
Wow, that's a very specific avocado costume.
That's interesting.
Okay, that's nice.
Thank Allah.
As-salamu alaykum.