Wasim Kempson – Christmas & Birthdays Halal
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the upcoming year, including Easter celebrations and National Day celebrations. There is confusion and misunderstandings about the dates and origin of the celebrations, but they are believed to be religiously-based. The boundaries between Muslims and their boundaries are discussed, including graduation and graduation events, ways of celebrations, and graduation events. The speakers also touch on graduation and graduation events, how they affect the future of one's life, and ways of celebrations such as graduation, celebration, and rememb receipt of Allah.
AI: Summary ©
They start to celebrate Halloween, to celebrate Christmas,
celebrations like Bonfire Night, New Year's Day, Nayrooz,
the month of being a vegan, Introvert Day,
we used to play on those days.
Yeah, it's just a good time, isn't it?
Things which occur frequently.
So what the Muslims, they're celebrating.
What's the difference?
What should you do as Muslims?
With regards to celebrations, these in Arabic call
an Eid, and the plural of that is
Ayaad.
And that what an Eid is something that
is celebrated at a particular time and it
reoccurs.
Okay, something is celebrated, and it keeps reoccurring,
Eid.
To return, to return, to go back.
So we have a narration in which is
narrated by Anas ibn Malik, and I think
this is one of the important narrations concerning
the topics of Eid, of any form of
celebration.
So Anas narrates, he said, قَدِمَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ
صَلَى اللَّهِ سَلَامًۭ The Prophet ﷺ comes into
Al-Madinah, and he sees that the people
have two days of celebration, where they engaged
in some form of festival and games.
And so the Prophet ﷺ asks, what are
these two days?
What are these two days that people are
enjoying, have some festivities and playing?
What are they?
And they explain what they are.
And it is said that these were two
days, النَّيْرُوزْ وَالْمَهْرَجَانِ They used to give these
two days, النَّيْرُوزْ وَالْمَهْرَجَانِ, two names to these
two days.
First it was maybe the longest day in
the year was the sun, and another one
was to do with the shortest, longest day
and a shortest day.
So the Prophet ﷺ asked them about what
these two days were.
And so they said, we used to engage
ourselves in these practices and these festivals and
these Eids.
And so then the Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ
اللَّهَ قَدْ أَبْدَ لَكُمْ بِهِ مَا خَيْرًا مِّنْهُمَا
That indeed Allah ﷻ has substituted these celebrations
that they used to have with days that
are better than them.
What are these two days?
يَوْمَ الْأَضْحَى وَيَوْمَ الْفِطْر The two Eids, Eid
al-Fitr and Yawm al-Adha.
These two celebrations that the people had have
been substituted.
And of course, the words أَبْدَ لَهُمَا is
really important, because the substitute means that when
the guy is subbed off the pitch, he's
not coming back on, he's done, finished, you're
off, a new one comes.
Similarly, with these two Eids that the people
used to have in Medina, they've been substituted,
done.
These are the two Eids that you're going
to celebrate, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al
-Adha, very clear.
Okay, this is the first hadith I wanted
to mention.
The second hadith is that the Prophet ﷺ
said, لِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ عِيدٍ That every nation has
their celebrations.
Every nation has its celebrations.
And on the day of Eid, he ﷺ
said, هَذَا عِيدٌ This is our Eid.
This is our celebration.
Making an emphasis on the celebration of the
Eid that was legislated to us.
Not, you've got two, here's another two, so
you've got four now.
لا You had two, you have been substituted
with another two.
Now, if you look through the year, and
I'm sure you've looked at when Ramadan is
going to start, when is Eid al-Fitr,
maybe you want to take some holiday off
or eitikaf and whatnot.
And then you find out when hajj is
and the days of hajj and when Eid
al-Adha is next year.
You will find that these two days are
days that you plan for.
These are religious holidays for us as Muslims,
religious festivals for us.
I don't like these words, but these are
Eids.
And bear in mind that the answer of
the companions to the Prophet ﷺ didn't mention
things like كُنَّ نُصَلِّ We used to pray.
We used to sacrifice.
No, they used to say كُنَّ نَلْعَب We
used to play on those days.
We used to play.
The Prophet ﷺ wasn't asking about what the
belief system was concerning these Eids.
It's a really important point.
Because they may say, well, it doesn't have
any religious connotations.
It's not sourced from any religious belief.
It's just, yeah, it's just a good time,
isn't it?
But the Prophet ﷺ did not ask about
the origin of these celebrations.
Just what are they doing?
What's this about?
And they answered, we used to play on
those days.
That's the very wording of the hadith.
We used to play.
And the Prophet ﷺ said, you have replaced
with two other days.
Now, if you look at the 2024 celebrations
throughout any one calendar year, there is either
a celebration of a day or a reminder
day.
You can break it down into two categories.
A day of something is religiously start, has
some religious origins, or days which is to
do with remembrance about a particular incident or
something like that.
So January the 1st would be what?
New Year's Day, right?
New Year's Day.
And then you also have the Mexican Independence
Day.
And the dry January Day.
And that's the 1st of January.
And Veganary.
January is the month of being a vegan.
And the 2nd of January is World Introvert
Day.
And the 4th is World Braille Day.
Now, some of these days, in terms of
tathkir, in terms of, you know, to remind
people about the importance of certain things that
maybe people are blind, and the importance of
maybe donating to help blind people with braille,
because they read through braille, at the labats,
to remind people at any time for that
matter.
And then you have, I mean, literally nearly
every single day of the year, there is
something.
And it is also become like, it's like
a mockery.
And it's like a business.
And so you think to yourself, where are
the boundaries?
Where does the Muslim fit in?
Do I go a little bit in?
You know, you're testing the water, the little
toes.
Do you go in a little bit and
that's enough for you?
Or do you go all the way and
you go swimming into the sea, it's freezing
cold?
Or do you just stay out of it?
With regards to all these days of celebration
and so on.
What should you do as Muslims?
Well, I think there's an easy way, and
there's a really complicated way.
And the complicated way, of course, will be
a very dangerous way.
The easy way is just to follow what
the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, what he did.
And what he gave to the Sahaba.
So people messing around two days, playing and
whatnot.
These days are substituted for two days, Eid
al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
Where Muslims have happy time, Alhamdulillah.
You may complain Eid al-Fitr is just
one day.
Okay, Alhamdulillah, Eid al-Adha, you can extend
it for three or four days if you
like.
And you will make remembrance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And you have a good time remembering Allah
Jalla wa Ala in this manner.
In this manner.
It's not as though Muslims don't have any
other times.
If a child is born, you have a
celebration.
Recommend it, go ahead and do that.
Somebody graduated.
Can we have a celebration for this?
Not as he's planning to graduate every single
year on the same day for the rest
of his life.
Maybe it's a mushkilah.
But I'm joking, of course.
But in essence, celebrations like that, no problem
inshallah ta'ala.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala didn't prohibit us
from things which give us sources of enjoyment
and whatnot.
So for us as Muslims in our approach
in understanding all these days of celebration and
remembrance and the person who just goes into
it full steam ahead, then you can go
to, you know, calendar on Google or whatever
search system that you find and you'll find
something every single day.
And all of it you will see, it's
just nothing to bring you close to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Some of it is fundamentally against the teachings
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Some of it is there to make money.
So therefore, Muslims must be very careful as
to what they're getting involved in.
And it's not a condition for something to
be religiously based, which is a common argument.
If it's not religiously based, then no problem.
Because you're not looking at the wider picture,
the bigger picture.
If you just, you know, there was a
reaver and he was Muslim for a long
time.
He was a Christian.
And of course, as a young child, he
used to celebrate Christmas every single year because
he used to go to the church.
And in essence, you're talking about with the
birth of Jesus, you would see the, you
know, the models and the stable and the
three kings and the shepherds and whatnot.
They'd have their baby, Jesus as they claimed.
And then he became Muslim.
Alhamdulillah, Allah guided him.
And many, many years later, many years later,
he, of course, he was inviting his family
to Islam.
And then one of the parents, the mother,
she embraced Islam.
And as explaining through the sequence of, you
know, what Islam is about.
So we don't, of course, celebrate these Christmases
and Easters and things like that.
I won't go into details about not celebrating
the birthday of any prophet.
Only for then the mother to say, but
wait a minute, I've seen Muslims, they do
this though.
I saw the Muslims, they're celebrating the birthdays.
What's the difference?
What's the difference between you celebrating it?
You said, you didn't celebrate it.
And if this is teachings and whatnot, she
had to tell you about, if you don't
celebrate the birthday of the birth, then why
is it you, other Muslims are doing this?
Where did this come from?
And he was stumped.
Of course, it was difficult to go into
with her and, you know, the principles of
what innovations are into the religion and so
on and so forth.
But he tried to focus on not looking
at the actions of Muslims, but rather look
at the teachings of Islam.
Looking at the teachings of Islam, what the
prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us, what
the sahabah radiyallahu anhum, how they practice, understood
Islam and so on and so forth.
Until these things then appeared.
So when you look at things, individual practices
within Muslim communities, it's just not a problem.
We inherited it from who?
We go, it's our parents what they used
to do.
Maybe that's one reason.
I mean, of course, they are not just
to focus on the birthday thing, but there
are many practices that the Muslims that they
are in any one place they're involved in,
just see it as something, it's just a
small thing.
But you don't look at the consequences of
then what happens to the next generation.
And then the next generation after that, your
children, I mean, and then the children's to
your grandchildren, how they will see the matter.
So Islam, Allah Jalla wa Ala gave us,
revealed to us a way of life, which
preserves and protects us so that we do
not dilute parts of our belief.
You may see something as very small and
minor now, but a time may come that
you are no longer here.
The next generation sees it completely different from
you.
And then the generation after that, sees it
even different from them.
And then over a period of time, the
generation or the understanding of Islam becomes weaker
and weaker and weaker.
And you wouldn't want your progeny to be
part of that.
So therefore, the Muslim should be very, very
clear as to how practically, how you'll preserve
your deen.