Yasir Qadhi – Ask Shaykh YQ – Episode 37

			First question we have any practical advice about how I can explain to my children why we do not
celebrate Christmas when we drive around we find all of the lights and all of the, you know,
celebrations there in my young child, any practical advice on
		

			no fee him?
		

			So this is a psychological question more than a 51. The parent is saying, How do I explain to my I'm
assuming very young children that we are not celebrating and the other culture is celebrating. So I
think that this is a very a question that is very sensitive to the age of the child. And if you ask
those who are more age appropriate This is not a full question but I'll give you some generic
advice. If they're very young, I think one of the best ways is suited to a class because this is a
beautiful to the point sooner we explain limited one a muted one America local foreigner had we
explained that every oma every nation has its rituals has its festivals. We are Muslims, we have our
		

			two reads, if they're a little bit older, we can present to them evidences from the Quran and from
the Sunnah about this issue of them is that when the Prophet system came to Medina, and he found
they were celebrating two festivals, he said, that every nation has this festival Allah has given
you two festivals better than this one they don't have and they will filter. And of course of the
reasons why we do not celebrate other religious festivals is because our Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam said, mentorship baja befo min for whom in whom whoever imitates a group of people will be
considered to be amongst them, and imitation that is forbidden. As I have mentioned before, and I
		

			will mention in the future as well in a detailed lecture, the forbidden imitation is to imitate the
rituals of another civilization and society. This is what is forbidden to do something that is
unique to Buddhism, to Hinduism, to Christianity to Judaism, something that is a sign of Buddhism,
Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, we cannot take that and then make it our sign because that is
unique to that faith tradition. So Christmas is clearly something that is a fundamental ritual and a
fundamental festival that is associated with a faith tradition. It is not our faith tradition. And
of course, by the way, we can even tell our teenagers a little bit more than this, we can tell them
		

			that even early Christians did not celebrate this holiday. In fact, this holiday was invented in the
year 320 or so. Sr 350. c, it was first introduced by Pope Julius the first not even something the
disciples did. In fact, many Christian researchers believe that Jesus was born in the spring season,
not even in the winter season anyway. So this whole even if he was he was born in the winter doesn't
mean but the point is this festival of December 25. In fact, this festival does not originate in
Christianity. This festival is pre Christian, and it goes back to a holiday that was found in pagan
Rome, that is called Saturnalia. And this holiday was to mark the winter solstice, which is
		

			basically this season right now. And this season, of course, this is when the time changes, as you
know, this is when the short days become the shortest and then they start becoming more and more.
And because of this civilizations across the globe. Welcome that this is now essentially the
beginning of you know the new season coming in. So we have the Celts, we have the ancient Nordics,
we have multi and the ancient pagans of Rome, multiple civilizations celebrated December 25. Not
early Christians, they didn't do this. However, when the Roman Emperor converted to Christianity,
they adopted certain pagan festivals because as you all know, Roman the Roman civilization used to
		

			be pagan, up until around 300 or so when the Emperor Constantine made Christianity a state religion
and he himself converted to Christianity. Before this point in time, Christians were persecuted in
the same timeframe. December 25, which used to be a pagan festival,
		

			miraculously became a Christian festival. It was simply adopted, and it was then made into a
Christian festival. And so you know, the point is, it's really an Of course, as we said, even the
ancient Nordic gods and by the way, a lot of the symbolism and the rituals and the icon and iconic
graphs is actually coming from other pagan civilizations. So for example, Santa Claus, they say, he
is actually Odin of the ancient Nordic gods. He is the God Odin, and is being you know, basically
iterated until they become Santa Claus and other things, the wreath and the symbol of the
		

			The fir tree all of this comes from certain pagan symbols. None of it is coming from Jesus and the
disciples of Jesus. And even if it did, by the way, come from the disciples of Jesus, we say that's
their religion. We have our own faith tradition. The bottom line, we as Muslims, we have very clear
about this. Our Shetty does not allow us to actively participate and celebrate other religious
festivals, any festival that is a symbol and an icon of another civilization of another faith
tradition, excuse me, in which other gods are worshiped. We are not allowed to participate. And we
are not allowed to import those icons. No Muslim should have a fruit tree in their house. No Muslim
		

			should have special lights and decorations around this timeframe. Because Nicola Coleman read every
nation has its aid liquidity and jack Lemmon comes here at San Juan mahadji. Allah saying every one
of you has their own way and their own
		

			methodology. And it's not just us, by the way, even most of the Orthodox rabbis, most of the
conservative rabbis, they prohibit their followers of the Jewish tradition from celebrating the
symbols of Christmas, because again, this is something that is not cultural, it is religious, this
these prohibitions, of course, they are separate when they become cultural, then we can talk a
different issue and I have given other lectures and maybe won't one day, we'll talk about them.
Fourth of July, for example, and other things, which is no religion, you cannot apply these Hadeeth
over there, because there's no religion, and there's no a bother being done. And in my humble
		

			opinion, those types of celebrations don't come under this hadith at all. What comes under these
traditions that are forbidding is when you take a festival that is a holy day, and you then adopt it
and you then follow it. This is not something that is allowed. They have their read, we have our
read, and how you tell your children this best. It is psychology, I can give you generic advice. I
also have four children and that all age levels I've tried my best but at the end of the day, how
you teach to a child is more psychological related than 50. I can give you generic advice, but we
cannot adopt these festivals as our own.
		

			In a feed dounia Solomon
		

			Yeah, man.
		

			Leah
		

			Leah