The Islamic Perspective of Celebrating Thanksgiving, B-Days, Anniversaries Q&A
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Channel: Yasir Qadhi
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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah. While early he was so happy woman while armagard Today we have a very special q&a. And we're gonna start off by asking sister can while Cornwall's question, I think from Canada, I believe, where she asks the Islamic ruling on celebrating Thanksgiving. She asked this last month because Canada has Thanksgiving different than America. And brother IMOD, also has emailed a few months ago. And I'm combining both of these. And he is saying that can you please explain the ruling on various celebrations that we do here in America, he's running for America. And he begins with Thanksgiving
New Year's birthdays, marriage, anniversaries, Halloween, Independence Day, Memorial Day, et cetera. And so today's question is going to briefly discuss the issue regarding celebrations and participating in such celebrations.
Now, this topic is actually far more difficult and convoluted then comes to first light. And before I even begin, I do understand because I have so many diverse people who follow that automatically people are tending to be skeptical of the entire topic. On the one hand, you have one group that basically says that, isn't it a little bit petty that you people are asking you about? celebrating Thanksgiving into that group? Obviously, we're talking about Muslims here. I say, well, then where does one draw the line? Does one open the door for celebrating other religious festivals? Should Muslims be celebrating Christmas by having Christmas ornaments, or whatnot? So before you trivialize
the question, actually really realize it's a very interesting question that deals with a number of topics. You can call it an intersectional topic, it deals with culture, it deals with theology, it deals with rituals. It's a very fascinating topic. And that's one group of people that are skeptical of the entire question. And to them, I say, please understand, it's a very reasonable question. And it's one that does have a say in the religion. And the fact that the religion does have the say about everything really is something that we should pride ourselves on that our religion is a holistic religion. And if the Sharia has nothing to say, then we will say that it is MOBA. But the
Sharia always has some verdict about anything. There is another group that have already made up their minds, and they're simply skeptical of any change of position. They know that this is haram, they are certain that any type of celebration is haram, because they have heard very famous scholars and teachers, some of whom I consider to be my own teachers say that any type of celebration is ritualistic and paganistic, and therefore, against the Sharia. And so they have already made up their minds. And to that group, I say, that's great. hamdulillah no problem. If you are following respectable aroma, respectful aroma, and they are all respectful, the no problem, that's, that's
fine. But at the same time, if you are open minded, listen to the evidences and listen to the alternative understanding and see if there's any, you know, if there's any change that happens, but in any case, you're asking me my opinion, and obviously, I will be giving this from my perspective, this is going to be a very long lecture, it's going to be in the entire episode today is going to be answering this one question. And therefore, for those of you who do not have the time to listen to the entire, however long we're going to be talking an hour or so then I will summarize because I've been asked by a number of people to always summarize any long photos, I will summarize by stating
that, while I respect immensely, the opinion of those who say that it is not allowed, and I understand where they're coming from, and I sympathize with their paradigm and I with utmost respect. At the same time, I feel that that position is simply not justified, and that it does require us to think through their cultural understandings of the religion of Islam. And I feel that the group that has forbidden these things, generally speaking, are not as familiar with Islam as it is practiced in other societies other than their own. And they make judgment calls, that the Sharia has taken into account that cultures vary. And so I believe that their understandings are a little
bit culturally influenced or skewed. And because of this, they project their understanding of what should and should not be, and I'm not challenging their understanding for their peoples. They're projected on to the globe, and I feel that they make some
judgemental errors in that regard. And therefore, while I respect that position, I state that the majority position of modern scholars of the entire Ummah, is that celebrations and festivals. The default with regards to celebrations and festivals is that Sharia is silent about them. Unless there is a ritual involved, there is a paganistic entity. There is a deification, to other than Allah subhanaw taala. In that case, if there is a festival that is linked to a religion inherently linked to a religion, then as Muslims, we should not and cannot celebrate it. Otherwise the default especially for private individual festivals, or celebrations is that the Sharia is silent about it,
neither does it encourage nor does it discourage. And perhaps one can make the argument that a festival of a public nature that the entire society is enticed and encouraged that an Islamic society should encourage regular festivals only of the tour EADS they're either fertile or
any other type of festival.
It would not be encouraged and perhaps even an argument can be made that it is my crew. This is my opinion in a nutshell. And I will inshallah to Allah Now elaborate in more detail. Now, with regards to this question. The question primarily is about Thanksgiving, but I will extrapolate based upon the other brothers question about all types of festivals. The fact was that we look at are pretty much all modern. And the reason for this is self evident that the types of festivals we're talking about earlier, Allama, Rita mountain, the 10th century, 11th century, see, they were not aware of these types of festivals. And the notion of having a repetitive festival over and over again, is not
something that they encountered, and therefore there are no fatawa that are written about Thanksgiving, in early or in medieval Islam. What we do find is, of course, generic talk, and we'll talk a little bit about that in today's lecture. So the Fed was dealing with the celebrations you're asking about our modern, and if you look at the modern scholars of the OMA across the globe, it is very easy to demarcate to easily discernible camps. On the one hand you have respectable and they're both respectable, there's a great aroma and on all sides, we respect all scholarship of Islam. On the one hand, you do have one group of scholars who follows the thought that is known as Salafism,
who, generally speaking, almost entirely consider all types of festivals to be ritualistic in nature. And so they argue that all types of festivals and celebrations other than either filter and they're either all happy or not allowed, and they have two key arguments that they make. There's others, but there's two main ones. The first is that they say that rituals sorry, the first is that they say that festivals and regularly repeating celebrations or rituals, and because their rituals, the Sharia has forbidden any type of ritual that it has not sanctioned. So the default they would argue when it comes to repetitive Fetch as festivals is that they should be religious innovations or
Bidda. Okay, so this is the first argument that they make, and they base this argument on the famous a number of famous hadith of them is a Hadith in Abu Dhabi, in which nsmt Malik says that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came to Medina, and he found the answer for us to celebrate two days. And so he said to them, what are these two days they said, they said, these are two days we used to celebrate in the days of Jaya Helia. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Indeed Allah subhanho wa Taala has substituted to other days better than those two days are you doing out ha and are you do a filter? So this hadith is used by the first category of scholars to state that
the fact that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam negated the other two days and he said Allah has given you to better days indicates that any other type of festival any other type of another key word that they use is read that read and what does read mean? Well, when people use it generically, they mean a day of festivities. But linguistically read comes from either Yahoo, and the famous scholar chef wasabi Potamia. He writes in his book, The dot serata. Mr. Team, the Mahadeva tells Hubble Jehane, following the straight path in being different from the people of jahannam. It's a two volume book in which he elaborates a lot on these notions of festivals on these notions of
Muslims having a separate identity from those other than Islam. Ibn Taymiyyah says that the term read means anything that comes back regularly and he
Ways that you go back to regularly or any time in which you do rituals, the same rituals every single day or every single season, this is going to be called a type of read. And so Ibn Taymiyyah argues that there are only two reads in Islam and any other Eid would, by definition, so any other repetitive festival, let me put it this way, any other repetitive festival would be unmarried. And because Islam only has two reads, even Taymiyah argues any other repetitive festival that an entire society is embracing would constitute a third read, and therefore he says it is a bit or a religious innovation, because religious because festivals are a part of the Sharia. Therefore, even if the
festival is secular in nature, he would argue, even if it is something that is not inherently religious, because the Sharia has taken control over regular celebrations, it will be considered religious, and therefore it will be a innovation a bit up into the religion. This is the first argument that is made that any repetitive public festival is a read, and every read other than the two reads is considered to be an innovation. The second argument that Ibn Taymiyyah and those who follow Him make is that they say there is an element of imitating those outside of the faith. And the Sharia has evidences that indicate that Muslims should not should not imitate those outside of
the faith, as in the famous hadith of Buddhahood, that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, mentorship by Bill Coleman for who among whom, Whoever imitates a group of people shall be considered amongst those people, Whoever imitates a group of people shall be considered amongst those people. So they argue that our ancestors did not celebrate any of these things, whether they were birthdays, whether they were Thanksgiving, whether they were anything of the even if they're not necessarily religious. So they would say any type of these types of celebrations would be imitation of the non Muslims. And then they say if the celebration is religious in nature, such as,
let's say, the celebration of Easter, which is inherently Christian, or Hanukkah, which is the Jewish one, you know, or Diwali, or which is the Hindu one right, or any other celebration, their celebrations of the Zoroastrians, Nowruz, whatever it might be, that they would say that any celebration that is religious is even more haram or more sinful. But even if it is not religious, like the Fourth of July, or like a birthday, for example, they would argue that it is both Vida and the shabu kuffaar, which is imitating the non Muslims and it is haram. So they're gonna make a two key argument. It is a religious innovation. And of course, all religious innovations are haram
anyway. But on top of this, they say it is also imitating other civilizations and cultures. So that is their argument in a nutshell. And they have other arguments. But these are frankly, not not very strong, for example, that there is a straw for money being spent. And the response to this is, we all spend money on things that we can argue is a straw if we cannot make this how long just because of this, or they say that there's intermixing or whatnot, and we say you know what that is going to be if you consider that to be not moral, even to determine intermixing is needs to be clarified. But I'm saying any other argument that is used, it's not as strong, and we can easily conduct ourselves
in a manner that these other arguments are not going to be the primary ones. The two primary arguments are Bidda and Tisha gooble kuffaar. Excellent. That's the summary of the first position. Now, I have to say that those are solid points. It's a good paradigm. I respect that opinion. And it was one that I was taught as well by many of my teachers. In fact, all of my teachers pretty much felt pretty much all my teachers felt that way. It is the position that is advocated by the modern Salafi movement. When we look at it, though, the other movements are interpretations of Islam, scholars that belong to other trends, generally speaking, they don't derive these rulings. And the
question arises, why not, and those who are followers of the Salafi movement, I speak to them with respect and say that, you know, also look at other scholarship and see where they're coming from, and look at their paradigms. Islam is indeed, a very beautiful and vast religion and the Sahaba themselves differed amongst themselves. And it is possible that two positions can both be worthy of respect, and both have solid arguments, but in fact, one of them in the end of the day, is going to outweigh the other. And on a personal note, this is a very personal note, I'll say here, especially to the audience of mine that is sympathetic to that strand. When I used to study at University of
Medina, as most of you should be aware of that I definitely was a part of that strand. And I identified with that with that interpretation, but over the course of the last 20
In tears, you know, I have, you know, been re re thinking through a lot. And this issue of celebrations was actually one of the first issues that I began to disagree with the movement about. And this was when I was in Medina, studying at the masters level in the department of theology. And I began having debates and discussions, you know, with other students, those that were there know this very well. And this was actually one of the main issues that I began saying that it doesn't it doesn't add up, you know, the definition is that they have to extrapolate it on to, you know, these things that they're saying is how long like celebrations of anniversaries or birthdays, I said that
it does not add up. And I began to argue politely in an argument and debate or, you know, go back and forth with my colleagues and even some of my teachers. And some of them of course, we're in agreement, the famous scholarships that matter out of courses of the position that I'm advocating, and others as well. So the point being that there are other opinions out there. And if you choose to follow one position, that is fine, but understand that there are other opinions that have solid evidences and
are coming from other paradigms, and inshallah we're going to explain why the others school does seem to actually make more sense. Now, this issue is a little bit technical, we're going to have to go back to definitions, we're going to have to go back to what exactly is a bit? And how do we understand the concept of read or celebrations? And what is the perspective of the other schools of thought with regards to these a hadith that the first school brings? And what is the understanding of the Shabbat or imitation? Because here's the point, depending on how you define Buddha, the rest of your talk is going to be based upon that, how do you define imitating the non Muslim, the rest of
your talk is going to based upon that, so we have to go back to definitions, we have to go back to the very basis of these concepts and topics. And we need to understand that there are scholars from the very beginning of Islam who have defined Buddha and understood Buddha in a very different manner than other scholars. And I actually have a longer talk online, which I don't have time to repeat right now. But you will find it online. And that is entitled defining bidder the entire topic about how classical odema define the notion of beta and the fact that there has been since the beginning of Islam, an area that has slightly been disputed that is this bit out or is this Muslim Mercer and
you can go and look at over there, there is a little area there is of course, with either is clear cut that is contradicting basic understandings. If somebody were to think that, you know, dancing is a way to come close to Allah subhanho wa taala. Pretty much all the scholars would say that this is not the way you come close to Allah, we do not worship Allah, you know, through dance or through music or whatnot, that's something that is well known. At the same time, there is a gray area and one group of orlimar define Bidda to be that any statement or ritual or action that is done, that one expects Allah to reward him by doing and which has no basis in the Sharia, okay, this has in
fact been to me his definition. Now according to this definition, I argue that celebrating private celebrations can never constitute be the i This is the argument that is made by many scholars of our times. Because when you celebrate an anniversary, when you celebrate a birthday, you are not intending for Allah to reward you as an act of worship. It's a generic festival. So the notion goes, How do you understand Buddha? And the the notion as well as the Shabbat, we're going to come to how do we understand the issue of the Shabbat? And the issue comes? How does one understand as well, the Hadith of the people of Medina, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam coming and telling them that
Allah has substituted for you to other days? The responses that if you look at the commentary of this hadith in many of the books of Hadith, if you look at how this hadith has been understood, actually at face value from a standard mainstream, or solid fifth paradigm, what is a solid or solid feel, because the science that is used to derive rulings from the texts from the sources? So how do you derive rulings from the sources of the Sharia? What is the methodology to derive so you have a verse of the Quran or you have a Hadith of the Prophet system? How do you extract from it something is haram or Halal something is MOBA or Mr. Hubbard macro, how do you extract there's a methodology
that is called the science of soil. And if you look at these traditions through the mainstream understanding of soil, the wording of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that Allah has substituted two days better than those two days from that wording with mainstream or solid field, you cannot derive the headin you simply cannot. Allah has substituted two days better than other than other two days. The map
assume that you can derive is that celebrations similar to those are mcru. That's what it would say Allah has substitute is better than that to that means that the max that can be said is that it is mcru. And also, this hadith, if you wish to use it for celebrations can only apply to communal celebrations because that's what the hadith is about that the unsalted were saying, we have two days that we used to celebrate as a community. So you cannot use that hadith to even talk about celebrations in your house, something that you do with your children, with your family with your friends, that hadith has nothing absolutely to do with the notion of private celebrations, the
maximum that one can derive and actually I am sympathetic to this no problem, you can quote me on this, that celebrations have a communal nature of societal nature, national nature, celebrations that the entire society is looking forward to, in a Muslim land, definitely riddled filter and evil abhart should be the main ones, anything other than this, one can argue that it is Makrooh. One can argue that scholars in particular should not be you know, cheerleading for any celebrations like a national day or this day or parade day or whatnot. If groups are doing it, or the nation is doing it or what not, you know, even to argue it is haram from that hadith, it's not possible. But if you say
that it is my crew, it's not something that we like. And we agree, I agree that any celebration that is done on a regular basis, why should scholars be encouraging, there's always going to be something that is somewhat potentially problematic, such as a national day, for example, you know, inherently it is permissible to be proud of one's nation and whatnot. But it is possible to become nationalistic, it is possible to think you are better than other people. And these types of things are, you know, feeding into that paradigm. So we have a fine line between being proud of who you are, and happy at everybody else, and being proud of who you are and looking down everybody else. So
my point is that the Hadith of the unsought having two days, there is an assumption that one group has that it was a non religious festival. That is an assumption. It is also possible to understand that there were no festivals in the days of Jaya Helia that were quote unquote secular in nature. In other words, it is equally plausible to assume the opposite. And that is that the festival that used to occur must have involved some type of paganism, because all festivals of that epoch and era involve false gods. So the argument that it is a quote unquote secular festival, that is the argument that the first group does, it is a presumption, it is not explicit, and one can flip it
around and say, in fact, the prophet system through this hadith is forbidding religious festivals. And that is an interpretation that many Roma have. So you can use this hadith to forbid, let's say, Christmas to forbid, Easter, because that is a festival. You know, back in the day, religion and society were always together, there was no such thing as such a public event without religiosity without some element of servitude to their false gods. So the notion that this festival was not religious is an assumption. And it is true to make a counter claim number one, number two, we said that, from a solo perspective, this hadith, in reality, the max that you can use, and I don't have a
problem, if it were to go that way. And as I said, I am sympathetic to that is to say that it is Makrooh to have a national festival that everybody is celebrating publicly, but you cannot derive from this hadith, that it has anything to do with a personal celebration. And this is, by the way, what I'm teaching you here, what I'm saying now, this is exactly what I was saying literally 25 years ago, more than that, actually, when I was you know in the in Medina and still ascribing to that school. And the point number three, even Taymiyah himself, if you go back to his writings and encourage all of you to do that, and I've said this many times with my respect, that many of those
who follow this great Adam, they misquote him or they misunderstand him, Ibn Taymiyyah never spoke about personal individual festivals. He's he was speaking about communal festivals, therefore, to celebrate a national day for example, definitely Ibn Taymiyyah would have said that that is not to be done. Even Tammy would have argued that it is haram I respect that I understand that. I personally argue that the maximum can be said to do some accrue but had been Tamia himself never spoke about individual personal celebrations, such as our ones that we do in our houses, anything that
We do even if it is regular, he did not speak about that he spoke about a regular communal festival. So even Tamia does not have a fatwa about anniversaries and birthday parties and whatnot. Even Taymiyah. You can you can read in by the way, you can say he would have considered it haram that's a valid argument, but do not quote him and say you've been Tamiya said birthdays and anniversaries or anything around the country, he does not speak about that. So, that is the point with regards to understanding the the Hadith of the festivals. Now, as for even Tammy has pointed that we need to look at the linguistic meaning of the term IID. This is a good point, excellent point, it is a valid
principle of a suitable fit. And I respect that the alternative school will argue and this is a technical point, when a word is used in the shared era, when a word is used in the Shetty off, there are three at least three levels that one has for that word. Number one is the shutter a definition. Number two is what is called the Rule of Three definition. What is people understand. And number three, it is the law, the definition or the technical origin of the word, and it is in that order. We go and we look at the word in that order. So give you an example. When Allah says Zika Zika has been defined by the Sharia, we don't look at the origin. We don't look at how other people
understand it. zakaat is a charity that Allah has prescribed it is per certain percentage, and we must give it at a certain time. So we go to the technical definition. If the Sharia has not defined it, we go to the next level. And that is how people understand that it's the law here are the only definition. So for example, Allah says that treat your parents with the kindness that culture dictates why shouldn't be my roof, let's say right, we're both here. How does culture understand being good to one's parents? We can look at that. And if there is no definition culturally, then we go to the linguistic and then we say what does the language say. And in this particular case, when
the Prophet system is using the term read, the other group would argue there is no need to go to the third one, the second one is understood. And the second one is it is a celebration that is inherently religious, it is a celebration, because the term read was always used for a religious celebration. So the point is that the first group which is even Taymiyah group is arguing any celebration constitutes read. And the second group is arguing No, what has been forbidden by the Sharia is a celebration that is inherently religious, ie, Hanukkah, or Easter or Christmas. That is what the Shediac forbids. So it goes back to how you look at the term read. And which level of
definition Do you want to go back to. And again, this is an interesting point goes back to school. So from the perspective of the other school, they would not look at the fact that something is repeating back and back. They're not concerned with the linguistic definition could that because that's going one level down, it has already been defined by how it is understood by the people that the Prophet sallallahu is going to be speaking to. So their argument is the Sharia has forbidden religious festivals. That's their argument. Their take from this hadith is religious festivals, whereas Ibn Taymiyyah is take is any repetitive public festival by the way, to be fair, even
Taymiyah said public He never mentioned private festivals, the notion of deriving a private festival from this term is something that the modern Salafi Movement has done, it is not something that is found in Ibn Taymiyyah does work. Now, this is then the Hadith that
NSMB Malik. The next argument that is used is the notion of the Chabot
the notion of Shabbat the notion of imitating non non Islamic cultures and civilizations. And this, in my humble opinion, is an extremely tenuous weak argument to be made. And that is because the camp that uses this understanding is not able to provide a clear cut definition, a solid definition, a consistent definition that they can then apply to their own lives, we'd have to be very clear, when when something is forbidden, let's say Tisha Buble kuffaar The concept of imitating other civilizations, we need to be very, very clear demarcate the rule give us the maximum what constitutes imitation, what is allowed and what is not allowed. And by the way, even Ibn Taymiyyah
argued in his book Pythagoras theorem was telling him that imitating non Muslims is something that is completely contextual, it changes from time to place to society to culture, and in fact, even Taymiyah explicitly argues that even your understanding or sorry, your your environment will have an impact. For example, He says
If a Muslim is living in a non Muslim land, we don't expect him to dress like the people of his land back home, he may dress with his own surroundings, if that is what will be beneficial for him, because in that case, he is not going out of his way to imitate. Here's the point here, even Taymiyah himself understood that the notion of Tisha Bucha is contextual. And my polite argument is that those scholars from one region of the world who make a blanket call of everything being the Chabot, they are not understanding that the Shabbat is relative. And what might be the shot before one of their own sons in the villages of Saudi Arabia is not necessarily the sharp bow for somebody
born and raised over here. And that is, the fundamental problem of using the sharp Brocard is that it is culturally relative. And another thing that can be said to be very pedantic to be very advanced here is that the notion of being different from other faith traditions was only revealed that it only came towards the end of Islam when Islam had the upper hand politically throughout the Macan period. And throughout the early mid any period, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam, in fact, liked to conform with the educator, as many narration show, and from this, a number of our Allama have derived that the notion of being different is something that Muslims are required to do when
they are in their lands and have the upper hand that they now demonstrate the superiority of Islam even via culture. However, when that is not the case, the Sharia does not require you to be different in the cultures of the peoples around you. And we also need to understand that the Shabbat is contextual, it changes from time to time and place to place and we have to be very clear what comes under the shadow and I'm gonna use some some, you know, humorous examples but let's be very blunt here, right? Most of us came from overseas my grandparents were born in India, my parents raised in Pakistan, you know, my my grandfather, as far as I'm aware, pretty sure he never ate a
burger in his life. He never ate a steak in his life. Is it the Shugborough if his grandson loves, you know, burgers and steaks, I mean, medium rare steaks, remember medium rare, very important, is it the Chabot that I have a philosophy of food that is different
cultures, clothing varies from time to place, to what level are you going to consider the shot because I was told the other day that we should not be eating a turkey you know, this weekend for Thanksgiving. And you why because that's the imitating the non Muslims Okay, Jade, if that's your perspective, then let me ask you Do you know where biryani came from? Biryani? The famous dish biryani the biryani dish actually comes from originally from Persia, the term big eonni It's a fancy term that means type of cooking. It's a type of of frying. And when the Mughals came, they took this Pharisee dish and they spiced it up and added it and whatnot and they introduced it to the Muslims
of India. Can you can you
What would you say? If somebody said eating biryani is haram because it is imitating non Muslims it pepper like if you make biryani haram anyway, so my point is that you're gonna say biryani is haram or Tisha Buble kofod. I mean seriously. And the origin of video honey is non Muslim by the way, that's what I'm trying to explain here. So why is eating turkey considered the Chabot and eating biryani is not think about that we need a consistent, you know, a very consistent rule here. Why is eating a burger and fries not to Shugborough? And if I were to eat a turkey on any day, whether it's this weekend or any weekend, why would it be a shell because again, remember the notion of
repetitive or a day or whatnot? That's one paradigm. The other paradigms is no big deal. It's a culture. It's a habit. If I were to eat turkey any day if I would eat a day after tomorrow or today, why would there be anything wrong with that? The point is that cultures change and therefore the notion of the Shabbat changes as well. And plenty of examples can be given. For example in early Islam there are many narrations from the tabby rune from the students of the Sahaba there was a certain type of cap that the hood would wear. It's not a skull cap is slightly different one it was called a dialysis dialysis cap or dialysis cap. And we have numerous narrations when the Muslims
conquered other lands and they saw the hood wearing this they said we should not be wearing this. But slowly but surely that cap became common in Muslim lands and people began to embrace it until one of the most famous scholars of Hadith who wrote one of the earliest books of Hadith he was called Imam out via the sea because of that cap. So what was once considered imitation and haram within 100 years he died like 240 Something within 100 years. One of the greatest scholars of Islam is called after that cap and a half of the been hijacked. He comments on this and he said that in the early times. That cap was a custom only of the Yahoo
but over time it became common and so it became permissible. Here's the point in early times something is imitation. 100 years later, it is not imitation. Pretend you're in the middle. What would you do? What is it imitation? Is it not there's a gray area, there's a there's a reformation, cultural reformation going on. The same can be said of many other things as well. We have narrations from the early tab your own about how to wear a turban. Okay. And that was abandoned within a short period of time. We have many narrations about covering the head. And we have other narration from the scholars of Andalus saying no, you don't have to cover the head. It's a cultural thing. And
that's my position as well. The covering of the head is not from the Sharia. It is a cultural habit. And there are many factors of aroma that said, uncovering the head is imitating the non Muslims. Well, maybe it wasn't their culture. I'm not arguing that the Shetty does not come with head caps or no head caps the Sharia comes with generic guidelines. And I agree when Muslims are in a position of power and they are the majority of a society why should they abandon their ways and look and imitate other civilizations in British India when the mole dynasty
when the mutiny took place, or I should call it the first war of independence in 1857. And the British marched in and arrested. You know, the final Mughal emperor and took over in the East India Trading Company became the British Raj. There was a backlash from the ruler of India and a number of fatawa were given famous fatawa certain Maulvi Abdul hai a surah. T he wrote a treaties in which the entire treaties was about It is haram to dress like the to dress like the British and to wear coats and pants. And he said anger iski topi, like to wearing the hat of the of the of the British is haram and sinful. You know, I agree with that fatwa that in 1860. If you were a Muslim in India, why
would you leave the culture of your people and dress like the Occupy occupiers? Why would you do that? But you see, should we take Imams sororities treaties of 200, over 150 years ago, and then apply it in America, I just gave you the example of the tireless, I gave the example of other things as well that these things change over time. The famous scholar she did not have 120 years ago, the famous the greatest scholar of Islam 100. And something years ago, that he was asked about wearing European style hats and the Muslims of South Africa asked him this. And in Egypt, it was not common at the time, he said that for those people in your lands, it is permissible because their situation
is different than ours. The point being, the Cheb boom varies from time to place to culture, and people living amongst others are not going out of their way to imitate them. That's the key point here. It is not allowed to take a fatwa about the Shugborough from a scholar who has never stepped foot outside of his land and apply it in a land literally across the world. For us here in America, we speak English we take the technology of the West, we use the computers built by the non Muslims is anybody consider going to considers the Shabbat if you're not going to consider the cuisine to Shabbat and wearing pants and shirt the Shabbat? Then why is taking on the overall cultures of the
people around us the Shabbat as well, the Shugborough has to have two conditions. So I said you need to have a clear maxim of demarcation. Listen to me now. This is what is the Shabbat. Number one. The Shabbat requires an intention to want to imitate another group because of the verb the shirt the Shabbat means the firewall means you go out of your way, there is a difference between the shadow and the shadow. The shadow means you're following them because everybody's doing it. The Shabbat means you're eating the food of the people you happen to live in. Here's the point your brothers and sisters, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam dressed like the non Muslims of his time and ate
like the pagans of his time. That was his culture. Did he come and change the dress code? No. So when he says Whoever imitates a nation will be amongst them listen to this carefully. Was he an Arab? Yes or no? Yes. Did he imitate the Arabs in their culture? Yes. So then, if Adams can imitate Arabs, and they're still Arabs, and if Pakistanis and Indians and Bengalis, and Sudanese and people from Nigeria, and people from Malaysia and Indonesia can imitate their cultures and be considered amongst them, well, then Western Muslims can imitate their culture of their time in place, as long as the Shetty makes it halal. And they are a part of them. You see, here's the point. The hadith is
not necessarily negative in all of its connotations. If an outcome imitates other outcomes he is an out of that's true. Okay, how about a Muslim born and raised in Indonesia will shouldn't imitate Indonesia? How about a Muslim born and raised in them
America he may take the garb and the cuisine and the culture that is halal. Now if the Sharia says dating is haram and the American culture says go date we say okay the Sharia has made it haram. But listen carefully there should he has not told us how to dress. It's told us the generics of what is our up and whatnot. The Shetty has not told us the cuisine. Biryani is not bitter hamburgers is not bitter steaks are totally halal. But remember only if there are what to remember medium rare. Okay, so my point being there is no to Cheb bull in your culture, if that is your culture, and we are living in lands that are not the lands of our ancestors. So there is going to be a natural
progression. This leads me to a bit of a psychological tangent, and I hope you guys are following there's a lot a lot to unpack in this lecture. You see, the reality is, let's put fear aside for a second, let's put Fick aside for a second, what we're really seeing is the erosion of one culture, as children grow up in another culture. And this is a natural reality of any group of people that have come to another land, forget Islam or any, any time any group comes to another land. The elders are saddened by what they see of their children and grandchildren leaving things that they considered a part of their ancestor and heritage. But what that group doesn't understand is, culture
is not static. Culture is organic culture breeds in and breeds out, it gives an A takes Islamic culture itself is not unified. How Muslims live in Indonesia is not the same as how Muslims live in Africa. And that's not the same as how Muslims that live in the Middle East, and Islam allowed for all of these diverse cultures. Now that Islam is growing in the Western world, and we have American Muslims and Canadian Muslims and British Muslims, then there's going to be these culture wars, there's going to be these tensions between the next generation and between the elders. And there's going to be sometimes cultural clashes, sometimes religious clashes, and sometimes both types. And
we have to be broad minded enough, wise enough, religious enough academic enough to separate the cultural from the religious, and this is one of those connotations, okay.
The reality again, had to be personal here. I mean, again, I remember even growing up ALLAH blessed me to be with my grandmother, she used to live here before she passed away, she died in America. And so I grew up and she was in our household and she did not speak English, right. And she was obviously very, very frustrated at all of her grandchildren, you know, not being as as you know, Indian Pakistani, as she would like them to be, you know, and she would call this Andreas Cola, you know, you are the children of the British, because again, that's the term British, because from her time 1920s, when she was growing up, you know, to act like this, and speak like this and have
American English or whatever, she's considering this to be British, you know, customs and culture. And there's an element of truth that she feels saddened that her own children grandchildren not going to speak the language as fluidly as her you know, the job and whatnot. It's a part of life though you're you just have to be very pragmatic and understand, you're not going to save the heritage that you cherish. What you need to save is the religion. And therefore, we need to have a frank conversation. What is religious? And what is not religious? Is cuisine religious? Is clothing, religious? That's the question we need to have. And the argument being made by camp. One is that any
type of celebration is religious. And what is being made by camp two, is that no celebrations are only religious when they deal with religion, right? IE, I give the example how to cook and whatnot. So that's the fundamental divide and the Shabbat as well. Let's be again, very frank here. So if the Shabbat means doing something that your ancestors did not do, on a regular basis, let's say right, again, let me be very frank here. So going on a family vacation every July because that's when summer is out, right? It's an annual festival, and you will have it and you go through the same routine of planning it out and packing your bags and going, what if somebody were to make an
argument? Why isn't that to Shabbat? Did your grandfather have a vacation originally? Did he go take the kids out on a family trip every July? Why isn't that the Shabbat? Again, you need to have a very consistent Maxim because what happens is camp one and I say that with respect camp one picks and chooses what it considers to Shabbat and what doesn't consider the Shabaab and that's not the way Islam is going to flourish here. You need to be very, very consistent and need to apply the ruling. Even if you don't like it. You can say culturally, I don't want to do that fine. But don't bring in religion. Do not say it is haram to do that. You can say as a father from this heritage, I don't
want my children to do this good, fair enough. But do not say Allah and His Messenger don't want you to do this because that's a totally different paradigm altogether. So the point being that I was saying what is the Shabbat number one
There has to be the intention to go out of your way to imitate a culture that is not your culture. If you're imitating the culture you're born into, you're raised in that cannot be the Shabbat because that is your culture just like Arabs or Arabs and Americans and Americans. Number two, that the Shabbat that is going to be haram is that the sharp bow that is unique to the religion and not to the culture of a civilization ie to wear a cross is the Shabbat to celebrate. Christmas is the Shabbat because that is a religious festival. So the Shabbat bow is religion, anything that you are imitating the religion that is unique that would be haram. Otherwise, to to follow your own culture
is not the Haram The Shugborough. This is called Tushar boo, which means you have agreed with them ie I like to eat, you know, burger and fries. I love my steaks. That's not the Chabot. This is deja vu, I grew up in a culture, I absorbed the cuisine and the dress code and the mannerisms and the language and the hand gestures and the thought processes. And yes, even how they go about their lives. Their their, you know, even for example, again, to be very blunt here, one of the biggest tensions happening right now is the gender roles of between couples, right? That when couples get married, they're kind of confused, like how should we be acting towards one another shouldn't be the
same way as our parents should be at what we're seeing in our society. All of this. These are ongoing conversations. And these are the natural signs of a civilization settling amongst one another, and it's second and third generation coming forward. So to summarize this point, before we move on, there's again so many multiple points, I'm trying to explain to you the different paradigm. There is no Tasha bull when it comes to culture. If you're living in that culture, you're born and raised in that culture, it would be haram if the Sharia says something is haram drinking is haram. Okay, all of this culture drinks we're not allowed to drink, there would be a type of Tisha Bucha
and Etosha bow that involves that which is haram inherently or that which is ritualistic. Okay, that which is clearly clearly unique to one faith, tradition, anything so for example, what is an example of the Chabot to dress up like a Christian priest to dress up like a Buddhist monk, that is the Shabbat that is the Shabbat. Otherwise, wearing a pants and shirt, a regular jeans, a t shirt, there's no official Buddha, we're living in their lands now for a kid in some village in Saudi Arabia that has never stepped foot outside. And they're all dressed in robes for that kid to go out of his way and imitate a culture other than his own. Yes, that might be the Shabbat. But for us
living in these lands, we are following this is our peoples now and our children, you know, I like it or not, they're more American than they are your grandfather's ethnicity, that is just a fact. And you have to come to terms and deal with it. So there is no Tisha boo, when it comes to cuisines, eating turkeys burgers, having a barbecue on the Fourth of July. Is this dish up or not? Again, if you're going to say that Thanksgiving is not allowed, well, then how about the Fourth of July barbecue, but everybody's just having a casual barbecue? And I know many people by the way, they think that Thanksgiving is haram but they're the ones having the Fourth of July barbecue. Why? What
is the difference? They will argue Thanksgiving is inherently religious. And this leads us to our next point here, and that is that?
Is it what constitutes paganistic a religious?
What constitutes something that is religious. And by the way, I have to before move on here, the notion of the Chabot I'm speaking as if I'm speaking as if all of us are immigrants. And we're and we're battling between our grandfathers and our, you know, our grandsons, and we are neglecting especially in the American conversation. 30% of American Muslims are African Americans. 30% are born and raised here for many, many generations. So what the Shabbat? Is it for them? If they celebrate Thanksgiving? Where is the Tisha boo, they've done this for centuries? what their job was it for them if they do the Fourth of July? So we're neglecting that part of the conversation? Okay, so
there is no to Shugborough for those born and raised in these lands, or now permanently living in these lands, when they act and dress and speak in the culture of their own lands, as long as the Sharia allows that particular cultural manifestation, okay, we now get to this issue of all but so I've spoken about quite a lot about data and the notion of read and whatnot. Now we get to Oh, but Thanksgiving is religious, and the origins of birthdays are paganistic. Okay, so now we get to another issue altogether. And now let's deal with that one. And they say that these holidays will come under haram festivals because they are inherently religious. And the response to this is very
clear.
We base the ruling on whether something is religious or not
based upon how it is perceived, and not based upon its origin in forgotten antiquity, do people associate religion with this practice to the associate the worship of other than God? Do they associate another religion with this? If so, then yes, it is a religious festival, or is a generic and celebrated by people of all faiths and no fate, and it has become disconnected completely from its antiquity from its ancient history. And in fact, and in fact, you have no alternative except to follow the position that you must look at today's understanding and not yesterday's, or 1000 years ago. And I'll give you some simple example. The vast majority of you who are critical of, you know,
these types of things that are deemed to be haram, you yourselves are using things in your daily life that have pagan origins, okay? In fact, I can quote you literally, I have a list of a longer lecture that I've given dozens of things, we can start with the days of the week, if you were to really be consistent, it would be schicke and haram, for you to say Monday or Sunday, or Tuesday or Wednesday, because the term Wednesday comes from the Greek god Odin, in a word, and they pronounced him and so they honor it honored him by saying Wednesday, and Sunday was meant to honor the god of the sun. And Monday was meant to honor the god of the moon, and the month, the month as well, August
and June and July, are also meant to honor you know, various gods of the ancient Greeks and the Romans. And we can go on and on, in fact, the Indians and Pakistanis in Bengali is listening here. Are you going to say that Mandy, for your weddings are paganistic, despite the fact that the remand the ritual, the man, the ritual, is inherently based on Hindu practice, right? The man D is based on the yellow and putting this and that this is literally coming straight out of Hinduism. But when Muslims embraced Islam, they cut off the paganistic roots. And they kept this festival as a part of their I was a part of their wedding feasts, and no Muslim in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, no
Muslim, who celebrates the mandate of the wedding even thinks that it has a Hindu origin. So what is the ruling based on? Is it based on 1000 years ago, or is it based on right here and now and I'm arguing, you must live your life based upon the here and now or else you will be forced to go through each other. Even the letter T, by the way, is most likely based upon the cross, you're going to now stop using the letter T and everything that you write. So we have to be consistent your brothers and sisters, all too often. This topic, people become emotional, and they don't really think things through which is why I said we need to be very frank about what the Sharia allows what
the Sharia does not allow. We do not care about the origins of something we care about how it is perceived. So the notion that blowing out candles has something to do with paganism, by the way even that is contested is to be academic. You know, this is mythology all too often. us Muslims, we love to just pass on mythologies, the tie we say was based on a cross. No, this is a blatant lie. The tie has nothing to do with the cross. But we have these types of you know, mythologies, we love to spread, maybe maybe it was 5000 years ago, the notion of a cake and, and festivals and whatnot. But these days, nobody on earth associates blowing out candles with any type of ritual to another God.
And so, the notion of ritual is not there. Therefore, we cannot use that argument when it comes to considering these things to be not allowed. Now, again, all of this. So, well, let me before I get there. So let me move on to the next point here. And that is that the notion therefore of oh, sorry, the example I had Sorry, I had the example. So actually, there's an example from the Shediac that we can use here to also help us prove this point.
There was a festival in the days of Jaya Helia called it era. And it was a regular festival that will take place in the month of Rajab. Okay, so this is a January festival that had paganistic roots. It had some type of sacrifice to the gods and mythologies and whatnot is called a Tierra. And it was done in the month of Rajab. So now we have a case study, that there was a festival in July at times, the outcomes were do it all the time. What happened when Islam came? Pause your footnote. This is a controversy amongst Amudha him, but the position that seems to be the best is that the shaft very school and others, they reconcile a number of contradictory, apparently contradictory or
Hadith in this regard, and they have a very clear position in this regard. So the festival was called the IT era it was done in the month of Rajab, and we have sets of Hadith that seem to conflict with one another. For example, one Hadith says there is no itll in Islam, and the other Hadith says whoever wants to do it or Allah and whoever doesn't then let him as well.
And the Shafi school and many of the humbly scholars as well and this seems to be the correct position, they interpreted the sets of Hadith very easily. And this was I think, the obvious interpretation, and that is that when the Prophet system is negating there is no idea, he is negating the paganism, he is negating the notion of it being blinked to a Eidolon and the superstition that was there when after going to all the superstition and when he affirmed whoever wants to do it, or Allah to majeure, whoever doesn't let him he is talking about the slaughtering of the animal and the feeding of the guests, which is basically the festival Okay, so he negated the
paganistic element. And then he said, whoever wants to, you know, have the meat no problem, whoever doesn't no problem. In other words, religion has nothing to do with eating the meat or not right. And this is the interpretation of a number of rules. And it seems to be the strongest interpretation. So based on this, this is essentially what Thanksgiving is. This is essentially what all of these other private festivals are that there is no association with any worship to other than Allah Subhana Allah to Allah. No, by the way with regards to Thanksgiving, if you want to be very woke and you want to say this as a commemoration of the massacre, etc, totally fine. I'm not telling
you to celebrate, you may use that card and you may say I'm not going to celebrate because people were massacred in its imperialism and the invasion of the Europeans and Columbus didn't discover America and you know, you're all right Excellent. But do not bring in the Shetty out and say Allah and His messenger say that this is an unethical celebration because of the fact that it perpetrated XY and Z no problem you have the right to say that my job here is to tell you what the Shetty says the Shetty does not have a ruling on repetitive personal celebrations. That's what I'm telling you. You don't want to celebrate good for you. It's better for your money better for your whatnot but do
not bring in the Islam pardon say Allah has forbidden or the messenger SallAllahu Sallam has forbidden personal private celebrations, because the Sharia is silent on those celebrations. So this point, the next point is that there is no notion of origin. We're not interested in origin. We're interested in how it is culturally perceived. And we can test this by looking at who celebrates the festival. So do Jews you know, do Jews celebrate Christmas? Now you will say I have a Jewish friend that so you're right. Maybe you do. But generally speaking, did you celebrate Christmas? No, they don't. Do Christians celebrate Hanukkah? No, they don't. These are religious festivals. We look at
the norm. We don't look at the outliers. We'll always find some people that break through. Generally speaking, Christians celebrate Christmas Jews celebrate Hanukkah, you know, other faith, traditions celebrate other festivals. These are the festivals that we are not allowed to imitate. Okay. Do Jews Christians, Buddhists, agnostics atheist? Everybody? Do they celebrate Thanksgiving? Yes, they do. In fact, Thanksgiving is one of the most American celebrations, all faiths and no fates, do it. So there is no religion associated with thanksgiving. So it becomes a festival that is generic in nature. As I said, it is a personal Festival. It's not something that people are, you know, it's not
a national festival, even though there is a day off, but you do it at your house. There's no public festivities over there. Therefore, to conclude there for now, I hope you guys are following I went over a number of points. And this is a convoluted lecture, each one of these points can be elaborated into a much larger lecture, I hope you were following. My point was to demonstrate that one group of aroma has considered festivals to be both Vida and Tisha boo. And I respect and understand that however, when you go deeper, and you look at their definitions, in fact, the majority of rownum of our times the majority of Roma, the mainstream bulk of the Ummah outside of
one strand of Islam has a different understanding of rituals, a different definition of Buddha. And a different understanding of in fact, even even to me is understanding with Bishop was the same as this, the followers that have been tagged me I don't understand that the shampoo is relatively been Tamia himself that the shampoo is relative, Ibn Taymiyyah cannot be used for the Tisha Brocard. Actually, that's not a valid point to be used over here. But the point is that they say that the shampoo cart in response to this we say the majority of the OMA does not view any type of festivals that are not religious in nature to be dictated by the Sharia, it is neutral. So if you choose to
celebrate or you choose not to celebrate the Sharia is silent on it. Now, if you bring in something haram, that's something else if there's going to be alcohol, well, then obviously, we're not talking about the festival. We're talking about the alcohol over there, if you bring in something that is inherently evil, so that is not intrinsically linked to the celebration itself. So to summarize, therefore, we can divide festivals into a number of categories. The first category are festivals that are inherently associated with another religion, and they are understood to be religious in nature. Examples are Easter and Hanukkah and Christmas that
default with regards to all such festivals is that it is impermissible for Muslims to adopt the rituals and the customs of those festivals much less to actually celebrate because we are a people whom Allah has given to eats. And the hadith of Ernest applies in this category, according to the majority interpretation, that we do not have a religious festival other than those two festivals. The second category of festivals are community festivals that are encouraged by society, but are not religious in nature. And the two classic example for this are the Fourth of July and the Thanksgiving of North America. I believe that Thanksgiving is not universal in most other countries,
but America Canada have their versions of Thanksgiving. And these festivals, I would argue the Shetty inherently is silent on them. The max that can be said is that there is a potential of it becoming mcru If society if Muslims began to adopt or encourage this to be a competition somehow with their either filter out which I don't see happening, otherwise, the default is that these are not something that the Sharia has anything to say about. Therefore, if you choose not to celebrate no problem, and if you choose to have a turkey on Thanksgiving, or to have a barbecue on the Fourth of July, no problem that Sharia is not telling you either this or that there is no Tesha boo when
you are doing everything else, why is eating a hamburger on the Fourth of July to Chabot and wearing pants and shirt is not the shirt? Boy, I'm asking you for a solid Maxim and you cannot give it to me. So that's why I'm saying I know it's emotional. I know you think about it, the religion is not going to be destroyed if you eat a hamburger on how bad it must be to be on the Fourth of July or eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Because you're doing everything else you're speaking their their language is our language. Now stop this there in us we are a part of this culture. And now we are now your children are far more American than your ancestors were okay, we have to deal with it. Now
we have to get over this notion of us versus them cultural wise, there is an us versus other faiths, we have to teach our children, our theology, our Arcada our rituals, but culture, these are going to be ongoing things in generally speaking, as generations go on, they will adopt more and more of the culture of the people of this land, because this is their land and our land that is the reality. So second is culture is festivals of a communal nature now. And I said that the default is that there surely are silent on them. Now some of these festivals are in between categories one and two, ie, there is still an element of religion, but it is not fully religious. And I think the best example
for this is Halloween, where Halloween is still not a fully secular holiday. In that there's still a very clear association with the jinn and shayateen and devils and whatnot. And therefore, I think definitely an argument can be made that these types of festivals are closer to category one than they are to category two, and it is definitely safer for the Muslims to avoid, you know that category. So we don't want our children to dress up like Sheltie. We don't want to flirt with Satanism and whatnot. And it is definitely best because there's clear elements of of paganism. Now, if somebody would argue that in the subculture, I live in whatever, you know, suburb or whatnot, you
know, that notion is gone, I can see and again, this goes back to remember we talked about, you know, point A in time it is to Shugborough point be in time it is not to Chabot in the middle, there's going to be that balance or what not many of these festivals, Thanksgiving, for example, might have been very religious when the Pilgrims did it. Right. When the Pilgrims did, it would have been the inherent definition of religion. But over time, it became completely secular. It is very possible 100 years from now, the way things are headed might be that Christmas will become totally secular. It might be I'm just saying and no notion of Christianity, we'll be left with it. When that
happens. It will be like the Mehndi of our brides as well. And I know it sounds shocking and whatnot. But that is the reality that when that happens, the verdict will change as well. But for right now, as we speak, the year is 2021 Give me this lecture for right now as we speak, generally speaking, it is understood that Christmas is a Christian holiday, I understand that is changing over time. But right now, the association is very clear. And because of this we say Muslims do not do this when that association is totally gone. Then it will be like using the word Monday to describe your name. We don't say your Mulligan and we say Monday, the moon day and we have no association
with the moon god even though when that day was done, that association was intrinsically linked and it was meant to venerate every Monday will be a veneration of the moon god it is now gone and it is halal Alhamdulillah to say Monday, so the ruling is based upon the existence of the cause of India and when the
Causes gone through ruling will be gone as well. So the second category is communal festivals we said, festivals that have no religious inherent value completely highlight, there are some that are in the middle and therefore they should be, definitely avoid on the safer side. The third type of festival is a personal celebration that a person does in his or her own life and it's not a communal one and this I am firmly you know, a believer that this is neither Buddha nor Tisha, but there is no cause to forbid something of this nature, it cannot be a bit because you do not expect Allah to reward you for celebrating the birthday of your son, and it is not to Chabot because everybody's
doing it your own culture is doing it and by the way, with my utmost respect, the very culture that says it is the Chabot their own culture has adopted this practice as well. Their own children are doing it. And, you know, again, I'm sorry to be blunt here, but in their own dress and their mannerisms and their code and whatnot, there is so much to Chabot their ancestors do not wear watches by the way, and all of them are wearing watches, their ancestors did not wear the type of garment or to be brutally honest. I said this to one of my colleagues when I was having a polite back and forth. I said, you know, the the people that are saying to Cheb, who did not wear
undergarments, you know, they're talking about the Chabot the undergarments that everybody's wearing now you're talking you know, I'm talking about the undergarments, right? That was not worn by their grandfathers is that the Chabot? Right, so we need the maximum we need the clear cut ruling what constitutes the Shabbat? Why are you picking and choosing what constitutes the Shabbat in the end of the day, the only clear cut to Shabbat is going to be when you imitate the religious festivals and practices of another nation or you imitate another civilization because you have an inferiority complex not your own civilization that cannot be Tisha. So, personal celebrations cannot be dictated
by the Sharia. And the default is that it is completely permissible. So my position is that birthdays and anniversaries and whatnot. It is mobile. It's not I'm not saying it's most of the habitus mobile can really think about it really honestly, do you really think that the Shetty I would forbid a husband and wife being romantic on their on their wedding day every year what the shady I wants to increase love the shady I wants the marriage to succeed? Some of the goals of the Sharia and the culture we have been in. We have absorbed that on that day. Let's make it special. Let's go out to a romantic restaurant as a romantic evening together. And I'm being brutally honest,
you do really think that something in our Quran and Sunnah forbids the couple to be romantic on the night that they got married. So what if it's the Gregorian calendar, they're not expected to come closer to Allah, it's not an act of worship. That's the point here, they're not expecting a reward for going to a romantic restaurant, dare I say they should expect a reward if their intention is right. They want the marriage to to succeed shallow data. But my point is that dear brothers and sisters, I know this is a sensitive topic. I know some of you are just waiting to release the refutation videos on this. I know, a lot of people think that by opening this door, you're opening
the destruction of Islam. I'm just asking you to read, read, read, understand cultural anthropology, understand that this is a natural battle. It's natural, nothing unnatural. Every civilization is worried as a civilization changes, frankly, we see this in the far right, we see this. And I don't want to get too political here. But with the rise of a large group of people, when they're scared that immigrants are coming changing, there's this fear. And we also have that fear when you see our culture eroding. So we need to be wise. And we need to preserve what Islam wants us to preserve, which is our Aqeedah, which is our belief, which is our rituals of faith. And we need to understand
our children and then our grandchildren are going to adopt the values of the society around us. It is inevitable, it's inevitable. And we have to understand the Sharia understands and allows and that is why the cultures of Muslim worlds were different wherever Islam went, wherever Islam went, the peoples of that land, adopted Islam adopted their culture, and they came forth with a unique culture. This is going to happen in America and England and Canada and Australia and all western lands as well, that we've adopted the culture of this land, we have our faith, and we're going to produce a sub culture of Muslim Americans, we're going to have to accept this, this this reality.
And my argument is that personal rich personal festivals are not rituals, personal festivals are MOBA. Now, you want to argue that that there's, you know, other issues here for example, is throw off and whatnot. I say okay, don't celebrate. And again, for the record, I have never had a birthday party in my life for the record. My parents did not grow up that way. They did not, you know, have a birthday party for me. And never once did I have a celebration people calm and whatnot. It's not something that I do, even as they say it is halal. I will say honestly, this is my pet.
Personal opinion as your so called the personal opinion. I think it is a bit childish if an adult throws a birthday party. That's my opinion. But you see brothers and sisters, my opinion doesn't become *tier and the opinion of aroma 5000 miles away of what constitutes the shampoo does not become Sharia. It is not haram, if a 50 year old throws a birthday party Haram is a big word. You can say. I don't think it's befitting the dignity. Okay? That's your opinion, maybe he thinks is befitting his dignity. The Sharia is not based on our whims. We have to be very, very crystal clear. Did Allah and His Messenger forbid something of this nature? What if he were to buy a house and he
wants to throw a party is that we would also you know, that makes a lot of sense. Yes, we want to do that. Okay, so he's reached 50. And he thinks it's a good idea. Okay. I'm not gonna say anything. It's my opinion that I would not do that. But it's his opinion. He wants to do it. We don't bring in Islam. When Islam itself is quiet on this. You can personally choose not to, that's your prerogative, but do not say Allah and His Messenger have forbidden when it is not the case. Birthdays cannot be Buddha, because you're not expecting Allah's reward. It is not the Shugborough because it is the culture we're living in, everybody's doing it and head to toe, we are imitating
other cultures, it is our culture. We're not going outside of our culture, there is no religion involved. Even Even if there is a pagan origin. We are surrounded by pagan origin things that we don't even think twice about and they are not haram if they're not intrinsically linked to other faith, traditions. And any other thing you might bring in there are incidental, if there is you know, things that are haram at that party, you will say that is haram but don't make the entire thing haram so I hope that inshallah Tada it is clear to conclude, therefore the position that I follow, it is haram to celebrate religious festivals, any other type of festival, it is mobile,
mobile, you want to do it, do it. You don't want to do it, don't do it. But definitely do not make this a thing that you make a huge importance out of because we have two main festivals and we should really make only two festivals excited for the community and something that they the community looks forward to as an ummah, we only have two festivals that we celebrate as an ummah. As for what we do privately you have graduated you want to throw a party because you got a new house you got a new job or anything of this nature, the Sharia is quiet on. It's your business you want to have, you know, invite family and friends over if you turn a certain age you celebrate a milestone in your life,
your marriage anniversary, your child becomes five or six. There is nothing intrinsically related to the Shediac when it comes to these personal things. And indeed Allah subhanho wa Taala knows best. I hope that inshallah that clarifies this answer. And until next week, Giselle como la halen was said I'm Juan de como Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh
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