The most recent lecture I heard was Kamal El Mekki's Holiday Season - An Islamic perspective. In this hour long lecture, Kamal El Mekki goes over in detail all aspects of why we should not celebrate holidays other than the 2 Eids. One of the interesting points he made was that when Islam had the upper hand, meaning when it was in the height of its success and power, non Muslims wanted to emulate us. For example when Muslims first came into Spain, the young Spanish men started to dress like Muslims and act like Muslims even though they were Christian. The same can be said for today when Islam does not have the upper hand. Young Muslims have taken to imitating and emulating the Western norms in the world. The biggest export from the west to Muslim countries is popular culture. Music, films, fashions. This all leads us to see why Muslims of today celebrate things like Thanksgiving, Valentines day, Mothers day etc.
Later on in the lecture this hadith was brought up:
Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: "The Prophet sallahu allahi wa salam came to Madeenah and the people of Madeenah had, in Jaahileeyah two days for play and amusment10. So the Prophet (SAW) said: 'I came to you and you had, in Jaahileeyah two days for play and amusement. Indeed Allaah has replaced them for you by that which is better than them: The dav of Nahr (Slaughteung) and the day of Fitr (Breaking fast).'
I think that this is the best hadith to really show that no other holidays or celebrations are necessary. It shows that it does not matter if it is a secular holiday or not. As Muslims we don't celebrate anything but the 2 Eids. It makes it quite simple. There is no arguing about origins of celebrations or holidays because all of that does not matter.
Every day we recite Al Fatihah in our salat at least 17 times. In the last few ayats we ask Allah to guide us to the straight path. The path of those who have earned your grace. Not of those who have earned his anger, or gone astray. When we celebrate the holidays of non Muslims, we are going astray. Allah knows best.
10 comments:
The word Eid means happiness and fridays are also Eids for Muslims and traditionally the concept of holidays are also western.
The Eids were days of prayers and god deeds and in some ahadith Muslims are ordered to remain awake and pray the nights preceding the days of Eid.
So ur explaination that we have only 2 holidays is unsatisfactory.
Besides its sunnah to fast on 2 days of Muharram etc which is again a prominent occassion on which many Prophets alaihimussalaam were delivered from their trials etc and thus marked as days for preayers again in addition to Eid.
So your analogy is not really uptodate.
salamo alikom,
I read what you wrote on your blog about celebrating the festivals of nonmuslims, and i agree to the analysis of the upper hand of advanced nations."this is a good new expression for me"
I think that it is easier for the new converted Muslims to live a new Islamic life void of all traditions that are not of any Islamic origins as they are supposed to begin a completely new life, on the other hand, the born Muslims do these nonislamic things for many years, from their born time until they realize that they are wrong, for that it is hard "but not impossible"for them to stop them.
By the way, celebrating the Day of mother, and the birth day of the Prophet was the subject of Jumma today, and the imam said many good things, that i know but i like to mention here. He said that we don't forget the prophet to celebrate his birth day , as we always remember him, as he is more beloved to us than ourselves to ourselves, and that we shouldn't celebrate this day as many people do, as this is a Bidaa that neither the prophet nor his companions celebrate ;for that we must not do it, only we can and must celebrate the prophet by applying his sunna and to live as He (SAW) lived .He also talked about the celebration of the Day of the mother, he said that this is some thing came to us form western non Muslim societies, those who live away from their mothers,have no or weak relations with their families after they grow up, for that they are always forgetting their mother, rather than all the family, for that , those people invented the celebration of this day to remember the mother, only one day in the year !! but for us as Muslims, we can't forget our mothers or ignore them at all, as satisfaction of the mother is a step ans a cause for the satisfaction of Allah, for that , it is part of our Islam to be the best servants to our mothers and fathers, even if they are not Muslims, in all things, doing all what they want us to do, except doing shirk with Allah,for that ,it is strange for us to celebrate this day for mother.
We don't have any occasions to celebrate but the two Eids, this is our religion and we have to accept this as it is .
For the "upper hand " concept , i like to add that , at the times of superiority of Muslims, in the middle ages of Europe, Arabic language was the language of science, this means that, if some one wants to learn the modern sciences of that time, he had to learn Arabic, like what happen today for people who want to learn the modern sciences to learn English as it is the language of science now.
As we went very far from our true Islam, we did get lost and deviated from the superiority line that Muslims must have always for the superior religion of Islam, but nowadays Muslims are not those who can achieve it , as they can't understand it as they have to .
Muslims should always learn as to be the best that we can do, and this will be better if it is for our good Islam, for that , it is good from you to learn and always keen on learning and asking, but take care not to make accidents while driving bcz of the extra concentration with the listening !!! lol
Happy to comment on your thoughts
--
Dr Mohammed Abul-Hasan
Assalamualaikum,
Primarily comparing Mawlid to mother's day itself shows how much disgraceful the so called Imam is when referring to Prophet sallallahualaihiwassallam.
And then celeberating Mawlid is not a recent act but done from very early times in Islam and even the pioneers of wahabbism like ibn tayimiah and ibn al qayyim supported it as a good deed and Ibn Kathir went more ahead and wrote a book of poems for Mawlid himself. This shows how important Mawlid was even before many centuries when the level of knowledge and piety amongst Muslims was way ahead of what it is today.
Further the following hadith clearly proves it is permissible to celeberate the Birthday of Prophet Sallallahualaihiwassallam as a sunnah and the Sahabah ridhwanullahi ta'la alaihim ajmaeen used to do it as well:
Abu Qatada al-Ansari (Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) was asked about his fasting. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) felt annoyed. Thereupon 'Umar (Allah be pleased with him) said: We are pleased with Allah as the Lord, with Islam as our Code of Life, with Muhammad as the Messenger and with our pledge (to you for willing and cheerful submission) as a (sacred) commitment. He was then asked about perpetual fasting, whereupon he said: He neither fasted nor did he break it, or he did not fast and he did not break it. He was then asked about fasting for two days and breaking one day. He (the Holy Prophet) said: And who has strength enough to do it? He was asked about fasting for a day and breaking for two days, whereupon he said: May Allah bestow upon us strength to do it. He was then asked about fasting for a day and breaking on the other, whereupon he said: That is the fasting of my brother David (peace be upon him). He was then asked about fasting on monday, whereupon he said: It was the day on which I was born. on which I was commissioned with prophethood or revelation was sent to me, (and he further) said: Three days' fasting every month and of the whole of Ramadan every year is a perpetual fast. He was asked about fasting on the day of 'Arafa (9th of Dhu'I-Hijja), whereupon he said: It expiates the sins of the preceding year and the coming year. He was asked about fasting on the day of 'Ashura (10th of Muharram), whereupon be said: It expiates the sins of the preceding year. (Imam Muslim said that in this hadith there is a) narration of Imam Shu'ba that he was asked about fasting on monday and Thursday, but we (Imam Muslim) did not mention Thursday for we found it as an error (in reporting). (Book #006, Hadith #2603)
And those who claim reverts are better than born muslims,actually are grossly mistaken because reverts normally have very less knowledge as compared to born muslims and thus they act only on those things until they learn more.
Salam,
First of all, I would like to say that I am happy that all of us try to know the most right opinions about Islamic issues.
In Islam, all worships come from Allah either through the ayat of Quran like prayers, Zakat and Hajj, showed and explained by the Prophet Himself in sunna or things said or done by the prophet himself then done by his companions .
For that , no one can add or remove any thing from these worships, because Islam is complete as it is said in Quran.
Celebrating days in Islam was not left without clarification and detailing in Islam, when the prophet came to Madinah,He found its people celebrating two days , he told them that Allah gave them better two days, Day of Nahr and Day of Fitr.
so, celebrating those two days represent a prat of our Islam, and this is determined by the sunna of the Prophet (SAW).
For the birthday of the prophet, those who say that the prophet celebrated Monday as a type of celebration of his birth day, this is not true, because the prophet was fasting most of the Mondays of the year not only the Monday of his birthday , and he was fasting it for other reasons, like that his work was risen to Allah in this day.
So,the prophet fasted this day but not celebrated this day.
If the birthday of the prophet was an occasion to be celebrated,the prophet would have told his companions to celebrate it , and the Tabeen(generation after the companions) would have celebrated it too, but none of those people who represent the best generations of Islam did that.
The Bidaa (innovation) of celebrating the birthday of the prophet came from people deviated from the right path of islam, they are called the Fatmiyoon (a type of Khawarig) claimed that they were loving the prophet , for that they celebrated his birthday; scholars reply on that by saying that , the companions of the prophet were the most loving people to Muhammed (SAW), and they did not do this, if you claim to love the prophet, just follow his sunna and his right path.
Nowadays Muslims, in the time of weakness of the Muslim nation, Imitate the Christians in celebrating the birthday of Jesus (Christmas), day of mother, day of love, ...etc. This is not from Islam at all, as not every good day can be celebrated in Islam, and if that was the case, then Muslims should celebrate a lot of days in the year wasting their times in celebration of days like Day of Higra of the prophet (migration to Madinah), day of the great battle of Badr, Day of opening of Mecca, etc..
A lot of people, like suffi and shiea claim that they love the prophet and for that they see it is okay to celebrate these days, meanwhile they make many innovations (Bidaa)even in the day of their celebration of the birthday of the prophet.
-- It is not that good to laugh at other people, thinking that you are the only who knows the right and they are just "the so called Imam !!"
--Ibn Tayimiah did not support the innovation of celebrating of birthday of the prophet at all, some one misunderstood his words !!
--If a scholar write poems for the greatness of the prophet and the good day he was born in, this does not mean that this one agree to making an innovation of doing some thing the prophet didn't do.
--Neither reverts are better than born Muslims nor born Muslims better than reverts, this issue can only be judged by Allah, what I was saying is that , a revert Muslim is completely new to Islam and he takes every thing to be new to him and apply it as the prophet and his companions just did and also not affected of the nonislamic traditions that many "born" Muslims do, for that it is easier for them to avoid innovations.
--The amount of knowledge is not a standard in Islam, only work is the important thing, many of Muslims who were "born" Muslims know too many things, but they work very few things !!
Of course, Allah knows best.
As far as khwarijii are concerned, they never celeberated mawlid and oppose Hazrat Ali and called all those who opposed them as non Muslims even if they were Muslims which bears a great similarity to the way of judgement of salafis.
As far as ibn tayimiah is concerned the words are clear:
Shaikh ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyya's Opinion on the Celebration of the Mawlid
This is Imam Ibn Taymiyya's opinion about Mawlid from: "the Collected Fatwas," ("Majma' Fatawi Ibn Taymiyya,") Vol. 23, p. 163: "fa-t'adheem al-Mawlid wat-tikhaadhuhu mawsiman qad yaf'alahu ba'ad an-naasi wa yakunu lahu feehi ajra `adheem lihusni qasdihi t'adheemihi li-Rasulillahi, salla-Allahu `alayhi wa sallam"
"To celebrate and to honor the birth of the Prophet (s) and to take it as an honored season, as some of the people are doing, is good and in it there is a great reward, because of their good intentions in honoring the Prophet (s)."
-----------------------------------
If we misunderstood it, then kindly explain as to what it means.
You have illustrated your hatred for important Islamic events by calling them a waste of time. Nauzubillah.
1. When Prophet Sallallahialaihiwassallam reached madinah the sahabiyah sang in the honour of Prfophet sallallahu alaihiwassallam and said it was wajib upon them to thank ALLAh that Prophet sallallahu alaihiwassallam had reached Madinah and this even is marked in history as the starting of the Islamic calendar. Practically this event became a celeberation thus and there was a series of celeberations on this day which can be read frm books of seerah.
Our calendar is named Hijri just for this reason. But sadly some new sects think its a wasteof time to remember it.
2. The day of victory on Makkah, the sahabah ridhwanullahi ta'la alaihim ajmaeen celeberated by reciting poems in honour of Prophet sallallahualaihiwassallam on the same day. They celeberated it.
3. The battle of badr became a day of celeberation too for it was said that those who were in that battle were granted heaven. Even the status of those sahabah ridhwanullahi ta'la alaihim ajmaeen was raised by calling them as those who were in the batele of badr. And for some remembering it seems to be a waste of time.
4. But when it comes to imitating the shias in Mut'a and starting Misyar or temporary marriage the salafis are prominent in this because its related to sex. Or starting KFC in arab or doing partnership with jews like Hilton in makkah and madinah or giving fatwas to stop jihad in palestine.
Just to be clear... this post was not about mawlid.. more about celebrations of the disbelievers... but carry on if you wish
Assalmu alikum brothers and sisters;
May Allah accept all of us in his good servants, would you please excuse me to share you this discussion, but with one condition, which is keeping our fellowship, unity, goodwill and respecting others, no need to judge the others especially when we all seek Allah satisfaction. We are all brothers, we are all need the Allah the Almighty mercy, so we have not go so that far in our discussion. So; let us make a deal before doing any thing which is; let us agree before we disagree
• We are all salafi, which means we are all taking our Islam from the Qur'an, Sunnah, the prophet's companions unanimity, the Islamic measurement like the first 3 generations of Islam, and the other Islamic scholars understanding.
• So no one have the right to say I'm the salafis and the others not, because all of us ruled our life in the Quran and Sunnah and Islamic scholars opinions specially from the 1st 3 Islamic generations
• No one claim that he is righteous one ,We are all seek to get the right stand, and we are all want to be righteous.
• The new Moslems who converted to Islam may they know the meaning of Allah favor of Islam more than the born Muslim, because the lived the two stages which is disbelief and the Islam. So they know that favor from Allah perfectly. As soon as we saw many born Moslem who act badly sins more than the non-Moslems themselves. Even if the born Moslem knows the Qur'an speech.
• Let us focus in one discussion case, no need to branch our discussion to talk about more than one case in the same time, like what my brother the burningmoon when he talked about the 4th point , he said:" But when it comes to imitating the shias in Mut'a and starting Misyar or temporary marriage the salafis are prominent in this because its related to sex. Or starting KFC in arab or doing partnership with jews like Hilton in makkah and madinah or giving fatwas to stop jihad in Palestine". Because it's not the salafi recent school fault. You mentioned –brother- many cases, which is not fit to discuss here.
• We have no right to judge the internal heart desire like what my brother –Burning moon- said about the salafis:" the salafis are prominent in this because it's related to sex". Allah alone The one who can judge it.
• What we need is to be neutral not taking sides (be on the fence). Therefore, as a correction, the salafi recent school (some calling them wahabi) and all Ahl-assunah schools prohibited the Shia's mut'a. Otherwise, the salafi scholars did not give the fatwa to stop jihad in Palestine, they supported it and encourage all Moslems to do their best to support the jihad in Palestine and anywhere. Add to this; the salafis concept does not mean any way that the one who lived in Arabic gulf or Saudi, especially the one who make partnership with the Americans and Jews Companies. In the opposite, the scholars call to the boycott all the USA and Jews companies which we can abandon like the KFC. Obviously, there are many Arabs and Moslems perform the sins, which does not mean any way that it is the Salafis School fault.
• So let us go directly to our case, which is the celebrating in other days additional to the two Eids.
• Before that; There are some corrections like what Brother Dr. Muhammad said:" Fatmiyoon (a type of Khawarig)" The right thing that they are from the Shi'ah not the Khawarij.
• My brother burningmoon said: " This is Imam Ibn Taymiyya's opinion about Mawlid from: "the Collected Fatwas," ("Majma' Fatawi Ibn Taymiyya,") Vol. 23, p. 163: "fa-t'adheem al-Mawlid wat-tikhaadhuhu mawsiman qad yaf'alahu ba'ad an-naasi wa yakunu lahu feehi ajra `adheem lihusni qasdihi t'adheemihi li-Rasulillahi, salla-Allahu `alayhi wa sallam" "
Therefore, I think that, my brother burningmoon want to explain the bin Taymiyyah opinion from this case, right? So he brought and conveyed the Arabic text in Latin letters. Therefore, would you excuse me to complete your job by other way that is giving the Arabic text directly with the English summary for the whole stand. This is may explaining bin Taymiyyah says more.
Bin Taymiyyah said:"
وأصل هذا أن العبادات المشروعة التي تتكرر بتكرر الأوقات حتى تصير سننا ومواسم قد شرع الله منها ما فيه كفاية للعباد، فإذا أحدث اجتماع زائد على هذه الاجتماعات معتاد كان ذلك مضاهاة لما شرعه الله وسنه، وفيه من الفساد ما تقدم التنبيه على بعضه بخلاف ما يفعله الرجل وحده أو الجماعة المخصوصة أحيانا، ولهذا كره الصحابة إفراد صوم رجب لما يشبه برمضان وأمر عمر رضي الله عنه بقطع الشجرة التي توهموا أنها الشجرة التي بايع الصحابة النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم تحتها بيعة الرضوان لما رأى الناس ينتابونها ويصلون عندها كأنها المسجد الحرام أو مسجد المدينة وكذلك لما رآهم قد عكفوا على مكان قد صلى فيه النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم عكوفا عاما نهاهم عن ذلك، وقال: أتريدون أن تتخذوا آثار أنبيائكم مساجد أو كما قال رضي الله عنه.
فكما أن تطوع الصلاة فرادى وجماعة مشروع من غير أن يتخذ جماعة عامة متكررة تشبه المشروع من الجمعة والعيدين والصلوات الخمس فكذلك تطوع القراءة والذكر والدعاء جماعة وفرادى وتطوع قصد بعض المشاهد ونحو ذلك كله من نوع واحد يفرق بين الكثير الظاهر منه والقليل الخفي والمعتاد وغير المعتاد، وكذلك كل ما كان مشروع الجنس لكن البدعة اتخاذه عادة لازمة حتى يصير كأنه واجب ويترتب على استحبابه وكراهته حكم نذره واشتراط فعله في الوقف والوصية ونحو ذلك حيث كان النذر لا يلزم إلا في القرب وكذلك العمل المشروط في الوقف لا يجوز أن يكون إلا برا ومعروفا على ظاهر المذهب وقول جمهور أهل العلم. ( ابن تيمية، اقتضاء الصراط المستقيم ، جزء 1 ، صفحة 307 )
Bin Taymiyyah said too;
جاء في مجموع الفتاوى لابن تيمية: " وسئل عمن يعمل كل سنة ختمة في ليلة مولد النبي هل ذلك مستحب أم لا؟ فأجاب : الحمد لله. جمع الناس للطعام في العيدين وأيام التشريق سنة وهو من شعائر الإسلام التي سنها رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم للمسلمين وإعانة الفقراء بالإطعام في شهر رمضان هو من سنن الإسلام فقد قال النبي من فطر صائما فله مثل أجره وإعطاء فقراء القراء ما يستعينون به على القرآن عمل صالح في كل وقت ومن أعانهم على ذلك كان شريكهم في الأجر. وأما اتخاذ موسم غير المواسم الشرعية كبعض ليالي شهر ربيع الأول التي يقال أنها ليلة المولد أو بعض ليالي رجب أو ثامن عشر ذي الحجة أو أول جمعة من رجب أو ثامن شوال الذي يسميه الجهال عيد الأبرار فإنها من البدع التي لم يستحبها السلف ولم يفعلوها والله سبحانه وتعالى أعلم" (ابن تيمية، مجموع الفتاوى، جزء 25 - صفحة 298 ) ( ابن تيمية، الفتاوى الكبرى ، جزء 4 - صفحة 414 )
And bin Taymiyyah said:
وقال ابن تيمية:
فتعظيم المولد واتخاذه موسما قد يفعله بعض الناس ويكون له فيه أجر عظيم لحسن قصده وتعظيمه لرسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم كما قدمته لك أنه يحسن من بعض الناس ما يستقبح من المؤمن المسدد ولهذا قيل للإمام أحمد عن بعض الأمراء إنه أنفق على مصحف ألف دينار ونحو ذلك فقال دعه فهذا أفضل ما أنفق فيه الذهب أو كما قال مع أن مذهبه أن زخرفة المصاحف مكروهة وقد تأول بعض الأصحاب أنه أنفقها في تجديد الورق والخط وليس مقصود أحمد هذا وإنما قصده: أن هذا العمل فيه مصلحة وفيه أيضا مفسدة كره لأجلها.( ابن تيمية، اقتضاء الصراط ، جزء 1 - صفحة 297)
If you like- brother moon -more details may I send to you the complete bin Taymiyyah opinion. Therefore, I satisfy with this.
So what is the bin Taymiyyah stand from the mawlid and other celebrations? which had been taken from Islam, also not appointed, and the Moslems celebrate by his own way with some kinds of worship.so bin Taymiyyah opinion is;
• He disliked that celebrating- like mawlid- in Islamic days because it's not appointed from the holy text. Nevertheless, it is not forbidden (haram).
• There are some conditions to permit these celebrating in Islamic occasions which is;
o Firstly, we have not to make it as a regular behaves as a custom.
o Secondly; we can make it personally or limited with some Moslems. Not in common for the all Moslems which look like the two Eids.
o Thirdly; if some Moslems do it badly behaves in this things, then it will be better to forbid it.
o We cannot celebrate with performing sins any way.
That is the summary of bin Taymiyyah stand.
So I add ; the Moslems when they celebrate they have to celebrate by worshiping Allah in common like fasting , reciting the Quran, prayers, remembrance Allah favours , glorification of Allah, prayers into the prophet ( pbuh) , feeding brothers and poor families, chanting nasheed … etc. and he can make what ever is permitted in Islam.
The Moslems should not copy or imitate the non-Moslems habits in their celebration. We have our own way to celebrate.
There is two kinds of human habits, which is; firstly; which is permitted in Islam. Secondly; Forbidden in Islam. Even the permitted habits we better to avoid, because it belongs for the non-Moslems, and we should be distinguished from others.
In addition, the non-Moslems behaves ruled the things like that behave to its background. If it had been taken or related to their religion, or which related the disbeliever creed, it must be forbidden and not accepted any way. Like what my sister jameelah said about the Egyptian Moslem person who he congratulated the Christians in their Christmas.
Brothers and sisters may Allah accept from all of us. I think all of us want to reach the right stand from this case. As a brother I want to say that this case is not that big, so I please from all of you to be relax and more flexible.
As a rule, any thing that came from non-Moslems, it is not Islamic, so we have not the right to do it if it's related to their religion or their bad situation, because we are differing from them. Moreover, we are the witnesses unto all the humanity and the teachers of them .so how could we be distinguishing from non-Moslems with doing what ever they do. The Islam care to make the Moslems like the mole in the humanity.
The thing that we are discussing now is the in Islamic occasions, like the two Eids and Arafat day and Ashora day when Allah saved Moses (pbuh)…etc, which is all have agreed as a ceremony. We are happy in these days. But how did we celebrate in these days? I think this is the case not the remembrance or the celebration it self. But if we ask; how the Moslem performs his ceremony? it's by doing things which permitted and worshipping Allah like fasting, praying much, remembrances Allah, feeding poor, making a meeting about that occasion ,.. etc.
Where is the matter in this case? We are now in a weak situation, so sometimes we need to cultivate the Islamic values by remembrance those occasions by lectures, watching good movie, discussion, or reading a book...etc. any thing permitted and recommended in Islam. Not by the non-Moslems habits.
Bin Taymiyyah himself did not ignore the originality of these meetings like what I mentioned. However, he dislike (not haram) that thing when it had been a regular thing in our life, and not common to whole Moslems.
Finally, it is an opinion that you may accept.
With my respect. Yours brother; Dr.Firas Ali Al-sheyyab.
From the previous comment of Sheyyab, it is clear that Mawlid can be celeberated.
Ibn Tayimiah put some conditions for its celeberation but then there are conditions for every festival which we have to observe.
Rest of the things mentions do no really prove any point, because if it would be an impermissible deed, it would nto be allowed at all.
The ijma of fuqahah and muhaditheen permitted it with only the present day wahabbis refusing its legal status spreading rumours against it which actually displays their khawarijii nature.
From the previous comment of Sheyyab, it is clear that Mawlid can be celeberated.
Ibn Tayimiah put some conditions for its celeberation but then there are conditions for every festival which we have to observe.
Rest of the things mentions do no really prove any point, because if it would be an impermissible deed, it would nto be allowed at all.
The ijma of fuqahah and muhaditheen permitted it with only the present day wahabbis refusing its legal status spreading rumours against it which actually displays their khawarijii nature.
Burning moon... I think we all can tell that you celebrate Mawlid. You have your reasons. Others have reasons not to. Lets all just agree on that and calm down.
Post a Comment