The Islamic Perspective of Celebrating Thanksgiving, B-Days, Anniversaries | Q&A | Dr. Yasir Qadhi

Muslim [Music] [Applause] [Music] s today we have a very uh special q a and we're gonna start off by asking sister kanwal's question I think from Canada I believe uh where she asks the Islamic ruling on celebrating uh Thanksgiving she asked this last month because Canada has Thanksgiving different than America and uh brother Ahmad 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's Independence Day Memorial Day Etc and so today's question is going to briefly discuss the issue regarding celebrations and participating in such celebrations now uh this topic is actually uh far more difficult and convoluted than uh comes to uh first light and before I even begin uh I do understand because I have so many um you know diverse people who follow that uh automatically people are tending to be skeptical uh of the entire topic on the one hand you have one group that basically says that isn't it a little bit Petty that uh you people are asking you about uh celebrating uh Thanksgiving and to 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 uh be celebrating uh Christmas by having Christmas ornaments or whatnot so before you trivialize the question actually realize it's a very interesting question that deals with a number of topics uh 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 uh 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 uh have a a say in the religion and the fact that the religion does have a say about everything uh 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 but the Sharia always has some verdict about anything uh there is another group that have already made up their minds and uh they're simply uh 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 uh 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 alhamdulillah no problem if you are following respectable udama respectful man they are all respectful the no problem that's that's fine uh but at the same time if you are open-minded listen to the evidences and listen to the alternative uh understanding and see if there's any uh you know if there's any change that happens but in any case uh you're asking me my opinion and obviously I will be giving this from my uh perspective uh this is going to be a very long lecture it's going to be in the entire uh 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 uh 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 fatwas I will summarize by stating that while I respect immensely uh the opinion of those who say that it is not allowed and I understand where they are coming from and I sympathize with their Paradigm and I'm 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 uh 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 project it onto the globe and I feel that they make some judgmental errors in that regard and therefore uh while I respect that position I state that the majority position of modern Scholars of the entire um is that celebrations and festivals the default with regards to celebrations and festivals is that the Sharia is silent about them unless there is a ritual involved there is a paganistic entity there is a a deification to other than Allah 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 tourists any other type of Festival it would not be encouraged and perhaps even an argument can be made that it is makro this is my opinion in a nutshell and I will inshallah 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 brother's 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 in the 10th Century 11th century uh CE they were not aware of these types of festivals and uh 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 uh 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 fetch was dealing with the celebrations you're asking about are modern and if you look at the Modern Scholars of the ummah across the globe it is very easy to demarcate to uh easily discernible camps on the one hand you have respectable and they're both respectable they're the greater on all sides we respect all scholarship of Islam on the one hand you do have one group of Scholars who uh 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 are 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 uh celebrations are rituals and because they're 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 festivals is that they should be religious Innovations or Bida 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 the Hadith in Abu Dhabi in which Anna Malik says that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam came to Medina and he found the ansar used 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 jahiliyah so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said indeed Allah has substituted two other days better than those two days so this Hadith is used by the first category of Scholars to state that the fact that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam negated the other two days and he said Allah has given you two better days indicates that any other type of Festival any other type of now the key word that they use is and what does Eid mean well uh when people use it generically they mean a day of festivities but linguistically it comes from 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 and on these Notions of Muslims having a separate identity from those other than Islam IBN Tamiya says that the term read means anything that comes back regularly any place 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 ibentemia 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 an read and because Islam only has two reads evantemia argues any other repetitive Festival that an entire Society is embracing would constitute a third Eid and therefore he says it is a Bida 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 Bida 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 ibentemia 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 in should not imitate those outside of the faith as in the famous Hadith that our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said 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 even if they're not necessarily religious so they would say any of 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 uh the uh the celebration of Easter which is inherently uh 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 zarestrians 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 which is imitating the non-muslims and it is Haram so they're going to 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 uh their argument in a nutshell and they have other arguments but these are frankly not uh not very strong for example that there's Israel for money being spent and the response to this is we all spend money on things that we can argue is this rough 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 uh even though the term 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 uh conduct ourselves in a manner that these other arguments are not going to be the primary ones the two primary arguments are 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 uh one that I was taught as well by many of my teachers in fact although my teachers pretty much felt pretty much all of my teachers felt that way um it is the the position that is advocated by uh the modern salafi movement uh when we look at it though the the other movements or interpretations of Islam Scholars that belong to other Trends generally speaking they don't uh 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 uh 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 the University of Medina as most of you should be aware 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 years you know I have um you know been rethinking through a lot and this issue of celebrations uh 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 Master's 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 uh I began saying that it doesn't it doesn't add up you know the definitions that they have to extrapolate it onto uh you know these things that they're saying is Haram like celebrations of anniversaries or birthdays I said that it does not add up and I began to argue politely in an argumenting debate or you know go back and forth with with my colleagues and even some of my teachers and some of them of course were in agreement the famous scholarships of course is 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 uh are coming from other paradigms 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 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 or imitation because here's the point depending on how you define 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 again 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 Bida and understood Bida 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 the this entire topic about how classical ulama Define the notion of and the fact that there has been since the beginning of Islam an area that has slight they've been disputed that is this Vida or is this and you can go and look it up over there there is a little area there is of course that 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 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 uh there is a gray area and uh one group of 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 is in fact ebentamia's definition now according to this definition uh I argue that celebrating private celebrations can never constitute bidai 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 Bida and the the notion as well of the Shabbat we're going to come to how do we understand the issue of Tasha and the issue comes how does one understand as well the Hadith of the people of Medina the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam coming and telling them that Allah has substituted for you to other days the response is 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 osulin Paradigm what is the science that is used to derive rulings from the text 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 how do you extract from it something is Haram or Halal something is how do you extract there's a methodology that is called the science of and if you look at these Traditions through the mainstream understanding of the wording of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that Allah has substituted two days better than those two days from that wording with mainstream you cannot derive taharim you simply cannot Allah has substituted two days better than other than other two days the maximum that you can derive is that celebrations similar to those are that's what he would say Allah has substituted today is better than that too that means that the max that can be said is that it is makru 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 unsal 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's celebrations of a communal nature societal nature National nature celebrations that the entire Society is looking forward to in a Muslim land definitely should be the main ones anything other than this one can argue that it is 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 whatnot you know even to argue it is Haram from that Hadith it's not possible but if you say that it is makro it's not something that we like and we agree I agree that any celebration that is done on a regular basis uh 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 in 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 and happy at everybody else and being proud of who you are and looking down at everybody else so my point is that uh the Hadith of the 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 jahiliyah 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 involved 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 propheslam through this Hadith is forbidding religious festivals and that is an interpretation that many ulama have so you can use this Hadith to forbid let's say Christmas to forbid a 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 counterclaim number one number two we said that from an osun 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 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 uh 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 uh 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 IBN Tamiya himself if you go back to his writings and I 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 uh they misquote him or they misunderstand him never spoke about personal individual festivals he's he was speaking about communal festivals therefore to celebrate a national day for example definitely ebente Mia would have said that that is not to be done IBN Tami would have argued that it just hold on my respect that I understand that I personally argue that the max said it is himself never spoke about individual personal celebrations such as um 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 does not have a fatwa about anniversaries and and and birthday parties and what 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 IBN te Mia said birthdays and anniversaries are anything on the contrary he does not speak about that so that is the point with regards to understanding the uh the Hadith of the festivals now as for IBN Tamia's point that we need to look at the linguistic meaning of the term read this is a good point excellent point it is a valid principle of and I respect that the alternative school will argue and this is a technical point when a word is used in the Sharia when a word is used in the Sharia there are three at least three levels that one has for that word number one is the definition number two is what is called the roofie definition what is people understand and number three it is the luhawi 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 zakah zakah has been defined by the Sharia we don't look at the origin we don't look at how other people understand it zakat is a charity that Allah has prescribed it is a 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 it definition so for example Allah says that uh treat your parents with the kindness that culture dictates let's say right here how this 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 saws is using the term read the other group would argue there is no need to go to the third when the second one is understood and the second one is it is a 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 the evantemia 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 I.E Hanukkah or Easter or Christmas that is what the Shetty alphabet so it goes back to how you look at the term Eid and which level of definition do you want to go back to and again this is an interesting point goes back to us 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 speaking to so their argument is the Sharia has forbidden religious festivals that's their argument their take from this Hadith is religious just festivals whereas ebente Mia's take is any repetitive public Festival by the way to be fair edmontonia 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 ibentemia's work now this is then the Hadith that of um the next argument that is used is the notion of the notion of the notion of imitating uh 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 uh 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 have to be very clear when a when something is forbidden let's say the concept of imitating other civilizations we need to be very very clear demarcate the rule give us the maxim what constitutes imitation what is allowed and what is not allowed and by the way even IBN Tamia argued in his book that imitating non-muslims is something that is completely contextual it changes from time to place to society to culture and in fact I mean explicitly argues that even your understanding oh 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 IBN te Mia himself understood that the notion of Tasha is contextual and my polite argument is that those Scholars from one region of the world who make a blanket call of everything being Tasha they are not understanding that the Shabba is relative and what might be Tasha before one of their own sons in The Villages of Saudi Arabia is not necessarily for somebody born and raised over here and that is the fundamental problem of using the Tasha bocard 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 of Islam when Islam had the upper hand politically throughout the makkan period and throughout the early medani period the prophet sallallahu in fact like to conform with the kitab as many narrations show and from this a number of our ulama 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 is contextual it changes from time to time and place to place and we have to be very clear what comes under the shabbu 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 shabbo if his grandson loves you know burgers and steaks I mean medium rare steaks remember medium very important is it the shabbo that I have a philosophy of food that is different um cultures clothing varies from time to place to what level are you going to consider to shop because I I was told the other day that we should not be eating a turkey uh you know this weekend for for Thanksgiving and why because that's imitating uh the non-muslims okay jaid if that's your perspective then let me ask you do you know where Biryani came from Biryani the famous dish Biryani uh the Biryani dish actually comes from originally from Persia the term Biryani it's a fantasy term that means a type of cooking it's a type of of a frying and when the murals 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 uh can you um how what would you say if somebody said eating Biryani is Haram because it is imitating non-muslims if you make Biryani anyway so my point is that you're going to say Biryani is is seriously and and the origin of Biryani is non-muslim by the way that's what I'm trying to explain here so why is eating turkey uh considered Tasha and eating Biryani is not think about that we need a consistent uh you know a very consistent rule here why is eating a burger and fries not to shabbo and if I were to eat a turkey on any day whether it's this weekend or any weekend why would it be a Tasha because again remember the notion of repetitive or a day or whatnot that's one Paradigm the other Paradigm says 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 this changes as well and plenty of examples can be given for example in early Islam there are many narrations from the tabirun from the students of the sahaba there was a certain type of cap that uh the yehud would wear it's not a skull cap it's a slightly different one it was called and we have numerous narrations when the Muslims conquered other lands and they saw the yahood 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 because of that cap so what was once considered imitation and Haram within a hundred years he died like 240 something within 100 years one of the greatest Scholars of Islam is called after that cap and al-afide he comments on this and he said that in the early times that cap was a custom only of the yehud but over time it became common and so it became civil here's the point in early times something is imitation a hundred years later it is not imitation pretend you were 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 uh going on the same can be said of many other things as well we have narrations from the early tabiron 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 narrations 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 uh there are many fatwas of urama that said uncovering the head is imitating the non-muslims well maybe it was in their culture I'm not arguing that the Sharia 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 way is and look and imitate other civilizations in British India when the moral Dynasty when the Mutiny took place I should call it the first war of independence in 1857 and the British marched in and arrested uh you know the the final the moral Emperor and took over in the East India Trading Company became the British Raj uh there was a backlash from the rulama of India and a number of fatawa were given famous fatawa a certain he wrote the treaties in which the entire treaties was about it is Haram to dress like the uh to dress like the British and to wear coats and pants and he said 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 the culture of your people and dress like the Occupy occupiers why would you do that but you see should we take uh Imam surati's treaties of 200 150 years ago and then apply it in America I just gave you the example of the tayalis I gave you the example of other things as well that these things change over time the famous scholarship of 120 years ago the fame is 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 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 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 going to consider this if you're not going to consider the cuisine and wearing pants and shirt then Y is taking on the overall cultures of the people around us the Shabbat as well the shabbu has to have two conditions so I said you need to have a clear Maxim a demarcation listen to me now this is what is number one requires an intention to want to imitate another group because of the verb means you go out of your way there is a difference between you're following them because everybody's doing it 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 alaihi wasallam dressed like the non-muslims of his time and eight 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 albums in their culture yes so then if Arabs can imitate Arabs and they're still Arabs and if pakistanis and Indians and bengalis and sudanis and people from Nigeria and people from Malaysia and Indonesia can imitate their cultures and be considered amongst them well then West Western Muslims can imitate their culture of their time and place as long as the Shariah 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 Arab imitates other Arabs he is an Arab that's true okay how about a Muslim born and raised in Indonesia who shouldn't he imitate Indonesia how about a Muslim born and raised in 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 the Sharia has not told us how to dress it's told us the generics of what is Aura and what not the Sharia has not told us the cuisine Biryani is not hamburgers is not Stakes are totally Halal but remember only if they are what remember medium rare okay so my point being there is no in your culture if that is your culture and we are living in lands that are not the lands of our ancestors so there's 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 aside for a second let's put fik aside for a second what we are really seeing is the erosion of one culture as its children grow up in another culture and this is a natural reality of any uh 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 and it 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 um the reality again uh to be personal here I mean again I remember even growing up Allah blessed me to be with my 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 uh 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 you know you are the children of the British because again that's the term British because from her time 1920s when she's growing up you know to act like this and speak like this and have American English or whatever she's considering this to be uh British you know customs and culture and there's an element of truth that she feels saddened that her own children grandchildren are not going to speak the language as fluently as her you know the adab and whatnot it's a part of life though you you just have to be very pragmatic and understand you're not going to to save the Heritage that you 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 2 is that no celebrations are only religious when they deal with religion right I.E I gave the example Hanukkah and whatnot so that's the fundamental divide as well let's be again very Frank here so if the 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 annual habit 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 the shabbu did your grandfather have a vacation every July did he go take the kids out on a family trip every July why isn't that the shabbu again you need to have a very consistent Maxim because what happens is Camp one and I say this with respect Camp one picks and chooses what it considers and what it doesn't considered and that's not the way Islam is going to flourish here you need to be very very consistent and you 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 uh 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 beat because that is your culture just like Arabs or Arabs and Americans and Americans number two the Tasha that is going to be Haram is the Tasha that is unique to the religion and not to the culture of a civilization I.E to where across is to celebrate uh Christmas is because that is a religious Festival so 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 this is called tashabu which means you have agree read with them I.E I like to eat you know Burger and Fries I love my steaks that's not this is the Shabu I grew up in a culture i absorb 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 uh 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 should it be the same way as our parents should be 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 another and its second and third generation coming forth 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 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 any tashabo that involves that which is Haram inherently or that which is ritualistic okay that which is clearly unique to One Faith tradition anything so for example what is an example of the to dress up like a Christian priest to dress up like a Buddhist monk that is that is the otherwise wearing a Pantene shirt a regular jeans a t-shirt there's no touch of 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 thobes for that kid to go out of his way and imitate a culture other than his own yes that might be 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 into terms and deal with it so there is no Tasha when it comes to Cuisines eating turkeys Burgers having a barbecue on the fourth of July is this the Shabbat or not again if you're gonna 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 I know many people by the way they think that thanks sickness 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 uh next Point here and that is that is it what constitutes paganistic or religious what constitutes something that is religious and by the way I have to before I move on here the notion of the Shabbat 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 uh you know our grandsons and we are neglecting especially in the American conversation 30 percent of American Muslims are African-Americans 30 are born and raised here for many many generations so what the shabbu is it for them if they celebrate Thanksgiving where's the they've done this for centuries is it for them if they do the Fourth of July so we're neglecting that part of the conversation okay so there is no uh 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 oh but so I've spoken about quite a lot about 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 do they 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 it generic and celebrated by people of all faiths and no faith 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 a thousand years ago and I'll give you some simple example the vast majority of you who are critical of uh you know these types of things that are 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 in a longer lecture that I've given dozens of things we can can start with the days of the week if you were to really be consistent it would be shirik and Haram for you to say Monday or Sunday or Tuesday or Wednesday because the term Wednesday comes from the Greek god Odin you know who didn't they pronounced him and so they honored him by saying Wednesday and Sunday was meant to honor the god of the son and Monday was meant to honor the god of the moon and the months the the months 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 and Bengali is listening here are you going to say that Mehndi for your weddings are paganistic despite the fact that the Mehndi ritual the mehandi ritual is inherently based on Hindu practice right the mehandi 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 uh as a part of their wedding feast and no muslim in India Pakistan Bangladesh Nepal no muslim who celebrates the Mehndi of the wedding even thinks that it has a Hindu origin so what is the ruling based on is it based on a thousand 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 and even the letter T by the way is most likely based upon the cross are you gonna now stop using the letter T in everything that you write so we have to be consistent dear brothers and sisters all too often uh 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 Thai 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 5 000 years ago the notion of a cake 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 uh is not there therefore we cannot use that argument when it comes to uh considering these things to be not allowed now again uh all of this uh so uh well let me before I get there so uh let me move on to the next Point here uh and that is that uh the notion therefore of uh oh sorry the example I have sorry that had the example so actually there's an example from the Sharia that we can use here to also help us prove this point there was a festival in the days of jahiliya uh called atira and it was a regular Festival that would take place in the month of rajab okay so this is a jahili festival that had paganistic Roots it had some type of sacrifice to the gods and mythologies and whatnot it's called al-atira and it was done in the month of rajab so now we have a case study that there was a festival in jahili times the Arabs would do it all the time what happened when Islam came pause your footnote this is a controversy amongst the medahib but the position that seems to be the best is that uh the Shafter is cool and others they they reconcile a number of contradictory apparently Hadith in this regard and they have a very clear position in this regard so the festival is called atiro it was done in the month of Raja and we have sets of Hadith that seemed to conflict with one another for example one Hadith says there is no atira in Islam and the other Hadith says whoever wants to do whoever doesn't then let him as well and the Shah Fairy School and many of the hambali scholars as well and this seems to be the correct position they interpreted these sets of Hadith very easily and this is I think the obvious interpretation and that is that when the prophet saws is negating there is no atira he is negating the paganism he is negating the notion of it being linked to a idol and the Superstition that was there we don't have to go into all the superstitions and when he affirmed whoever wants to do atira let him do it 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 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 and it seems to be the strong 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 now by the way with regards to Thanksgiving if you want to be very woke and you want to say this is 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 Sharia and say Allah in his messenger say that this is an unethical uh celebration because of the fact that it perpetrated X Y and Z no problem you have the right to say that my job here is to tell you what the Sharia says the Sharia 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 what not but do not bring in the Islam card and say Allah has forbidden or the messenger sallallahu 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 uh do do Jews celebrate Christmas now you will say I have a Jewish friend that does so you're right maybe you do but generally speaking do Jews 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 always find some people that break the rule generally speaking Christians celebrate Christmas Jews celebrate Hanukkah you know uh other Faith Traditions celebrate other festivals these are the festivals that we are not allowed to imitate okay do Jews Christians Buddhists agnostics atheists everybody do they celebrate Thanksgiving yes they do in fact Thanksgiving is one of the most American Celebrations all Fates and no faiths 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 uh you know it's not a national festival even though there's a day off but you do it at your house there's no uh public festivities over there therefore uh to conclude therefore 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 ulama has considered festivals to be both and I respect and understand that however when you go deeper and you look at their definitions in fact the majority of our times the majority of the mainstream bulk of the ummah outside of one strand of Islam has a different understanding of rituals a different definition of and a different understanding of in fact even imitating is understanding of the Shabu is the same as this the followers have been telling me I don't understand that the Shabu is relative himself said the Shabu is relative actually that's not a valid point to be used over here but the point is that they say that the shabbukar in response to this we say the majority of the ummah 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 has not intrinsically linked to the uh celebration itself so to summarize therefore we can uh divide festivals into a number of categories the first category are festivals that are inherently associated with another religion and they're understood to be religious in nature examples are Easter and Hanukkah and Christmas the 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 tour eids and the Hadith of anas 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 uh of North America I believe that thanks he was not Universal in most other countries but America Canada have their versions of Thanksgiving and these festivals uh I would argue the Sharia inherently is silent on them the max that can be said is that there is a potential of it becoming makru if Society if Muslims began to uh adopt or encourage this to be a competition somehow which I don't see happening otherwise the default is that these are not something that the Sharia has anything to say about out 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 4th of July no problem the Sharia is not telling you either this or that there is no when you are doing everything else why is eating a hamburger on the fourth of July and wearing Pantene shirt is not the Shabu 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 the 4th of July or eat turkey on Thanksgiving because you're doing everything else you're speaking they're their languages our language now stop this there in us we are a part of this culture 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 Akida our rituals but cult picture these are going to be ongoing things and 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 the default is that there is silent on them now some of these festivals are in between categories one and two I.E 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 uh secular holiday uh in that there's still a very clear association with the Jinn and chayoteen 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 the Arctic category two and it is definitely safer for the Muslims to avoid uh you know that category so we don't want our children to dress up like 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 were to 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 uh remember we talked about you know point a and time it is the point B in time it is not the Shabbat in the middle there's going to be that that balance or whatnot many of these festivals thank Thanksgiving for example might have been very religious when the pilgrims did it right when the pilgrims it would have been the inherent definition of religion but over time it became completely secular it is very possible a hundred 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 will be left with it when that happens it will be like the Mehendi of our Brides as well and I know it sounds shocking or 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 2020 when I'm giving 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 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 to say Monday so the ruling is based upon the existence of the cause and when the cause is gone the ruling will be gone as well so the second category is communal festivals we said festivals that have no religious inherent value completely there are some that are in the middle and therefore they should be uh 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 uh you know a believer that this is neither nor 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 the because everybody is doing it your own culture is doing it and by the way with my utmost respect the very culture that says it is 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 their ancestors do not wear watches by the way and all of them are wearing watches their ancestors are not where the type of garment or to be brutally honest I said this to one of my uh colleagues when I was having a polite back and forth I said you know the people that are saying to shabbu did not or undergarments you know they're talking about the 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 Shabbat right so we need the maxim we need the clear-cut ruling what constitutes the why are you picking and choosing what constitutes the Shabbat in the end of the day the only uh clear-cut 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 uh so uh personal celebrations cannot be dictated by the Sharia and the default is that it is completely permissible so my position is that birthdays and uh anniversaries and whatnot it is mobile it's not I'm not saying it's mustahab it is really think about it really honestly do you really think that the Sharia would forbid a husband and wife being romantic on their uh on their wedding day every year what the Shady eye wants to increase love the Shady I wants the marriage to succeed it's of the goals of the Sharia and the culture we have been in we have absorbed that oh on that day let's make it special let's go out to a a romantic restaurant that's a romantic evening together and I'm being brutally honest to you do you 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 uh to succeed but my point is that dear brothers 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 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 in 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 Akida 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 in 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 reality and my argument is that personal Rich personal festivals are not rituals personal festivals now you want to argue that uh that uh there's uh you know other issues here for example Israel 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 come and whatnot it's not something that I do even as I say it is halal I will say honestly this is my personal opinion as Yasser 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 Sharia and the opinion of ulama five thousand miles away of what constitutes the Shabbat 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 he's 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 went to throw a party is that we would all say you know that makes a lot of sense yes we want to do that okay so he's reached 50 and and he thinks it's a good idea okay I'm not going to 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 because you're not expecting Allah's reward it is not the 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 of our culture there is no uh 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 are not intrinsically linked to other Faith traditions and any other thing you might bring in they 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 hold on so I hope that inshallah it is clear to conclude therefore or the position that I follow it is Haram to celebrate religious festivals any other type of Festival it is 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 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 um 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 a you know uh 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 shitty app when it comes to these personal things and indeed Allah knows best I hope that inshallah that clarifies this answer and and until next week foreign

Channel: EPIC MASJID

Views: 103,473

Keywords: East Plano Islamic Center, EPIC Masjid, East Plano Masjid, EPIC, Yasir Qadhi, Imam, Nadim Bashir, Ustadh, Baajour, Hafiz, Sajjad Gul, Allah, Quran, Islam

Id: ZFKcTeLSXps

Length: 73min 33sec (4413 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 26 2020