Christmas time by holding dinner parties intheir houses on Christmas
or afterwards, for their Muslim families,such as preparing roast
turkey and the other dishes of the traditional Christmas dinner, and
they adorn their houses with balloons and paper chains, and they do
the "secret Santa" tradition, whereby each relative brings a gift for
one of the people present and these gifts are brought to the party to
be given to the one for whom he bought it, without the recipient
knowing who he is. ["Secret Santa" is anew, growing custom among
non-Muslims who celebrate Christmas,and is in accordance with their
belief in the myth of Santa Claus].
Is this action regarded ashalaal or haraam, if no one is attending
this party except Muslims (relatives and family members)?.
Praise be to Allaah.
There is no doubt that what is mentioned of celebrations is haraam,
because it is an imitationof the kuffaar. It is well known that the
Muslims do not have any festival apart from Eid al-Fitr andEid
al-Adha, and the weekly "Eid" which is Friday (Yawm al-Jumu'ah).
Celebrating any other festival is not allowed and is either of two
things: either it is aninnovation (bid'ah), if it is celebrated as a
means of drawing close to Allah, such as celebratingthe Prophet's
Birthday (Mawlid); or it is an imitation of the kuffaar, if it is
celebrated as a tradition and not as an act of worship, because
introducing innovated festivals is the action of the people of the
Book who we are commandedto differ from. So how about if it is a
celebration of one of their actual festivals?
Decorating the house with balloons at this time is obviously joining
in with the kuffaar and celebrating their festival.
What the Muslim is required to do is not to single out these days for
any kind of celebration, decorating or adornment, or special foods,
otherwise he will be joining the kuffaar intheir festivals, which is
something that is undoubtedly haraam.
Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Similarly it
is forbidden for the Muslims to imitate the kuffaar by holding parties
on these occasions, or exchanging gifts, or distributing sweets or
other foods, or taking time off work and so on,because the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever imitates a
people is one of them." Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in his book
Iqtida' al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem Mukhaalifat Ashaab al-Jaheem: Imitating
them on some of their festivals implies that oneis happy with the
falsehood they are following, and that could make them (the
non-Muslims) take this opportunity to mislead those who are weak in
faith. End quote.
Those who do any of these things are sinning,whether they do it to go
along with them, or to be friendly towards them, or because they feel
too shy (to refuse to join in) or any other reason, because it is a
kind of compromising the religion of Allah to please others, and it is
a means of lifting the spirits of the kuffaar andmaking them proud of
their religion,
End quote from Fataawa Ibn 'Uthaymeen, 3/44
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked
about a Muslim who makes the food of the Christians on Nawrooz
(Persian New Year) and on all their occasions such as Epiphany and
other feastdays, and who sells themthings to help them celebrate their
festivals. Is it permissible for the Muslims to do any of these things
or not?
He replied: Praise be to Allah. It is not permissible for the Muslims
to imitate them in any way that is unique to their festivals, whether
it be food, clothes, bathing, lightingfires or refraining from usual
work or worship, and so on. And it is not permissible to give a feast
or to exchange gifts or to sell things thathelp them to celebrate
their festivals, or to let children and others play the games that are
played on their festivals, or to adorn oneself or put up decorations.
In general, (Muslims) are not allowed to single outthe festivals of
the kuffaar for any of these rituals or customs. Rather the day of
their festivals is just an ordinary day for the Muslims, and they
shouldnot single it out for any activity that is part of what the
kuffaar do on these days.
End quote from al-Fataawa al-Kubra, 2/487; Majmoo' al-Fataawa, 25/329
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