Posted By Fareed Ahmad on Dec 24, 2014

With the beautiful golden Christmas baubles and the oh-so-
cute snowy Christmas trees, it is absolutely understandable
to be attracted to all the glitz and shine of Christmas (and
as a side note, it does make it worse not to be tempted and
dragged into the excitement with all those gorgeous sale
deals), but is it okay for Muslims to be a part of the
festivities or is it a matter of religious do’s and don’t’s?
You decide – here’s a quick flashback:
Many people today, even Catholics, do not know that the
Holy Roman Catholic Church was already in business
several hundred years before Jesus was even born. It
was a pagan church established by the Roman government
in an effort to control the subjects of Rome by having all of
them participate along with other Roman citizens in some
kind of common worship practices and beliefs. The year
was 325 A.D. according to the Roman calendar. A council
was convened by order of Constantine, the Roman emperor.
He had been a leader in the cult known as Sol Invictus
(Invincible Sun) and now, wanted to unite the Christian
sects in the Empire under his existing church: the Universal
Church of Rome. Many changes to the religion of
Christianity was about to take place at that council,
including:
1. Formulation for wording concerning the Trinity based on
Anthanias.
2. Changing Verses of Bible.
3. Declaring Arian’s “unitarian” (belief in the Unity of God)
as heresy.
4. Changing the date of Jesus’ birthday to December 25th.
The Roman Catholic Church took on a new face.
The Europeans call the festival of the birth of Jesus
Christmas, and it is on December 25 for the majority of
Christians. The festival is influenced by pagan rituals, when
the Romans used to celebrate the god of light and the god of
harvest. When Christianity became the official religion of the
Romans, Christmas became the most important festival in
Europe. It’s a fake date! It’s not real even according to the
Christian history. And here we are, wishing them Merry
Christmas at the cost of our faith! Now what about Muslims
celebrating something that even the Christians should not
be doing in the first place?!
The Islamic ruling and the reason behind this :
As Muslims, we have to be kind to non-Muslims but we
don’t have to start celebrating their festivals which have
polytheistic origins. Honestly, bearing witness to la ilaha
ilaaAllah is a serious matter! So, we can’t throw around
justifications like “We have to be kind to non-Muslims” or
“We should welcome all the celebrations, what’s the
harm…”
Because, wishing Merry Christmas is akin to saying, “Happy
celebrating the birth of God’s son and yes, I believe in la
ilaha illaAllah (there is none worthy of worship but Allah)
and that He has no son, but I still want to congratulate you
for believing otherwise…”
Remember, being kind to someone is alright but adopting
their beliefs is not okay. A major and essential part of our
religion is to maintain our distinct identity when it comes to
beliefs and to disassociate ourselves from every act of
disbelief and kufr.
Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: As for
the Muslim selling things that they use for their festivals,
such as food, clothing, herbs and the like, or giving those
things to them, that is a kind of helping them to celebrate
their haraam festival. Iqtida’ al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem, p.
229
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
said: “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” Narrated
by Abu Dawood, 3512; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in
Irwa’ al-Ghaleel, 2691.
The Santa Story
Moreover, when you pick up and look at the whole Santa
concept, you find way too many problems with it. Apart
from having idol and pagan origins, parents all across the
globe lie to their children about Santa! Because, in reality,
no Santa comes to distribute presents!
The date is fake and the concepts conveyed to our little
ones are fake. It is basically a day of universal lying, whose
facts are hidden by glittery decorations, but sadly, majority
of mankind is lost in its glamor.
“Beautified for people is the love of that which they
desire – of women and sons, heaped-up sums of gold
and silver, fine branded horses, and cattle and tilled
land. That is the enjoyment of worldly life, but Allah
has with Him the best return.” [Aal Imran 3:14]
Bottom line:
“And who is better in speech than he who [says: “My
Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness),” and then
stands firm (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to
Allah’s (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous
deeds, and says: “I am one of the Muslims.” [Fussilat
41:33]
Be proud of your religion! The Non-Muslims do not
celebrate your Eid, why should you celebrate theirs?! Belief
in Surah Ikhlaas and celebrating Christmas can’t reside in
one heart.
It looks really dumb when you want to pose next to a
Christmas Tree in some mall for a selfie to look “cool”,
because, in reality, you cancel out all coolness because you
are ignoring the fact that by celebrating Christmas (“birth of
God’s son”) and wishing others a Merry Christmas, you are
bearing witness to shirk! Don’t celebrate what Allah
hates. It’s that simple.
Merry Christmas? I don’t think so!
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