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 JesusAS 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 AS 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 SAW 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 AllahAllah Subhanahu-wa-Taala hates. It’s that simple.

Merry Christmas? I don’t think so!

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