Re: Halloween and other occasions
My little daughter dresses up and goes around our cul de sac with the neighbour's kids and has fun collecting all the sweets. My sons, who are older have lost all interest in trick or treating and were quite oblivious to it this year. For me, it is just an occasion where little children get to dress up and get the rare opportunity of interacting with the neighbours. Can someone tell me, on what level is that wrong?
I'm sure none of my neighbours celebrate Halloween as a religious festival nor do they care about its origins in paganism.
I can't tell my children to not take part in something just because it is not from my ancestor's culture, and yes thats what Halloween to me is: just a non religious cultural occasion now, never mind its origins.
My duty as a muslim parent is to tell my kids , that as a muslim I'm prohibited from taking part in anything immoral, unethical and anything that compromises my faith. Children dressing up on haloween does not fit that criteria as far as I am concerned. If being a dutiful muslim is what this is all about, then please like me ban your kids from going to some of the Pakistani weddings i.e Mehndis, where crass and vulgar bollywood music and gyrating hips are the norm!
Anyway why are we so adamant on teaching our children all the perceived dont's, dont's and more dont's of Islam, ALL the time? It creates fear of our religion and raises unnecessary questions in the childs mind. Just saying 'because we are muslims!' is simply not good enough. Children these days are very inquisitive and very intelligent. It is our duty as muslim parents to be truthful to our children and only teach them what the quran says. Letting your children celebrate haloween is a personl choice, which I respect, but please don't make it into an Islamic issue, because it is not.
There are more do's than dont's in our religion, but the emphasis is almost always on what we must NOT do. Why do we feel compelled to instill this *mentality into our children, that we muslims are superior and these 'unislamic rituals' are beneath us? Islam tells us to be tolerant and humble. It does not promote isolationism and holier than thou attitudes. This 'us versus them' approach was never encouraged by the prophet pbuh either.
If our prophet pbuh and his companions had had this isolationist thinking I doubt if Islam would have spread the way it did. If you don't assimilate to a certain degree, how do you get to know people, and how do they get to know you? And if they don't get to know you, how do you fulfill the 'fard' of spreading your Deen??
Allah swt has made absolutely clear what is haraam for us and the rest He has left to our own 'Aql'. And by the way, how many muslims who forcefully stop their kids from taking part in haloween actually force themselves and their kids to do namaz 5 times a day? There is a reason why we have 5 very important pillars and not 5000!
We need to stop making our beautiful deen over complicated. Surely Islam is a guide from Allah swt which tells us how to live our life in this world, how to be a good human being and how to lead a meaningful life. And at the end of it all , everyone will have to explain to Allah swt how we achieved it. I am sure that on judgement day Allah swt won't judge me on whether I attended a cultural event in a fancy dress up costume or not...
There are so many flaws and misconceptions in your post that it will take few more posts I am afraid to discuss.
Basically you have shown very confused mind and have touched different issues at the same time.
**In essence you seem to be one of those confused or ambivalent class of people **who want to mingle with the society where your children are but have some knowledge enough to think this may not be the right thing to do and due to your confusion, you are letting your kids do these activites and to satisfy or pacify your confusion,....... you are bringing excuses.
In my humble opinion:** You need to quit the confusing or opposing thoughts about what it means to dress up for a child.**
If you do not think it is paganism, then no need to keep that in the back of your mind. I know that would be hard to do so since you do know it.
*We both know Halloween cannot be separated from paganism, or related weird ideas, no matter how anyone can try.
*
If someone says he/she is observing Halloween without this concept then that person may be Ok.
But when YOU admit what is the origin of this act then YOU are responsible and YOU are the one who is letting YOUR children following paganism.
Like few others you used mehndi as an excuse to follow Halloween. Fine.
This still does not prove Halloween activity is right for a whole lot of people who observe mehndi, since mehndi by itself does not involve ANY religious or anti religious doctrine, but ...........Halloween does.
Got it? :)
