Can we wish a "Happy New Year"?
5 min read
I've written this post in anticipation of the most absurd arguments that are used every year, with a brief comment for each. What I hope to show is how a skewed outlook, identity politics on steroids, and ignorance about the shari’ah can all combine to crystallise inane opinions. I’m using this mas’alah (shar’i issue) simply as a case study.
"Merry Christmas"?
8 min read
For Muslims, saying "Merry Christmas" has been a particular sticking point for a long time. Every year at December, a dread falls over the western ummah. The Xmas Police are out in force, and the sincerely devout left confused and exasperated. Of course, for many such a mundane issue will sound absurd, and from the outside it certainly is. As time has gone by, for most Muslims this has become a non-issue. But misappropriating certain hadiths, along with interpreting proscriptions made by medieval scholars in a particular way has led to a lack of clarity.
My intent here is to unpick the contentions and conflations whilst analysing variant reasonings people employ. Like with most masa'il, I think it's a good case study to analyse religious reasoning (the main reason I've written this). And as usual, I speak in the context of the UK, although I suspect this post will be relevant to most western believers.
Accepting Christmas presents
3 min read
Some scholars, from various denominations, are of the view that it is not permitted to accept Christmas cards or presents. However, many medieval Islamic jurists - those often cited by such scholars, held no such qualms with accepting presents on Christmas (or its like).
1. In general, there exists no impediment in accepting presents from
non-Muslims. Imam al-Bukhari relates, at the beginning of the chapter:
"Accepting gifts from pagans", that the Prophet Abraham and his wife
Sara were presented with Hagar by the Egyptian king; and the Prophet Muhammad
accepted gifts from: the King of Ailah, al-Muqawqis the Patriarch of Alexandria,
and a Jewish woman.
2. Of course, the above refers to gifts, but as with Christmas, accepting
presents is not about receiving something, but how accepting it will be
perceived. The attitudes engendered by the Prophet’s companions strongly
suggest that receiving a Christmas gift is not deemed to be consenting to
unbelief or aiding the cause of shirk. Unlike the typical way in which he is
portrayed, the famed Hanbali scholar, Ibn Taymiyyah stressed its permissibility
in Iqtida as-Sirat al-Mustaqim relating the opinion to Imam Ahmad b.
Hanbal and offering the following points:
