“Surely whoever associates (others) with Allah, then Allah has forbidden to him the garden, and his abode is the fire; and there shall be no helpers for the unjust.” (Surah al-Mā’ida 5:72)
Allah SWT makes it clear to us in His Qur’an al Hakim that associating anything with Him is a grave sin. He has done so in past revelations us well.
In the Ten Commandments given to Musa AS on the Mount, as told in the Pentateuch, “Your Lord thy God is singular and thou shalt have no other gods but Me.”
And Isa Ibn Maryam AS, as recorded in the Gospels contained in the Bible, that the Law and the Prophets hang on two, “Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is One god, and thou shalt love they God with all thy heart and all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thy self.”
Allah SWT also informs us we have an avowed enemy:
Behold! We said to the angels: “Prostrate unto Adam”: They prostrated except Iblis (Satan): He said, “Shall I prostrate to one whom Thou didst create from clay?” He said: “Seest Thou? This is the one whom Thou hast honoured above me! If Thou wilt but respite me to the Day of Judgment, I will surely bring his descendants under my sway – all but a few!” (17: 61–62)
After refusing to obey Allah by following his command to prostrate to Adam AS, Iblis vows to do anything to destroy man.
(Iblis/Satan) said: “O my Lord! Give me then respite till the Day the (dead) are raised.” (God) said:
“Respite is granted thee till the Day of the Time appointed.” (Iblis) said: “O my Lord! Because Thou hast put me in the wrong, I will make (wrong) fair-seeming to them on the earth, and I will put them all in the wrong, Except Thy servants among them, sincere and purified (by Thy Grace).” (God) said: “This (way of My sincere servants) is indeed a way that leads straight to Me. For over My servants no authority shalt thou have, except such as put themselves in the wrong and follow thee.” (15: 36–42)
The one caveat here is that Satan the Cursed does not have any independent power over us. He can only mislead us if we let him. But how often we let him…
Day of
the Dead Festivals
Our early ancestor, guided by their fitrah, inherently understood that they had a soul, that they would die, and that there was a life after this one. They also understood that they would be held accountable for their actions in this life, in the next one.
Based on this understanding of the fitrah, all pagan religions have a Day of the Dead. In Hinduism, people remember the souls of those who have died during the year, on Dewali. They light candles to float on the water to guide the souls to the next life. Buddhists celebrate O Bon to do the same. In Mexico, the people celebrate Dia de Los Muertes, the Day of the Dead. Combining elements of pre-Columbian pagan practices and post-Columbian Catholic influences, the people parade saints through the streets, make special cookies in the forms of skeletons, and perform other localized practices.
The people of Europe were also pagan before the coming of Christianity. They worshiped gods and goddesses, spirits of the land and water, and natural forces. The Druids of England built great stone structures for worship and to enable people to play an integral part in the natural cycles of life and death. The Shamans of the Siberian Taiga and the grasslands of Central Asia also practiced nature worship and buried the dead in great barrows or mounds.
All of these peoples naturally understood that they had a soul, and that they would die physically, but that their soul would persist in the next life, and be held accountable for its actions in the this world.
In Europe, the people remembered the cycle of life and death in a celebration of All Hallows Day.
Hallow is an old word for soul. When the people would meet on the foggy moors of England, they would often call, “Hallow!” to tell the others they were live humans, and not dead ghosts. In the time of Rasulallah, SAW, the people would call out, “Ins aur Jinn?” “Are you an Ins (human) or Jinn?” and the person would respond accordingly. From this English call, we get our modern greeting, “Hello!”
All Hallows Day was a day to remember the souls of those who had died that year. On that day, the good souls would move on to the afterlife, after having spent a period of time preparing to leave this world. Like Dewali and O Bon, the people used light to help the souls find their way.
The day before All Hallows was All Hallows Eve. On this day, it was believed that the souls of evil people, the damned to hell, would rise and haunt the land. To protect themselves, as many Muslims protect themselves from the “evil eye,” the Europeans shut their doors and put out lanterns. Later, people put out carved vegetable lanterns, including carved squash – the precursors of the modern jack-o-lanterns[2] and carved pumpkins.
Over time, this evening also became associated with mischief, where people played pranks on one another. This morphed into visits to neighbors, who would leave treats. If they did not leave treats, then the people would trick them in some way.
Samhain
As people developed settled agriculture, they required a means for predicting seasons in order to know when best to plant crops. They studied the heavens for signs, and were able to accurately predict seasons. The Anasazi of the Colorado Plateau even calculated the 18.5 year lunar standstill cycle.
As we noted, people would sometimes carve lanterns from vegetables. The Fall, being a time when many vegetables ripen, provides a ready supply of lanterns. After all, the Fall is the harvest season.
Many cultures have festivals during harvest time. These festivals celebrate the generosity of the Creator and the abundance of food stuffs. People gather the rewards of their efforts in the fields, and celebrate with feasts and sharing of food and treats.
This association of work and effort and reward provides the connection between the Fall and these Days of the Dead celebrations, reminding us of our efforts in life, and our rewards in the hereafter.
One such harvest festival that also reminded its participants of the circle of life, was Samhain. Samhain was a Gaelic festival that occurred at the end of Fall and beginning of Winter – Oct 31. This festival was associated with taking stock of the supplies in anticipation of Winter, and was a liminal time, associated with spirits, fairies and other Jinn-like beings. Eventually, the holiday took on a more dark tone.
When Christianity came to the British Isles, it attempted to eradicate the old religion of nature worship. This is partly seen in the Morte De Arthur, the tales of King Arthur, that bemoan the dying out of the old ways.
With the adoption of All Souls Day by the Christian Church, the All Hallows Eve became more and more associated with evil. This is one reason for the focus on witches and devils on this day.
Muslim
Reactions
·
They may hold that Islam only has
two holidays, Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha.
And that is it. There is no room
for any other holiday. It is not Sunnah.
·
They may see observing this
pagan-associated holiday as shirk.
·
They may see Halloween as worship
of Satan, our enemy
Others insist of observing it for several reasons:
·
They think that it is a cute
children’s day
·
They think their children will
miss out on the fun and candy, and will leave Islam because they feel deprived
·
They desire to appear more
American to their neighbors and friends
·
They desire to appear more modern
and sophisticated
·
They may come from cultures that
regularly celebrate the holidays of other religions
One of the arguments used to support the celebration of Halloween in Muslim communities is that the modern holiday has nothing to do with the old pagan holiday. So what is the basis of the modern holiday?
Changes
in the Modern Halloween
We used to go “trick or treating” in our neighborhoods. We would meet our neighbors, and adults often talked about issues of the day. I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, the time of the Vietnam War. Parents often discussed how they felt about the war. Some distributed literature against the war. In the 70s, UNICEF had a campaign going during Halloween, where parents collected money for charities and food aid. Many conservatives hated this campaign.
Then the scares started.
The media began to report that people were putting razor blades in apples. Many people used to give apples as treats rather than the commercial candies. This stopped people from offering healthy apples, and from kids eating them. Then, the media said that people were putting razor blades or drugs in candy, using hypodermic needles. They advised people to have the candy X-rayed. Then, they advised people not to go out and trick or treat in the neighborhood, but to go to organized parties.
In an effort to provide “safe” Halloween experiences, churches, clubs, and even municipalities began to have Halloween parties. They controlled the setting and the experience. No more leaflets and public discussions of the war or anything else.
Halloween has historically been associated with rebellion and questioning of the status quo. As we have seen, we often take this time to turn things on their head and do the opposite of what we would do in everyday life. But the media and the institutions of socialization – the schools, churches, and government – have taken over Halloween to ensure that it does not foment dissent.
Modern
Halloween: The Festival of Gluttony
No other country celebrates Halloween like America. Although Dia De Los Muertes is a fairly important holiday in Mexico, the celebrations do not reach the excess seen in the American celebration. Europe, Australia and other first world countries do not consider this day as important.
However, in the United States, people prepare for Halloween, sometimes a year in advance. They plan costume designs, theme parties and decorations well in advance. Many seem to live for the holiday. What drives this obsession?
The United States has a culture of hard work with work hours far exceeding that of Europe and other countries. Many work 50 to 60 hours per week. The corporate culture of North America expects employees to give all, and can often be rigid and conformist. Managers often feel they need to use strong-arm tactics and intimidation to achieve productivity. Although this view is changing in some companies such as Google and other Internet-based companies, the older corporate “dictatorships” still persist. And government or public sector jobs can be even more structured and conformist.
The result of all of this stress in American culture is that people need release. Some find it in religion. Some find it in partying. Some find it in extreme sports or extreme entertainments of all types. Some find it in mischief and criminal behavior, rebelling against the authority – the source of structure. Some of our youth are finding it in extreme violence, be it “fight club” or joining ISIS and the al-Shabaab. Others find this release in Halloween.
Another example of culturally approved misbehavior is Holi, the Hindu festival of color. The holiday began simply. People splashed each other with red powder or liquid. Rich could splash poor, and poor could splash rich. You could get back at your nasty boss by splashing him. The structures that separate us into classes, races, ethnicities, castes etc all break down in these types of celebrations. We are all equal.
Muslims find this kind of liminal experience where the usual social distinctions break down, on Hajj. In the two white sheets of Ihram, we all look alike.
But what about Americans? They often find this liminality through Halloween costumes. Halloween allows the people to be whoever they dream of being, or to been the opposite of what they are in everyday life. They can also make fun of bosses and authorities, or even get back at them vicariously.
Modern Halloween also opens the American Holiday Season. We used to have distinct holidays of Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November, Christmas in December, and New Years in January. Now we have one big holiday season. And none of these holidays are tied to religion. They have become secular. Christmas is no longer referred to as Christmas, but only as the Holidays. And little or no mention is made of Jesus or God.
Several years ago, when I was living in Arkansas, a Bible Belt state, a news caster thanked God for protecting people from a tornado event. Then he caught himself. He stated that he felt this was appropriate even though he knew he was supposed to say “Mother Nature.” He confirmed what many of us have suspected for some time, that the Media is purposefully refusing to mention the name of God, and is tasked with promoting secularism.
Evidence of this secularization of American culture is also found in aspects of the celebration of Halloween. Halloween used to mean witches and ghosts – reminders of death, and the afterlife. Now the children are taught to focus on “monsters.” No more talk of death or the soul or the afterlife. Witches, ghosts, ghouls and such are just “monsters.”
In this same vein, the secular holiday season has absorbed Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Harvest Festival, Day of the Dead, and Solstice. It has usurped any reminder that we have a soul, that as free beings we are called to moral and ethical action, and that we are held accountable for those actions in the next life.
Halloween
as the Holiday of the Religion of the Extreme
Every year in Detroit, the police prepare for the day before Halloween, Mischief Night or Devil’s Night, when people go out and commit crimes. Despite efforts to quell the violence and danger, people still riot and burn parts of the city.
We have become addicted to the Extreme. Extreme sports and obsession with staying awake for days, raving and partying have produced a generation of youth who seem to be running all the time. They are running away from reality. They live in a virtual world, a world of fantasy, where things are as they want them to be. They are increasing having real problems coping with reality. Some seem to be unable to distinguish virtual fantasy from reality. They will sometimes argue over well established empirical facts, as if they can change them as they would ideas.
The modern celebrations of Halloween only serve to encourage our youngest children to adopt this culture of excess and extreme. Halloween encourages over-consumption of “legal crack” or white sugar, in the form of candy. Halloween also provides an early introduction to the “Party” lifestyle.
However, the institutional celebrations of Halloween also ensure that we do not rebel too much; that we do not question the status quo. Halloween indoctrinates our kids into the Party Lifestyle and Religion of the Extreme, and into secular atheism, but it also ensures they do not question that culture and world view.
Is this something we, as Muslims, want to participate in?
Fatwa
on Halloween
As for the modern formulation, it is associated with the extremism in entertainment and mass consumption of goods that form part of the culture of the Capitalist Economic System. This system is un-Islamic, as we have discussed in other blog posts. Based on hoarding of wealth, rather than the flow of wealth, this system is collapsing and is detrimental to human survival and the flourishing of human society.
Moreover, it encourages our children to be greedy, gluttonous, and extreme. The holiday, as celebrated in our public schools, is teaching children secular values and undermining belief in a soul, moral accountability, and the afterlife.
Muslims need to do more to counter this secularism in our communities. School administrators and educators insist that our children attend these celebrations as part of enculturation. Our children are also required to attend Christmas celebrations, now called Holiday Celebrations, and participate in Valentine’s Day and other holidays. These educators think that these holidays are cultural and often are unaware of the religious and ethical components of these holidays. We need to educate our educators on the ways in which these holidays violate our religious rights. Despite their efforts to secularize them, these holidays do have ethical components at odds with our religion.
We also need to educate our children about these holidays. Children are not the idiots we seem to think they are. They are capable of learning more than we are willing to teach them. They can understand that these holidays commemorate values and views we do not hold.
So what about all the “fun” they are missing? Should we provide alternative Halloweens? Would this just be a renamed celebration of the same thing?
I do feel we should take advantage of this day and have programs for our children and youth. But instead of a “Muslimized” version, let’s have a real Halloween program. Let’s get back to what Halloween and All Hallows Day are about – remembering death, the human soul, accountability, and the hereafter. In an effort to counter the feeling that we are just celebrating a “Muslim Halloween”, we should have a weekend program, and not just a program on October 31st.
Our programs should enable our children to understand and live in the real world, and not succumb to fantasy and wishful thinking. We can use games, role playing and other fun activities to teach important lessons about the creation of the human soul, and its ability to freely make decisions, good or bad. Older youth can discuss moral dilemmas and how to problem solve. We can all learn more about ethical action and helping others. We can focus on compassion, love, and justice, rather than hate and violence. We can also conduct activities during the daytime, such as helping neighbors, neighborhood cleanups, helping the elderly, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, and feeding the homeless and poor.
Islamic centers should refuse to allow costumes and sugary candies. Instead, children can role-play appropriate heroes and model ethical behavior. Any costumes they use should be made on-site from materials we provide. This will encourage creativity, and eliminate the support of the culture of consumption. Moreover, treats should always be wholesome and healthy. No masjid should offer sodas, sugary candies and other foods that are contributing to the epidemic of Type 2 diabetes in our population.
If we provide any entertainments, they should be participatory and not merely passive. Role-playing, movies and after-discussions, and games and trivia challenges can encourage active mental processes and help children retain lessons.
Most importantly, we should take advantage of this opportunity to frankly discuss Halloween with our kids. We need to educate them on its history and the analysis of the values and ideas it embodies. We need to show them how Islam deals with these ideas and values. What does Islam say about death, the soul, accountability, and the afterlife? What does Islam say about the stress within human society, and the need to release this stress? How do Muslims deal with stress and what do we do to release it? What about political justice, economic justice, and oppression? What about consumption, gluttony, and selfishness? What about the fitrah and wahy? What about moral and ethical action?
Unfortunately, we seldom teach our children about the depth of our Deen of Islam. We teach them to pray and make wudu, but little else. No wonder they are attracted by the culture around them. We are not really offering them anything better. So, we eat kneiffah, and the Americans eat snickers bars. Why are we better?
If we do not know the depth of the teachings of Islam ourselves, that is our own fault. Perhaps we could all take advantage of this opportunity to do so.
May Allah SWT guide us all.
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