Halloween was originally founded on religious bases. When I say religious, I don’t mean Islam but other religions (http://www.holidays.net/halloween/story.htm). Muslims have nothing to do with it but even when we argue that the event is nowadays purely secular and that it is loads of fun, I'd say let's think together before we teach our children to be followers for the mere reason of having fun.
The love of playing and pretending added to the natural love of candy is irresistible especially for children. There is nothing wrong with pretend play but it should be 1-in decent outfits 2-the goal of a Muslim should never be scaring someone 3- We have 364 days in the year to play that game so why the 31st of October? Is it just to follow the crowd? Do we need more followers in the Ummah? I don’t need to think about an answer for this one, it spells itself in the headlines and the streets everyday. What we really need is leaders. We sure don’t have enough of those and Halloween is a good practice for our children to stop and think-a skill that they will need over and over.
The companions of prophet Muhammad sala Allahu alaihy wa salam once asked him about pre-Islamic holiday and that prophet sala Allahu alaihy wa salam was firm when he said that Allah has given you two better holidays instead.
The concept of Trick or Treat however still bewilders me. Can we play tricks on someone because they didn’t give us what we want? Would we allow our children to do that? Okay, I hear you saying that children don’t play tricks on anyone anymore and that it’s just the name of the game. I’ll say that some children still do and they feel they have the right to do so. Let’s teach our children some dignity. Going from one house to another holding their buckets to be filled by strangers is a form of begging. Is it okay to beg for one day? I’ll say we don’t need more beggers in the Ummah either as we don’t need more followers of others.
Also, Collecting candies is a pure competition in the Dunia in its worst form. The children compete between them to collect the most of the cheap products which emphasize the immoral act of greediness and collection for the sake of collection. When Allah subhanahu wa taala mentioned competition in surat Almutafefeen, He said: “22. Verily, Al-Abr�r (the pious who fear All�h and avoid evil) will be in delight (Paradise).
23. On thrones, looking (at all things).
24. You will recognise in their faces the brightness of delight.
25. They will be given to drink pure sealed wine.
26. The last thereof (that wine) will be the smell of musk, and for this let (all) those strive who want to strive (i.e. hasten earnestly to the obedience of All�h).( http://www.dar-us-salam.com/TheNobleQuran/index.html)
In conclusion, Striving is only acceptable when it counts and candy was never a good reason. Our children today are tomorrow’s leaders and Halloween is a good place to start shaping their minds. Knocking on doors is not a dignified act of a believer. Halloween is a wrong name for this holiday, it should be called “Holloween” for its hollow morals. ©marwa Sabry 2009
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3 comments:
Assalamu alaikum sister Marwa! This is an awesome blog and I congratulate you on writing about much needed topics to be discussed. Very few blogs are actually written for Muslim mothers.
One question though, what if we teach our children that it is okay to just pretend and have fun on Halloween until a certain age, say 7 or 8? Would that be ok or should we ban them from trick-or-treating from the very beginning? Like if we do that, when they grow up they will ask to trick-or-treat and we can tell them: you used to do it when you were younger. You are too old for this now. sorry for the long comment! JAK
Assalaamu Alaikum,
MashaAllah, this was one of your best posts so far! Keep up the good work, mama!
i love this blog
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