Ruling
on the Muslims celebrating at the time of Christmas and decorating their homes
with balloons etc (giving or receiving Christmas cards, saying "Merry
Christmas", allowing your children to take part in Activities at school,
wearing Christmas jumpers, eating Christmas dinners or any of these things
relating to this celebration).
Question:
What
do you say to Muslims in the United Kingdom who celebrate Christmas time by
holding dinner parties in their houses on Christmas or afterwards, for their
Muslim families, such as preparing roast turkey and the other dishes of the
traditional Christmas dinner, and they adorn their houses with balloons and
paper chains, and they do the “secret Santa” tradition, whereby each relative
brings a gift for one of the people present and these gifts are brought to the
party to be given to the one for whom he bought it, without the recipient
knowing who he is. [“Secret Santa” is a new, growing custom among non-Muslims
who celebrate Christmas, and it is in accordance with their belief in the myth
of Santa Claus].
Is
this action regarded as halaal or haraam, if no one is attending this party
except Muslims (relatives and family members)?.
Praise
be to Allaah.
There
is no doubt that what is mentioned of celebrations is *haraam*, because it is
an imitation of the kuffaar. It is well known that the Muslims do not have any
festival apart from Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and the weekly “Eid” which is
Friday (Yawm al-Jumu‘ah). Celebrating any other festival is not allowed and is
either of two things:
✖either
it is an innovation (bid‘ah), if it is celebrated as a means of drawing close
to Allaah, such as celebrating the Prophet’s Birthday (Mawlid);
✖or
it is an imitation of the kuffaar, if it is celebrated as a tradition and not
as an act of worship, because introducing innovated festivals is the action of
the people of the Book who we are commanded to differ from.
So
how about if it is a celebration of one of their actual festivals?
Decorating
the house with balloons at this time is obviously joining in with the kuffaar
and celebrating their festival.