Since privacy settings of a sister doesnt allow me to share the original post and my comment to it, I am allowing myself the copy/paste technique for all Muslims (and interested Non-Muslims) to let them know my findings and conclusion. So here the original Question, with my answer: Please to all the Muslims on my Facebook please tell me what Islam teaches on Halloween and what are your personal thoughts on this holiday? Anja Amira: Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows Evening also known as Halloween or All Hallows Eve. Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced sah-win). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween. Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them (ie. fooling a ghost that they were one of them, and therefore get passed and not afflicted by the spread evil.) In Christianity: All Hallows Eve falls on 31st October each year, and is the day before All Hallows Day, also known as All Saints Day in the Christian calendar. The Church traditionally held a vigil on All Hallows Eve when worshippers would prepare themselves with prayers and fasting prior to the feast day itself. The name derives from the Old English hallowed meaning holy or sanctified and is now usually contracted to the more familiar word Halloween. A brief history of the festival In the early 7th century Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome, formerly a temple to all the gods, as a church dedicated to Saint Mary and the Martyrs, and ordered that that date, 13th May, should be celebrated every year. It became All Saints Day, a day to honour all the saints, and later, at the behest of Pope Urban IV (d. 1264), a day specially to honour those saints who didnt have a festival day of their own. In the 8th century, on 1st November, Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel to all the saints in St. Peters Basilica in Rome. Gregory IV then made the festival universal throughout the Church, and 1st November has subsequently become All Saints Day for the western Church. It is widely accepted that the early church missionaries chose to hold a festival at this time of year in order to absorb existing native Pagan practices into Christianity, thereby smoothing the conversion process. A letter Pope Gregory I sent to Bishop Mellitus in the 6th century, in which he suggested that existing places of non-Christian worship be adopted and consecrated to serve a Christian purpose, is often provided as supporting evidence of this method of acculturation. Encyclopaedia Britannica states that this date may have been chosen in an effort to supplant the Pagan holiday with a Christian observance. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions also claims that Halloween absorbed and adopted the Celtic new year festival, the eve and day of Samhain. However, there are supporters of the view that Halloween, as the eve of All Saints Day, originated entirely independently of Samhain and some question the existence of a specific pan-Celtic religious festival which took place on 31st October/1st November. SOOOO.....in conclusion: It got no base in either Islam or Islamic culture. Its been used to propagate Christian idol worship in a strong area of disbelievers, to make an easier transition to the crusades of the Church, implementing all those habits of the spirit worshippers....with the dressing up, the bonfires etc. before the All Hallows Day (1st November). Therefore, participation, in my humble opinion, is to be strongly discouraged, if not even haram, as that (idol worshipping) was one of the reasons for Allah/God having punished the people of Musa AS with 40 years of aimless wandering through the desert, and then again, with the destruction of the Idols around the Kaaba in Makkah at the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW. So based on those strong historical mentions in the Quran I would say, partaking and participating in any form of Halloween activities would be Haram. And Allah SWT knows best. Your sister in Islam, Anja Amira 6 minutes ago · Like
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 06:43:29 +0000
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