I just returned to Doha, Qatar, from Sudan, early Friday morning, which happened to be Christmas Day, so I decided to do the Friday Khutbah on Celebrating Christmas and the Mawlid. I addressed the fact that greeting Christians or others with the traditional Christmas greeting “merry Christmas” or “happy Christmas” was not permissible for a Muslim because it meant celebrating the day of “God’s” birth – a concept absolutely abhorrent to Muslims and in direct contradiction to the Qur’aanic verse, “He (Allah) did not give birth nor was He born.” I also pointed out that the date of birth of Prophet Jesus, like that of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was unknown and that it was chosen to match the Saturnalia, the festival of the harvest dedicated to the Roman god of the harvest, Saturn. Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ for the first 3 centuries after Jesus’ departure because birthday celebration was a known pagan practice. Similarly, Muslims did not celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday until 4 centuries after his death. The practice was started on a state scale by the Fatimid Shi’ite caliphate in Egypt and the date of the Prophet’s death was chosen for the celebration.
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The previous week I did a Khutbah for Jumu’ah on Celebrating New Year’s Day on the 1st of Muharram and January 1st in the Sudapet Mosque, in Khartoum, Sudan. In that khutbah I focused on the pagan origin of New Year’s Day which was chosen by the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, in 46BC in honor of the Roman god of gateways and doors, Janus, after whom January is named. Even the orgies on New Year’s Eve re-enact the chaotic world before the gods ordered the cosmos, according to Roman legend. Thus, for Muslims to participate in New Year’s Day Celebrations, or imitate it with 1st Muharram celebrations is completely unacceptable and actually haraam, as the Prophet (pbuh) said, “Whoever imitates a people becomes like one of them.”
Tags: Christmas, Friday Khutbah, Mawlid, Sudan
Assalam Alaikum wa rahmatullah respected Shaikh,
I am very happy that you made your blog. Inshallah, I hope this will help in spreading the truth. May almighty Allah SWT make this Blog of yours great success and authentic source of Islamic knowledge. Aameen. Jazakallah khair.
Assalamu alaykum Shaykh,
I will most definitely keep up with your blog and I enjoy your writing as it is with much clarity. Alhamdu lillaah! May Allaah reward you and your family with goodness in the dunya and akhirah in sha Allaah.
salam malaikom Dr.bilal philips, mabrouk, congratulations for making this blog.i would just like to thank you for your imense work you are doing.the online university seems to be a great concept,also your books and video lectures are shurely of great importance to english speaking muslims.may Allah swt reward you for making islamic knowledge accesible in a comprehensiv way.ameen. however we should not forget our french and german speaking brothers for example( i am born in switzerland and speak both french and german).as you may know swiss,german and french muslims have a hard time and they need the support and accesible knowledge.i think your concept of teaching should be expanded into other languages..
Assalam Alaikum Shaikh,
Am so happy that you started blogging. Inshallah more Shieks will follow your steps and make use of new media. Jazakallah kheir to you and your son, Yousuf
Excellent first post. Sweet and to the point. I forwaded it to many people. I pray that you will maitain your blog and update it regularly with relevant blog posts so that we can benefit from you! JazakAllahu Khayran.
Salam Alaykum wa Rahmatullah
I am very happy that you made your blog, too. Masha’Allah! Thanks you for the beneficial advice about these pagan’s ritual, may Allah guide us all, amin! I will follow you and spread the worddd!!!
Alhumdulillah….It’s a great discussion …….indeed i was seeking this related knowledge..Insha-Allah, i’ll inform about this miscellaneous.So, it’ll be much helpful if i can know the references of this informations.i mean the histories that you’ve mentioned…thank you
The references can be found in any encyclopedia. I usually use the Britannica.
May allah make this work easy for you. We are on watch. Jazakallah khairan
Assalaamu Alaykum Sheikh,
May Allah swt reward you and keep you firm upon the truth,
Sheikh RE Christmas, would it not have been better to state that taking part in Christmas can reach the level of kufr as it contradictions imaan of action and speech?
I feel if you tell people something is haram, some will still go out and do it anyway because they do many other haram acts, if we explain the reality of imaan being in the heart, actions and speech and then explain what this celebration is and how celebrating it is like the kufr of bowing to the cross even if a person doesnt believe in it?
I believe it was ibn Qayyim who had said this last point.
Assalaamu Alaykum,
Daw’ud
A good point brother Daw’ud. The sledge-hammer approach. Celebrating Christmas can be considered an act of “kufr” – not necessarily making the one who does it a disbeliever unless he or she accepts the beliefs behind it in their hearts. Food for thought.
very nice blog
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah,
MashaAllah Sheikh Bilal Jazakhallah khair for starting this up it is SO good. Keep it going inshaAllah, and it would be great if you can keep a range of posts too. For example: sometimes on Reminders (e.g. Yawmul Qiyaamah), sometimes on stories from the salaf (e.g. how they would get khushoo’), and sometimes on Current Issues – (e.g. such as the general elections which are coming up in the UK – is it permissible to vote?)
Keeping a range of posting like this will for sure keep people interested!
Jazkahallah khair and May Alllah bless you through it, Ameen.
Wa’aalikum salaam wa rahmatullah.
Jazaakumullaahu khayran for the advice. I will keep it in mind as time progresses.
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi Wa Barakathuhu,
Bilal Sir! I am happy and Glad you are finally Blogging, Its always a Pleasure yo Listen, to you or read your works this a great oppurtunitys for everybody, to gain knowledge and share your experience at the same time get equipped for DAWAH Inshallah, May allah make this Blog succesfful and reward you you accordingly for all your efforts for giving the right message of true Islam.
Hussain Syed
Assalumualaikum wr wb,
Dear Dr. Bilal Phillips
First of all, this blog looks good, is good and I am happy for you that you share your ideas with us.
The following text is only complaining and talking about the negative aspects. There are of course much more positive stuff, but I don’t feel the need to tell you. Many others anyway allready did. I take this know as a opportunity to criticise you.
I don’t listen to your speeches or read your books but I perhaps I will follow your blog. Although it is important to spread this info about christmas (I think there are more important things to discuss about), I really don’t like people who always talk about what muslims are forbidden to do. Obviously this does not apply to you as you only wrote some articles, but it would be nice, if you would also mention things in the furture, we muslims are allowed to do and not only the things we are not allowed to do.
Many muslims follow you word by word and don’t think for their own. This is not your mistake, but it would be nice, if you encaurage the people to critically think for their own.
This info about christmas everybody knows now. There are many muslims who think they have to continuesly enlighten the muslims about christmas and new year. In Germany where I come from, some of these”scholars” and I don’t say the names, because you knoe about which people I am talking about (they call themselves scholars), put youtube videos in order to “enlighten” the german muslims as if they are the only people who found out about the historic background of christmas and the new year celebrations. They tell muslims not to say this stuff like “have a good christmas” and they created such an atmosphere in Germany that the majority of Germans (non-muslims) would ban the mosk not the minarette according to the Bild paper even if this conrtadicts the German law. What do all the non-muslim Germans think when they also watch these videos in youtube? They cannot understand and become disgusted and irritated.
These scholars are also partially guilty that Muslims are now hated in Germany besides the anti-islamic media propaganda. The funny thing is that you were also once invited for a speech in Berlin with these brothers. I know them personally and they have good hearts. But they are narrow-minded and actually dangerous as they create an atmosphere of conflicts between muslims and non-muslims. Nobody wants a conflict. When the egyptian muslim woman was murdered, the same people (I think you know them) acted like a war has broken out in Germany and went to every major city to protest. Protest about what? This was a hate crime like in many countries. There are laws to punish the person who commit such attacks. Of course we muslims have to be active an condemn these things but we have to use also our brains. Obviusly, the anti islamic propaganda of media contributes the most of the anti-muslim movements and thinking but if these so called self titled sheikhs keep doing it, there will be another Holocaust and it doesn’t matter if you believe in the historical background of the Holocaust or not, they will do one for the muslims (is of course exaggerated but it is getting worser and worser day by day).
So, there are many Muslims who do tell Christians something like: “have a nice christmas”. Obviously they don’t believe in christmas but it would be such a impolite behaviour if they would not say something like this. It is about creating a friendly atmosphere.
I know it can be very dangerous (committing a form of shirk) but the situation is more complicated than many thinks. These muslims who say it is haram to say “have a good christmas” are not able to imagine the situation in a broad scale.
And I am also not of these so calles “liberal” muslims. I am a muslims and believe in the Koran and the Sunna. I have only a problem with this stoning thing but I accept… because I believe in Islam.
Inshallah I will read your blog and read some interesitng stuff so that I learn new stuff about Islam and everything else.
PS. I believe that I have seen you in Sharjah American University once and talked to you, but I didn’t know that it was you. And a sorry because of my grammatical mistakes.
kind regards,
somebody
salamualikum