Paganism is worse than a certain Religion, most of our Prophets came to destroy idolatry, not other Religions. We need to get our priorities straight. Shirk is the number One sin. And all Western holidays are Pagan except one: Thanksgiving. However, some associate Thanksgiving with genocide of a people and should be avoided also.

Talk about control of the masses by teaching them to worship false gods,
i.e.
1) People – (Santa Clause, all president days, and famous people, infamous people)
2) Money – (every holiday based on capitalist sales and receipt),
3) Flag & Country(nationalism)- (Fourth of July)
4) Animals (Easter, Tooth Fairy),
5) Pagan origins and Practice(anything blatantly based on worshiping a Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Hindu, etc. god)- (New Years, Xmas, Birthday, Easter, Halloween, Valentines Day, Aprils Fool)

And if you are celebrating a holiday other than Eid, why do Muslims make that one bigger than their own. I hardly saw any Muslim status say Happy New Year for the Islamic New Year. Yet, everyone is talking about it now.

Western New Years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year's_Day

I understand the need to not push away Muslims from the Deen. I just think it should be said, “It is wrong, you are being ma’asiyah, but the final decision is up to you” Because in the end we all sin, but Insha’Allah we will not help each other to sin. . . or make excuses for them to sin.

This is why I love fiqh!!!!!!!,

This was vary interesting but after contemplating it, for me it is way to doubtful so i pass. One thing I observed is that this allowance was done after the hijrah(correct?), when the Muslims had the upper hand in Medinah, a state that was ruling with the shariah, so there was no danger of the Muslims going to excess in imitating the disbelievers and losing their Islamic identity. Today is the opposite we have the lower hand and no state that complete enacts the shariah so there is a grave danger of losing our Islamic identity, so based on that wouldn’t it be more wise to leave this off and stick to he confirmed Islamic holidays?

I am very surprised that, because of Ateerah, we can celebrate the 4th of July. How can one be proud of a country that fights Islam? How can one support Nationalism, which celebrating any national day is? Suhayb (radhi Allahu anhu) was known as Ar-Rumi because he came from there but did he ever celebrate anything connected to his country? Salman (radhi Allahu anhu) was known as Al-Farisi because he came from there but did he ever celebrate something connected to his country?

Al-Ateerah was made part of Islam. How can the 4th of July made part of Islam? How can praising the troops that defend the country and invades Muslim countries be islamicised? How can being proud of one’s country part of Islam, especially if that nation is not a Muslim one? I have seen first hand how being proud of one’s country (in this case Egypt and Algeria) can have such negative effects. Even without that event, you can see all over the world, in Muslim communities, the effect of being from one country or another and the racism that comes with this. Was al-Ateerah a nationalistic event? How did Rasulullah (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) react when the Sahabah said “O Ansar” “O Muhajireen”. Didn’t he get upset and call that a call of the Jahiliyyah?

I am proud of belonging to the Muslim nation, yes. Am I proud of being Belgian? No. Is my husband proud of being Algerian? No. Is being proud of one’s country helping to unite Muslim? No, on the contrary.

Peace,

I agree with you–that’s what I was trying to say. So if it’s part of our religion (either obligatory or optional), then there isn’t anything here that tells us how we should deal with secular holidays. I see this as similar to the case of the Hajj; it was performed by the pagans before its practice was corrected in the time of Islam. It started as a pure religious practice, was corrupted by the pagans, and was then restored and purified with the coming of Islam.

In the end, I’m not convinced that al-Ateerah justifies observing secular holidays.

Jazakallah Khair shaikh…

That is a great analysis of all the holidays. I was specifically curious about birthdays also considering the fact that even some practicing christians avoid celebrating it because of its pagan roots. All the others on the list make alot of sense.

@Abu Majeed:

aaaahhhh, NOW I get it. جزاك الله خيرا.

My confusion was that I was ASSUMING (now you’ve clarified it…) that Atteerah was related to shirk @ the time of the Prophet. When it was mentioned of “sacrificing animals”, Shirk automatically clicked in my head because I was imagining them doing it in the name of their gods.

Out of curiosity (I completely trust you, I’m not hating):
How do we know that no shirk was involved? Is it because there’s no specific text to indicate otherwise? Meaning, is what is narrated about Ateerah JUST that. i.e “They slaughtered meat and distributed” faqat?

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