Salamun alaykum Sheikh. I write to you with a heavy heart. I have just received an email with advertisement from my local masjid that they will be arranging a program on 31st October titled “Halal-o-ween”. I have been nurturing my child with aversion to such programs that celebrate unislamic ideologies. But now he wants to go to this program saying that it is halal version of halloween. I am feeling betrayed by my masjid. Could you comfort my heart if it is okay for me take my child to this event?
Alhamdulillah Allah Ta’ala has instilled a natural disposition in your heart towards sound and virtuous nurturing of your children. May Allah continue to give you Tawfeeq towards this end, Ameen.
You are correct that Islam has nothing to do with paganistic rituals of Halloween. Many of its aspects are borne from un-islamic origins, and have been given a new wrapper to make it acceptable to contemporary times. It is also not a secret that most of these “festivities” and “special days” have become a puppet of materialistic money-making businesses. Hence participation in halloween has no basis in Islam.
However, your question stems from a Masjid trying to set up a “Halal-o-ween”. The rationale behind it seems to be providing an alternative activity so that muslim children come to masjid to spend their time instead of trick-or-treating on the streets and joining in with the unislamic actions.
As innocent as this rationale sounds, it is flawed. More so, when the alternate activities are nothing but a slight modification of the activities of non-muslims. Instead of witchcraft, we could do Jinn stories; Instead of trick or treat we could just hand out candies in masjid etc etc. This only aids in “islamicizing” an unislamic custom, eventhough we have husn al dhan that the event organizers do not intend as such.
The fallacious mistake shines even further when the emulation of the event takes the same hallow’s eve ambiance, bats and moon to sell oneself to people. Nabi ﷺ has stated categorically
من تشبه بقوم فهو منهم”Whoever emulates a nation (or a group of people) than he shall be (counted from amongst) them.”
Fuqaha’ have drawn multitudes of ahkaam from this injunction, including that no action or custom ought to be adopted which will emulate any other people who are not best embodiment of Islam.
Having said this, it is very concerning that a masjid would finalize and allow such an event under its banner. A masjid has capacity to think of any number of activities which will remain within the ambits of islam, and yet provide viable alternatives for our children.
We are in month of Rabi’ ul Awwal, and the air of Sublime Character and Life of Rasulullah ﷺ fills every masjid. It would have been much easier and far superior to provide alternate evening for Muslim children to learn about Shama’il and Seerah. This way nothing would remotely associate with the unislamic activities of halloween and the objective of providing beneficial, viable alternative would have been achieved. This would also prevent the sanctity of masjid from being tarnished with slogans like halal-o-ween.
The unfortunate choice from the masjid legitimizes the emulation of non-muslims and cannot be condoned. I would suggest to amicably show your forceful displeasure to the Masjid Administration, and not to engage, promote or participate in such an event.
At the same time local scholars should take it upon themselves to approach the responsible committee/individuals in the masjid and let them know of the dangerous precedence they have set for future. May Allah grant us hidaya and tawfeeq upon righteous path, Ameen.
Wallahu A’lam
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi