Halloween And Ashura

Alhamdulilah mahamadou who want to stay in 10102 Billahi min Sheree and fusina sejati Amina Maja de la, la la. Mama you believe for her the Allah.

Allah Allah illallah wa de la sharika Mohammed Abu Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. I'm about to find the hi Ron Howdy.

Howdy howdy Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, shalom.

Allah Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah.

All Praise and thanks belong to Allah the Most High, we thank him and seeking help and aid. And we asked Him that He forgive us, and we seek refuge and we seek His refuge from the evil of ourselves and the sins that we commit. Indeed, home sobre la guides, no one can lead astray. And whomsoever Allah leads astray, no one can guide, a neighbor witness that there is no one worthy of worship except Allah alone, and that Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is a slave and messenger. The best of speech is that of the book of Allah. And oppressive guidance is that of Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the worst of religious matters are those that are innovative, and every

religious innovation is a bit every bit is misguided instead of re misguidance will be in hellfire.

The question that we want to ask today and hopefully try to find an answer to is how do we define

festival a celebration? A day that is commemorated and remembered annually? How do we define it?

What is it? How do we get to celebrate such eight? How is it formed? Is it chosen? Is it random? What is it connected to?

And most importantly, what does it signify? And what does it say about the people who are celebrating it?

And in trying to think about these questions.

We're gonna inshallah, take the example of two days that are upon us or soon will be upon us. The first that coincides with today is the celebration of Halloween, the Festival of Halloween, and we're going to be able to compare that with that of Ashura. And hopefully that comparison and contrast can help us answer and understand what is it that we are celebrating and why do we celebrate etc, etc.

So many of the people who celebrate the Festival of Halloween, which is today, if you ask them, why are they doing the things that they are doing? Why do they wear masks? Why do they wear disguises? Why do they go trick or treating, they wouldn't be able to tell you why they're doing it. They just know that it is something that they are doing that everybody's doing that seems to be fun. They enjoy themselves when they're doing it. And so they repeat it and they continue to repeat it. But when you try to go and understand its history,

you'll find that it has really deep roots in history, deep religious roots in history, deep cultural roots in history that affect what we're doing and how we're doing it today. Those who are celebrating it.

So if you go back

in history, briefly,

to the people that were called the Celts, or inhabitant, Ireland and Scotland, and this is before way before Christianity came to that area. When you look at their calendar, you know that they will have very special days for special days in the most important of those days, the most important of those festivals happened on October 31. And that day divided summer from winter, it signaled the end of the harvest, and the beginning of the coldest and darkest season of the year.

And because of this overlap between seasons, moving from one end to the other, they also believed that the world of the living would also overlap, there would be a crossover between it and the world of the dead, or the supernatural world and the natural world. So they believed on that day,

fairies, sort of like spirits with powers

would be loose on that day. And they would be allowed to roam and go around the Earth.

Also similar to that, the spirits of the dead would also be let loose on that day, and will be allowed to go and visit the houses, the neighbors, the relatives, people that they knew the city.

And so they reacted to that celebration to that belief.

How did they react to it? One thing that they did, is that because they were not sure about what the supernatural beings might do to them, they were afraid of them. They would leave offering outside their homes food, so that these spirits and those fairies would actually be appeased by that offering and they would not perform them and their family or their animals.

And what about if you want it to go out?

Well, there's a risk, right?

So if you wanted to protect yourself, you would put on a disguise a mask, so that the spirits if they happen to see you, they would not recognize that you're a living person, but one of them.

So you could be stated from their heart.

Now, when Christianity came into the area, when the Christian church came into the area, it had a habit.

And it repeats that habit, finds that there was a festival, a celebration

in the land, and it wanted to convert the native population. Instead of telling them to stop celebrating that festival, it would transform it into a Christian festival, it would move at celebration, and would have an overlap with their celebration. So what happened with them is that they moved

what is called All Hallows day, the day that celebrates the saints of the Christian church. And they moved it to the first of November.

And they moved the other festival that they have, which is All Souls Day to the second of November, which is the day that they celebrate, or they remember the souls and the dead and they pray for their death. So the 31st of October was cold All Hallows Eve.

And from Hallows Eve, we get Halloween today

from its Christian source.

Why do people go trick and treating or treating?

They say it probably has to do with a Christian practice. The poor and children would go from house to house, offering their prayers for the dead in that household and exchange for a stone cookie. It's called soling.

So if you would give them a cookie, they would offer prayer for the dead and they move on to the next house on next house. And they say the origin of trickle trading is probably from that practice, in that Christian tradition.

That's where we have it where it comes to us today. But when you look at it today, it may have lost all or most of its historical religious roots. What we have today Halloween today is very big business.

It is the second most profitable, profitable holiday after Christmas.

In the United States, for instance, on candy alone on that day they will spend of $2 billion

just on candy. And if you add costumes to it and everything else, just on that day, it will reach $6 billion.

So there's obviously corporations behind it and big business behind it that promotes it and will keep promoting it because they will make a lot of money out of it.

They will keep bombarding you and me and all of us and our children with that message.

And so that we can participate in it and spend our money and if we start losing interest in it, and there is not enough profit made in it, they will abandon it and they will move to the next thing. So there is a sense of a manufactured holiday in this season, because it is not natural, we're not really celebrating anything that is natural or deeping deeply meaningful. I want to contrast that jump to the other holiday that is going to be in Sharla on

Monday,

a day that is called Ashura.

What is this day What is our Shura

Shura is a day of the days of Allah subhana wa tada

and we have in the Quran Allah subhanho wa Taala says Wanaka darsena Musa in a coma. And rich oma kameena Buddha Mati the gnudi wanna kill him via Minda. It says we have sent Moses

to his people saying and commanding him, take your people out of the darkness and into the light and remind them of the days of Allah. And if we were to ask what are these days of Allah

and seal they say the days of Allah means the blessings of Allah, blessings of Allah that happened on special special days, on specific days, that the Israelites remember

when Allah subhana wa Taala saved them from their enemy

and release them from bondage

and honor them. That is a day of the days of Allah Subhana Allah when Allah whenever Allah sends a great blessing to people, or punishes people, deservedly, that is one of the days of the days of Allah subhanho wa Taala and so musala Islam in the next area

he reminds people of the favor of a law school near Mecca la la comida.

Yes, una

una de la como esta esta accom he tells them remember the fate of favors or a law upon you

that he had saved you from the people of terror of

what did they used to do? Yes, to Muna comes to a law that they would send the worst type of punishment upon you, and they would kill all of your male children and leave the female children life.

He says remember those favors?

And so, the day of Ashura is that day and when the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he came to Medina

and he found that the Jewish population was fasting it he said Maha they says What is this called? They said to him, had the human side for ninja lo fi bunnies for eat I mean I do we impose on

this is a

blessed day. This is a good day where Allah saved the Israelites from their enemy and the other narration

and he caused them to drown and his soldiers to drown. So Mussolini salami fasted it and he tested it out of Central Miss to Allah subhana wa Tada.

So what did the messengers allow you to send them say? He said, No, I have to be Muslim. We are closer and more worthy of Moosa than your Fasano who Ramadan, so the CMA. So we first did it, and he commanded people to fast it, and I sure has its own history, by the way, we may not be aware of the history of Ashura, because in the first year, when the Prophet commanded it's fast, it was an obligation. You know how Ramadan is an obligation that we should fast? Sure, in the beginning was an obligation every single Muslim had to fasted until the obligation of Ramadan was revealed to the Muslims, and then I sort of became recommended.

And it says in the Hadith, there was no other days similar to assure that the prophets of Mali we send them would be eager to fast, would recommend to fasting it, and we urge people to fast as much as Ashura.

And he said some of the Hollywood he was telling him about it about the benefits of fasting that day,

in the accessible online and your coffee or a sonata latte cobbler.

He will forgive expiate the sins of the previous year.

And towards now the end of his life that's sort of part of the history of Ashura towards the end of his life.

The Companions came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and they said, he rasulillah in Wilmington. Yahushua. Massara says messenger of Allah this day that we're fasting

The day that is being honored by the Jews and the Christians.

So he said a lot of sentiment replied to that kind of a cannon. So Natasha, it says one then then, when the next year comes, we can add to it the ninth day. But the phenom Yeti will have to fear so that was always and so the profit when the next year came, and who was trying to fast it the problem solution was dead, it was already dead. So you understand that it is part of the sin of the messenger, so not too fast, benign, in addition to the 10th.

But I want to stop here very briefly with that request that came from the companions of the Prophet.

Why did they came and asked him that question.

After all, this was a day where Allah had saved Musa and Islam. And the righteous people have been insulated from their enemy.

And this is a day where there prophets a lot he was sent him had commanded them to fast and he was fasting. And yet they came and they asked him and they said, Dr. Sol, Allah, this is a day that also the Christians and the Jews are celebrating, or they're honoring. That is, can we be different?

Can we be distinct.

And here they were excellent students of the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who had taught them repeatedly that they had to be different than they have to be distinct.

As people who are carrying the truth from Allah subhanho wa Taala

had to be unique. Like a person who is selling an original product, you would not allow yourself to imitate anybody else. If you have confidence in your product, others can imitate you, but not you imitate anybody else. And they have believed that this message that they have is truly coming from Allah subhanho wa Taala, uncontaminated and adulterated, pure message of Allah subhanho wa Taala, they would want to keep that purity, and they want to save themselves and save people around them and next generations from even the possibility of imitating other nations. Because similarities, even when it's not intentional, but similarity can be a bridge, where people start adopting habits

from other people, and changing their own religion, changing their own culture or changing their own backgrounds. It's a bridge. So they noticed that this was a bridge,

even though it's a righteous day, but it was a bridge. So they wanted to create

a practice that was distinct and different. And that's why it became a sinner from the messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam, because the companions realized that they needed to be different and distinct.

When you compare the origin of a day like Ashura,

and a day like Halloween, and the meaning of this has and the meaning that that thing has, and the belief that this is based on the belief that that thing is based on, Can we stay with the man that we have and the certainty that we have from Allah subhanaw taala that they are the same. They're celebrating this is like commemorating that.

And here we begin to see

the difference between the days that we are in or the days that come to us from Allah subhanaw taala, and from his messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that have deep meaning and history that have continuous lessons for us to edify us, as individuals and as groups versus other festivals that are built on.

erected by people who did not believe in Allah subhanho wa Taala did not have the defeat of Allah in their hearts. And they did not seek to honor Allah subhanho wa Taala interaction, there's a difference between the two.

So when we're talking about festivals, that we should commemorate festivals that we should celebrate days that we should honor, we have to keep in mind that these days have an effect on us. It's not simply a fun day, that day will have an effect on us. And it tells other people who we are.

And it tells our children who we are. And it defines our identity and it defines our future. So any type of day that we have to celebrate or we think about celebrating has to be weighed very carefully against the scale that Allah subhanho wa Taala has given to us. Is it something that pleases Allah built upon the pleasure of Allah and his religion? Or is it something that is foreign, at best, is is wasteful at worst, it can contradict the very basis of our a man in the last panel without

any harder stuff.

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen

wa sallahu wa Sallim wa Sunni Mohammed,

he will be He will send them an email.

When we hear the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa He will send them says mentorship by becoming a woman who is the one who imitates the people is one of them.

The Prophet there explains a very fundamental sort of aspects of human behavior and human psychology, which is that when you start imitating someone, even outwardly,

you begin to identify with that person slowly in belief and slowly in practice, until eventually, eventually you become one of them.

So if we want to be identified with the believers,

if we want to reserve our love for those who love Allah, subhana wa, tada, Allah loves, because Allah says,

the one who loves the people will be resurrected with them. So you also have to be careful about who do you love.

Which people do you associate with, which people do you wish to be part of. Because these actually might be the people that you would be resurrected with on the Day of Judgment.

And if someone is still not satisfied with all of this,

and it says, Well, this is something that is very innocent, you go and you collect candy, and he looks with a lot of compassion at his children. He says, I just want to make them happy.

What is wrong with just collecting a little bit of candy, and going home and eating out and having a fun day.

We say it is difficult for me and for you to actually be aware of all the benefits and all the harms in an act. That's why we depend on what Allah subhanaw taala is telling us, because sometimes we cannot see it. And if you believe truly, that children are celebrating an innocent Halloween now,

what you're doing by allowing it in your home is that you're leaving an imprint of that celebration on their hearts and minds, they will always look with fondness at it, and be hard for them to leave it later. And if it's innocent when they're young, as young adults, high schoolers, when they go to university Halloween celebrations become a sexualized type of celebration, and you will not be able to stop it, you will not be able to tell them don't go it's wrong. You allowed it from the beginning.

It is a time when they become adults for sin, and it's not innocent anymore. Nothing innocent in it.

So if you don't want to face that reality, when your child will come later and say I'm going, there's nothing that you can do to stop it. You got to stop it now when they're young, and you better instill in them the meaning of what it is, and that we have our own needs. And the problem or the reason why we are attracted to these other AIDS

is because we really don't honor our own.

We don't take care of our own.

If somebody even a non Muslim, I asked you to objectively think rationally think about it, if a non Muslim would come and look at us from the outside. And we noticed that these people are honoring Christmas and Halloween more than their own age, wouldn't you think that there's a great imbalance

they are in neglecting their own aid but adopting the aid of other people, there's like something wrong with these people probably.

If we actually spend the effort, spend the money, spend the effort on our own a by the time Halloween comes your children are going to say I don't care about it.

I already have enough candy. When Christmas comes the people are gonna say you're chilling, and I don't care about it. I already have gifts, too many gifts. I don't care about this, because they already are satisfied.

on their own eat, that defines their own identity and brings them closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala does not bring them to obscene practices or wrong beliefs.

So you have to decide.

And even if, after all of that, even after all of that somebody says I'm still not convinced.

I'm going to say let us come also to a common point between us. What is this common point? celebrate whatever you want to celebrate, but I asked you that if you're a Muslim who has a man in his heart, or her heart, on your own ate more than other celebrations, at least you do that.

At least to begin let that be the first step.

We cannot be Muslims neglecting our own aid that a lot given to us.

Going and borrowing from other people. So I know your ad spent on it more than you spend on other things

and put more effort into it and make it a beautiful, joyous occasion more than any other age. And if you truly do that, you will notice something that the space that these other celebrations foreign celebrations has in your life and in the life of your family will start shrinking.

And the space for the A that Allah had given to us will start expanding.

And that is the blessing of obeying Allah subhanho wa Taala. But you have to do that you have to take the first step

because the only thing that is gonna unite us is going back to how the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to live and how his companions may Allah be pleased with them used to live, what did they use to celebrate and honor and what would they avoid? And we've seen from the example of our show, even the slight resemblance to something that other people were doing was something that raised the flag for the companions of Mohammed something that did not sit well with them. And they understood they had to be distinct and different.

I want to conclude by focusing on shorter

because I shorter has

a beautiful lesson for us.

And that lesson is

that Allah subhana wa tada will always come to the aid of his people.

And we take lessons from that individually, and as a community and as an oma. And we have to remember the days of Allah subhanaw taala and be conscious of them. Allah says only Latina,

Latina Latina Yama say to those who have to forgive those who do not anticipate or expect the days of Allah subhanaw taala and who those who do not expect it. There are those who don't believe in Allah subhana wa Taala don't believe that Allah acts in this world don't believe that there are consequences. So those who have a man expect and await the days of Allah subhana wa tada nashoba reminds us of those days, so few individually, are struggling with something.

If the community is struggling with something, if the owner is struggling with something, we know that if we return back to Allah subhanaw taala as Allah saved money from the oppression of Pharaoh, and that was a great oppression. Imagine if your children are being killed and slaughtered. Imagine if you are enslaved, you cannot worship Allah freely.

Imagine if your women are being enslaved, and you'll keep making dua and do and do

and eventually And finally, in front of you, destroys your enemy.

There is a triumph.

There is a blessing from Allah subhanho wa Taala.

And that thing is gonna keep repeating itself as long as we have a man in the last panel. It doesn't mean that our enemy or whoever is just going to be drowned exactly in the same way. No, but it means that a lot comes to the aid of those who turn to him. So we take lessons from that individually, you go back to Allah subhana wa tada and you will see the favours of Allah subhanho wa Taala as even he saw he saw that and as the community will see it and as an owner you will see it if we go back to Allah subhana wa Tada.

And we should celebrate.

Ashura are not celebrate necessarily, but commemorate Ashura in the way that the messenger sallallahu wasallam has done it.

Because there are some Muslims, may Allah guide them, who take that day as a mourning

for the death of proceeds of the law. And of course, we affirm that the death of kerosene and the killing of pristine around the Alon was great injustice should not have done and that he's a martyr. And he is from that one of who say you have an agenda. He and his brother, are the best of Shabaab and agenda, the youth of the people of paradise. So we understand that very well.

But it was not an Islamic practice has never been to commemorate the death of anyone.

It was not an Islamic practice to mourn the death of animals and to renew sadness every year. That is not in the Quran. Look at the Quran. And again, I'm saying let's come to a common point. Because what we want to do is we want to stretch what we agree on our commonalities and extend them.

So let's expand the commonalities. Let's look at the Koran objectively. Allah tells us in the Quran, there are many prophets who were killed, right?

many prophets were killed. Do you find in the Quran that Allah mourns the death of the prophets. He doesn't even tell her tell us the name. We don't even know who

They are we know that they were killed. We don't even know their name. But there is no mourning,

or the death of a prophet of the killing of a prophet. Allah does not command it does not dwell on it, as I said, doesn't even mention the name.

So you understand this is not the way of the Quran, the Quran is not there to a new sadness about the passing of so and so.

Look at the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam during his life, how many people did he lose? He lost his wife, and wives, he lost children, sons and daughters. He lost his uncle. He lost many companions, and it made him extremely sad.

For one of them, or for few of them, he continued to make do and be sad for a month.

But do we see from his cry that he ever designated a day where he says, This is the day of the martyrs of whether this is the day of the martyrs? This is the day of the martyrs and so on. So this is the day of my uncle, this is the day of my wife any day, such

or such, we don't find anything like that.

And in fact, from the beginning of the Prophet, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam till the year 61, one person was killed.

The Muslims never celebrated Ashura in that way, for 60 years, the best 60 years of Islam, Muslims never celebrated Ashoka in that way. So can we all go back to the way that we all commemorated Ashura by casting it and being closer to Allah subhanaw taala rather than all the things that we are doing today, hitting ourselves and crying about the death of Hussein and all of this or not, this is the common point. And if we can agree on these points, inshallah we can find other common points. But if not, then we ask Allah subhana wa tada to give us guidance and unite our hearts. So I remind you in sha Allah, before we leave too fast, on Monday and too fast also on Sunday because Allah

Subhana Allah Allah Allah will forgive the sins of the past here. And as you're fasting, have that intention, remember the lessons and see how can these lessons can be applied into your own life into your own very personal struggle into your own family struggle into your own struggle in your community, apply and take these lessons and Allah subhana wa tada will guide us and enable us inshallah to benefit from it so so lots of panel data, to make use of those who consider your virtual and to accept our fasting. While we ask you that you unite our hearts upon the truth. Allah we asked you that you unite our hearts upon the truth, and upon the sum of your messenger sallallahu

alayhi wa sallam.

All we asked you for all the good in this life and in the Hereafter, and we seek your refuge from all evil in this life and in the Hereafter, or long we asked you for Jenna and everything that brings us near to it. And we seek your refuge from jahannam and everything that brings us here to it. Allow me none as a local hero Kula when I became an usher recorded a

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