The Truth About Haramoween, I mean Halloween
Salam,
Calling all goons and goblins, Trick or treat? Smell my feet, Oh wait I don’t have wudu, ha ha. Oh and if your wondering about the picture, you will probably see alot of people dressed up as joker this year, maybe even Sarah Palin since she is losing the election and will have time to waste.
First of all I would like to say I love eating candy although I should chill out because diabetes runs in my family like cheetahs. I don’t want to be shooting up insulin anytime soon. Back in the days when I didn’t know anything about Halloween and I was keeping it hood, I used to be mad cheap and just throw mad powder on face, the bootleg Casper. It was economically efficient for the hood, sort of like cleaning your jewels with toothpaste, ha.
Anyhows I am not against giving kids candy when they come to my door, with the condition they don’t toss eggs. What does bother me is Muslims celebrating Halloween without knowing it’s history.
Now of course as a Muslim you live life according to certain principles. We all know that Islam merges with culture as long as it brings about religious values. Now Halloween as a holiday has an interesting history, I didn’t say religious holiday because Christians don’t identify it as a religious holiday. Though there is still some uncertainty on my end.
Nevertheless here are some quick facts about Halloween that I believe you should know before you break out the jack o lanterns and take some ghost tours.
- Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain, the Traditionally, the festivalpagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores.
was a time used by the ancient - The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops.
- The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them
That’s some freaky stuff, oh yea and as far as jack o lanterns are concerned. This is a short history about how they came up with Halloween.(source:wikipedia)
Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the “head” of the vegetable to frighten off any superstitions.
Now that’s how it all started, and yea you might say well now it’s completely different. It’s all about candy, wylin out, going to parties, watching eggs break. The bottomline is that it has an origin based on ideas and beliefs that contradict Islam, so as submitters to the will of the one true god (Allah swt) we fall back and celebrate when the time is right on the holidays given to us by God Almighty and celebrated by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Let’s keep it real, It’s all about consumerism. Everyone get’s hyped off some character they want to be, this year everyone is going to be sweating the joker costume and barrack Obama or John McCain. Oh yea one more quick point, this Halloween issue might not be that serious to most of you but it was relevant for the time so I put it up. So yea having your kids wear a devil mask and begging for candy will psychologically have an affect on them.
I conclude by saying that as Muslims we act upon intention and guidance. So it is what it is for the case of Halloween, don’t get it twisted. I end with this with a funny video, of one my friends a couple of years ago on the bus to the Icna convention asking one of our imams a question about Halloween. As you will see he gets the on the spot phatwa. (listen closely haha), so chill yo no hiding the face yo.
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