Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Question and Context — 0:00
Next question we have brother Nadeem asking that and this is actually brother Nadeem email but we have at least three or four questions so I'm gonna combine them all together that in his workplace there is a gift exchange that takes place around this time frame and even though the word Christmas is not mentioned still it happens around this season and everybody is supposed to give an anonymous gift they put it into the pool and then somebody gets to give this person gives the person in an anonymous manner so basically you.
Are participating so he is saying if I don't participate it looks very bad and if I do am i committing any sin as well we'll add on we'll tack this on as well that what should I do if my colleague passes by me and says Merry Christmas to me what should I do if they greet me with Merry Christmas alert each other so this is now the corporate setting okay we are now talking about you in your office place and you have these various things taking place in your.
Office once again we need to look at in the minima Lubin Ayotte and what is going on what is going on with this gift exchange is there any hint of worshipping other than allah subhanho wa taala are people giving their servitude to another God in this corporate environment or is it being done for camaraderie for pleasant environment of the corporation I think it is very clear that given the circumstances that we live in now given especially the secular nature of the Western world that these gifts are not being done to.
Worship other than Allah subhana WA Ta'ala you are not presenting it to a god a false God you're not presenting a platter to an idol this is a mutual gift exchange that is done for camaraderie for building some office rapport and in fact we have authentic narrations from the Sahaba in this regard of accepting gifts in fact this is much more than a Wyatt I'm gonna report to you is much more than what this brother is asking about this brothers is asking about secular corporate generic festivals in the America that.
We live in this is not in the church the Sahaba the I thought I am quoting you they were gifted from the religious communities because of the religious has festival not just some generic stuff and realized that the Sahaba they conquered lands that were majority non-muslim and in particular Iraq when they conquered it and of course Syria but in Iraq when they concreted was a land that predominately was a rest Rian's or Austrian right they were what we now call in our lands parties we call them in our india-pakistan parties.
Right they were called parties because they came from Persia far as Farsi so we call them parties so this Z Austrians they came because the Muslims conquered they came to India so these Austrians were the predominant people of those regions and there are multiple narrations from the Sahaba regarding the gifts that happen on their festival days the festival they have no rules for example so of them for example ali radiyaallahu and when he was the halifa of Kufa and of course he was surrounded by the austrians on the day of.
Nowruz he was gifted with many gifts from their religious leaders from the people he's the leader now and these are minorities so they want to now basically give so he was gifted many gifts and he accepted all of them no problem another narration I love this narration you'll see why he was gifted something called far lose edge this is in the hadith by the way okay they see people followed it isn't Pakistani don't worry it goes back ancient forests ancient Persia you did not invent follow that you don't worry it.
Goes back ok but the term is exactly the same now there follow that wasn't mango and.
Core Ruling and Evidence — 4:12
Kulfi and ice cream there followed that was honey and milk and other things but the acyl was you know what we have it's been of course we have now version 3275 I think but there are self eluded was a cold drink of milk and honey and other things now we have added mango lassi and other things and you know the weird weird worms and I know what you call it whatever you call it you know but what do you call it huh spaghetti noodles that are there all of that I'm.
Pretty sure the ancient and Iranians did not have that or out herbs you don't have far to Detroit uh-huh you have no idea what far ooh they just you don't know what you're missing you don't know what you're missing so I leave out the hola Juan and you will see why I love this narration and my respect for audio to the hola went up ten notches after this narration when I first came across it ah do the allaha Juan was gifted follow that he ate it and he loved it Mahalo.
To barik ala man after my heart he said what is this they said to this fan which said what what's this why are you gifting what is going on so they said today is no ruse Nowruz of course by the way what is notice narrows still in our Sanskrit and dinero's new day Nowruz today is no ruse it's the festival of the new years the holy day the holiest day for the Zoroastrians and still to this day iran celebrates Nowruz even the Muslim population celebrating it has become a different thing.
But anyway back then it was a religious festival akin to Christianity huh of sorry akin to Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever today is the day of Nowruz Nowruz is a religious festival they gifted ali radiya llahu and follow that what did my man say when he was gifted falooda CH may every day be a no ruse for you he went up respect much anywhere that is just to talk he deserving of a respect whether we like far with it or not but if you like falooda CH then mashallah but here's.
The point on Subhan Allah again to be gentle some strands they interpret Islam in a manner that life becomes so difficult and unreasonable and they claim to follow this Elif and the Salaf themselves had very different lives from those who claim to follow them in our times Holly Dodi Allah Wan is the who is he I mean this I mean do we need to give you the favela Valley is anybody gonna accuse him of not being following this elephant if he is is this Elif Ali rowdy Allah one is being.
Gifted follow that on the day of Nowruz like imagine a Christian gifting you because it is Christmas I'm gifting you this and he smirks he smiles it goes great every day should be an always give me this every day I don't mind you are not worshiping other than Allah when you eat falooda jonno Russa hamdulillah for that you're not worshiping other than Allah if your Christian neighbor gives you something on Christmas he's being happy on his day he gives us and now there are some conditions and I'll mention them assuredly.
Allahu anhum aisha radi allahu anhu was asked by one of the Sahaba we have some Zoroastrian neighbors so some of the Sahaba are back in Medina now okay I sure never went over there to to that place just to live there somebody is in the Medina and she asked Sasha we have some Zoroastrian neighbors they gift us on their Nowruz freedom which is there no news they gift us what do we do can we accept or not what does our mother say or the Elana listen whatever was sacrificed on that.
Day do not eat but whatever comes to you from fruits and plants meaning vegetables and non.
Practical Guidance and Caveats — 8:11
Meat eat so on that day they're gonna sacrifice to the false gods they're gonna mention the name of other than Allah as so each other don't eat that meat as there are strains because the restraint meat is different then I had a key table you should know this the restroom it is not a healthy table so the meat don't eat but the fruits and vegetables and follow dodges basically non non meat hamdulillah okay the fruits and vegetables is that eat from it the sweets eat from it no problem this is.
Our share of the Elohim as well we have a boo-boo Rosa who settled also in Iraq and he would tell his family his wife and his children that on the day of Nowruz anything that comes to you from the meat don't eat but anything else that comes go ahead and accept it and eat from it so what was her arm was there sacrificed because the Zoroastrians are not an Akita so if they give you some meat do not take their meat but if they give you anything else sweets halwa let.
Do anything no problem accept it these are the Sahaba and their day was the holy day so in the corporate world that we live in this isn't even Christmas what they're asking us to do there is no deification done nobody is worshiping a baby God nothing like this is happening it's just too generic now obviously if we're in a Muslim land and you are a corporate owner why would you do this on the 25th of December for you I will say fear Allah is diligent we have our rituals or our.
Festival but when you are going to work and the corporate over here has announced that's okay on the what days is Julie's in 15 20th what day is usually than 20th or so right anybody when is it usually done was before Christmas or after Christmas before Christmas the 20th or so right in the week before yeah so yeah a 15th whatever on this day everybody bring a $20 gift we'll pull our names from a bag and we'll just swap over gifts okay where is the worship being done to other than.
Allah nothing how can it be made Haram I agree if you are in charge of the company and you're in a Muslim then why would you bring in on the 25th of December but that's not the case here so colossal only has enough there is nothing wrong whatsoever in participating in this exchange of gifts in fact even more than this if they actually gift you on the day for the day because of the day we have the I thought of the Sahaba here you can accept and then when your turn.
Comes you give them back when it's the day of Eid I actually encourage all of you on the day of Eid to bring something special for your colleagues to bring something extra this is a means of that wa nobody can say no to some baklava okay nobody can say no to some nice you know good AB jamming or bring follow that mashallah because we have adopted falooda Jinnah we took it from them we upped the bar we raised it mashallah because now Fallujah has is mashallah the mother of all which.
Is ice-cream now you have ice-cream mashaallah Tabarrok Allah Ben & Jerry's vanilla by the way that would work is good on falooda sure just FYI so if you gift your colleagues follow that gonna be difficult but if you manage to do that or anything good on the day of eat and then they gift you back on their Christmas or holy days there's nothing wrong with this as long as what they're gifting you is hella obviously