Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Communal Secular Celebrations — 18:44
The second category of celebrations: communal festivities. Ibn Taymiyyah argued that communal festivities that are not sanctioned by Islam become a bid'ah, because the only communal celebrations are the two Eids. That's what he argued.
An example would be a national holiday — Mother's Day — where the government says this is a celebration, everybody should be off on this day. Yes, I agree Ibn Taymiyyah argued that is a bid'ah. But the question is: do you consider celebrations to be ritual or do you consider communal celebrations to be culture?
Those who said it's culture — and this is generally speaking the default of the madhhab-based groups — they say that celebrations that are non-religious are cultural. The religion doesn't have anything to do with them. You can't call it a bid'ah.
Fatwas of Grand Muftis — 19:59
If you look at the fatwas of the grand muftis of Egypt, of Jordan, of Libya — generally speaking, they're on this methodology. They're not endorsing these celebrations, they're not saying this is very important. But at the same time, they say, "This has nothing to do with the religion. It's not a religious thing. If you guys want to do it, do it."
And I'm very sympathetic to that. Religious folks should not be publicizing and taking the non-Eid festivities as the primary festivities. I agree with that. We don't want to lose the sanctity of the two Eids. But to say that a national day is haram according to Islam — that's a very big statement. And I don't find the evidence would come with that.
The Hadith of the Two Eids — 21:04
Nonetheless, Ibn Taymiyyah argues that the Prophet came to Madinah and they had two festivals and he said to them, "Allah has given you two better festivals." This is a valid hadith. The response is: the maximum you can extrapolate from this hadith is that it is better to avoid communal festivals as a polity, as a society. You cannot extrapolate haram, much less bid'ah, from the hadith. The max you can say is it's best to avoid it.
And I actually am sympathetic to this — religious scholars and clergy should not be at the forefront of encouraging festivals that are not of the religion. I actually agree with this. But encouraging versus seeing and participating are two different things.
The 4th of July Example — 21:53
So the 4th of July is a classic example. We're living in this country. There is the 4th of July. Everybody's off on that day. Blunt question: does Islam tell you that you are sinful, it's a bid'ah, it is haram for you to invite your family and friends in your backyard and have a barbecue? Is it haram for you to take your kids to watch the fireworks on the 4th of July? These are realistic manifestations of saying "celebrations — all of it is haram."
I respect those people and families and scholars who have that view. But I do say that they should think long term. If they make the religion extra difficult when Allah didn't make it difficult, the problem comes when you make the halal haram — you will trivialize the actual haram. Not everybody will be able to live up to your standard. And when you promote a type of Islam that is so ultraconservative and strict and your teenager grows up and that's his or her version of Islam, you have to worry — will they be able to maintain that, or will they reject everything because you weren't wise in how you dealt with your religiosity?
The Example of Ali ibn Abi Talib — 24:36
And by the way, the more you study, the more tolerant you become. You find so many narrations from the scholars of the past, from the Sahaba, that they were far more open-minded than many of the modern people. Ali ibn Abi Talib — and I don't need to tell you who Ali is — as the ruler in Kufa, and Kufa was majority non-Muslim. There were a lot of Zoroastrians in Kufa at the time, and the Zoroastrians have a festival called Nowruz. They still have it to this day — Iranians still celebrate it.
On the day of Nowruz, the Zoroastrian delegation came to the court of Ali and gave him gifts. They gave him something that is called in our books a mixture of cold drink and syrup and sharbat. He ate it. And he said, "What is this for?" And they said, "Today is our Nowruz." So he said, "May every day be a Nowruz" — meaning, if you're going to bring me this every single day, may every day be a Nowruz.
Are you going to accuse Ali of bid'ah? Are you going to accuse him of not understanding? Nowruz is a pagan festival, a festival of the Zoroastrians. Did he participate? He ate what they brought. Did he go to a temple? Did he bow his head? Did he invoke a false god? No.
Practical Conclusion on Secular Holidays — 27:03
I would say as a default, we should work to encourage Muslims to prioritize our own celebrations. The masjid should not be making a very big deal about non-Eid celebrations. The role of the masjid is to prioritize the deen. We have to make our festivals, make our children extra happy. And ideally, in a perfect utopic Islamic world, maybe the government should only have two Eids. But even then, which country in the world only has two days off? None. Every single Muslim country has a national day. Every single Muslim country has multiple days off. To say that Islam makes this haram — I think this is a bit too strict.
So the max you can say is: it's best to avoid making it a big deal as a community, especially for the scholars. But participating by seeing, by eating, by having barbecues because everybody's off — there's nothing wrong with that, because you're not endorsing anything else. It's just taking advantage of what is going on.