Last year we had a discussion on Halloween in Pakistan and this year we’ll try to see the issues faced by the Pakistani community when they try to celebrate or try to shy away from Halloween while living abroad.
It has been boiling inside of me since that fateful day when I went to a mosque for an Iftari last Ramzan. I have a very good friend who is a part of the management at one of mosques and he invited me to come to the mosque for an iftari and a dars (sermon) by the resident maulvi. Coincidentally, I had to pass a few of his earlier invitations because of one commitment or another, so I decided to go this time. I sent him a confirmation email a day before that I will be there. However, I asked him that will he exclude me from Daira-e-Islam (circle of Islam) if I did not listen to Mullah and leave before he speaks. My friend, as expected from a gentleman that he is, sent me an email indicating his agreement with a smiley at the end.
Just to give you a little background. I am not an atheist. I consider myself a proud Muslim. I have indeed gone through my phases of atheism, agnosticism and all kinds of confusions when it comes to religion but I am thankful to God that I have evolved as a believer. When I look back, I realize that I never had any issues with Islam but I have always had issues with Muslims. To this day, I hate to see Islam used and abused by none other than the followers of this great religion.
Anyway, when I arrived at the mosque for the Iftari, my friend introduced me to the Maulvi. He seemed like a decent educated chap. After my meeting with him, my friend asked me again, if I wanted to stay for the sermon. It was hard to say no at that point. The sermon started off well and then at one point the maulvi revealed to the crowd in a very dramatic tone, that if all of the people in the mosque knew that their house was on fire. There was a silence in the room. The maulvi took another dramatic turn and said “ your house is on fire”! There was a murmur in the crowd. The maulvi repeated this statement three or four times and then asked the people, “do you want to know why?”. Some of the front row enthusiasts replied in a yes and the maulvi unfolded the mystery. The point was that our houses were on fire was because we live next to the biggest Satan, the United States. Damn! I mumbled under my breath.
I hate this meaningless US bashing. I am no fan of Mr. Bush and in fact I have several issues with the US policies. I think most of the times they are manipulative and sometimes just plain stupid. Having said that, I want to emphasize on the fact that I have no hard feelings against the American people. As a Pakistani Muslim, I believe we have a political conflict with the Unites States government and it does not translate into a war between Americans against the Muslims. The American people are simple and ignorant people like us. The difference is that they have been trapped inside a bubble. They have no idea about the outside world. All there is to them is the US and all they know about the outside world is via a biased media. It is not their fault that they are not aware of the reality of the Middle Eastern conflict. If you live with these people, you discover that hey are friendly, family oriented people with their own value system. Not every one is having sex with everyone else. Jerry Springer is not depicting the real American culture. Like us, these people too work hard to provide for their families and are not striving or conniving to destroy Islam or Muslims. It’s a political conflict , let’s keep it a political conflict!
The next trigger for this article was an email in one of the mail lists that I subscribe to titled “Surviving Halloween”. The title pretty much describes the essence of the e-mail. Here is a quote from the e-mail.
“How can we worship only Allah, the Creator, if we participate in activities that are based in pagan rituals, divination, and the spirit world? May Allah protect us from such misguidance”.
This email also had several quotations from Quran and forbade muslims to become a part of the pagan ritualistic tradition of Halloween like
“So many people participate in these celebrations without even understanding the history and the pagan connections, just because their friends are doing it, their parents did it (”it’s a tradition!”), and because “it’s fun!” Allah described such people in the Qur’an: “When it is said unto them, ‘Come to what Allah has revealed, come to the Messenger,’ they say, ‘Enough for us are the ways we found our fathers following.’ What! Even though their fathers were void of knowledge and guidance?” (Qur’an > 5:104)
I am not a religious scholar and so the first question I raise is what is the context of this quotation from Quran? Is it not that Arabs had traditions of burying daughters, worshipping idols, etc or it can be applied to children dressing up in cartoon characters and going to every home in the neighborhood to collect candy?
The second question I would raise is what does Quran say about people who use religion and quotations from Quran to serve their personal hidden agendas and what does it say about the people who in their sheer ignorance propagate these views by forwarding such emails. This emotional, exploitive rhetoric is shaping up the views and opinions of our new generation.
The third question is that being a Pakistani Muslim living in North America, if our children go “trick or treating” are they really defying the principles of Islam? I may not have an answer to the first two questions but I do believe that I know the answer to third question. I do believe that Islam is about sharing joy and love. As some one on the same mail list pointed out that we should be celebrating to the extent that we understand that it is sharing in other peoples ‘happiness and festivals’. However, at the same time we should be explicitly clear in our understanding (and our communication to kids) that this is not part of our religion. There should not be any harm as long as this understanding is clear. The gentleman also pointed out a risk that with the passage of time, this understanding or differentiation may not remain clear, and these festivals may be considered a part of Islam. I agree and with my decision to live in the “West”, I took the responsibility to provide and maintain that line of demarcation bteween our’s and their’s culture and religion.
I agree that Halloween may have roots in pagan rituals but why do we care? Can’t we look at the bigger picture? Do you know where suit and tie comes from that you wear to work everyday? Tie symbolizes a cross. It is a very Christian thing but wearing a suit and tie does not make me Christian because that is not the ‘Neeyat’ (intention). Even your namaz (prayer) is not complete unless you make a ‘Neeyat’. Do you know where Mehndi (before your wedding) comes from you? Who cares? We adapted Hindu culture because we lived with them from hundreds of years. We didn’t adapt worshipping their gods but things that don’t hurt our basic religious principle are fine. Spreading joy and laughter is not unislamic!!! We live in multicultural society. Why can’t we be a part of other people’s festivities and share happiness? I loved it when my white, Canadian friends come to my house on Eid for Sheer Qurma. Why can’t we stop bashing everything American (even though Halloween is not originally American)? Why can’t we spread some joy and love in the world? Why do we have to highlight the differences and spread hatred? Why can’t the world be just one big happy place?
I watched the Halloween episode of the show “little mosque on the prairie”, and I loved the idea. a Halloween with a cultural twist? Can’t we have our children dressed up like chotay nawab with the kurta, pajama and topi? Can’t we have the bulbul and Jugnoo from Iqbal’s nazm Hamdardee. Can’t we have the Khattak dancer and girl from Thar costumes? If someone comes and tell me this is un-Islamic, the I only thing I can tell them is …Hip Hip Hurrah for Halal-oween!!!
Photo Credits: First photo is taken by the author himself. Other photos for this article have been taken from flickr.com
About the Author: Muslim Rizvi is working as a Solutions Manager for an IT service company. He is based just outside of Toronto, Canada . Muslim is a writer, a poet, a painter, a playwright, an actor and a director and has been associated with theatre for over a decade. These days however, he is playing the role of a full time father and in his own words: “the artist in me died when a father in me was born”.
Perhaps we could conclude this ghostly bit with the following quote:
“Given our terrible and increasing surrender to paganism the only day we should be observing is a day of mourning. Better yet it should be a day of repentance that could liberate us from all these days. And all this daze.”
I might add that with the mess that Pakistan is in and the way Pakistani-hyphenated this or that country are being looked upon and the way some try to be more gringo than the white is the nightmare scenario in itself. How can anyone in his right mind think that Islam would be indifferent to practices seeped in anti-Islamic ideas and beliefs? Islam came to destroy paganism in all its forms and it cannot tolerate any trace of it in the lives of its followers.
Further, Islam is very sensitive about maintaining its purity and the unique identity of its followers. Islamic laws and teachings go to extra lengths to ensure it. Salat is forbidden at the precise times of sunrise, transition, and sunset to eliminate the possibility of confusion with the practice of sun worship. To the voluntary recommended fast on the tenth of Muharram, Muslims are required to add another day (9th or 11th) to differentiate it from the then prevalent Jewish practice.
May Allah (SWT) strengthen our faith. Ameen.
PS: BTW on this Nightmare called Halloween, Americans spent $5 billion according to The Economist. (Oct 27, 2007)
The thing which makes me laugh when I read statements by veteran self-acclaimed intellectuals like MQ and Akif Nizam when they say something about Islam. When they try to make fun of it, they think they are making fun of those who try to follow religion as if Islam was actually created by those who follow it? what a sad mentality I must say. In ancient times, nations did same mistake when they made fun of religions and its associative people(Prophets) to diss those who want to follow Islam in its true shape rather “My favorite” version. What happened with those, all of you have read(even if you don’t believe in it!)- So naturally, I would even provoke much such elements like MQ and Nizam to make more and more offensive comments about Islam as they’re being more helpful for me. So our respectable and aged members like Nizam and MQ are expected more and more make fun of Islam- After all I always need practical implementation of what Quran said about ancient nations who disobeyed than suffered. Thank you Sirs, may All power will you. Ameen.
The only way you can hurt me(or others like minded) if you try to follow Islam more eagerly and passionatly than us who participate. then we will feel jealous or maybe get hurt as well by thinking,”Yar mey us jaise kion nahi?” but since this is impossible so will always be thankful that adil najam has gathered people here who are rather like “Oxygen” for people like me who experience you guys and Thank God that He gives me opportunities to experience mentality which He explained in Quran.
as far as Birthdays, regardless what a religion says about it, I think its just a crazy thought one gets happy when an year is reduced from his/her life journey. Ahmaqana soch I must say.
If you guys are happy that one year is reduced from your life- Go for It!- I will also celebrate the moment with you;)
“there really is a parallel universe”
Ali, it may be parallel, but in different time zones…….a difference of about…..give or take, fifteen hundred years.
If I got it right, it is all very straightforward. No Halloween; No birthdays; No wedding parties; no Basant; no Independence Day celebrations; No music; No songs; No TV; No mix-gatherings; No laughter; No this; No that.
Can we render it simpler than that? I doubt it. Although this apparently strict interpretation may seem impractical in this day and age, I can assure doubters it is not. All these prohibitions are practical and viable. And I am not just saying it for the sake of being seen as an absolute devout. We have to thank the wonderful experiment conducted over a length of time by our Taliban brothers to prove that a nation, oops an Ummah, can still thrive in an atmosphere of prohibition all around. The list of NOs might be giving an uninitiated person a delusion of a boredom but it is not. Any Taliban worth his salt from Kandahar can vouch for the fun this lifestyle entails. Not for nothing Stadia, erstwhile used for Satanic activities such as game of football, in Kabul, Herat and Jalalabad used to be full-houses on Friday afternoons
While those of us living in decadent west might not find it easier to re-enact the ideal society from across Durand Line, they can always return home to Pakistan (a non-Islamic political entity since there is no concept of a nation-state in Islam by he way), where efforts are underway, at least in some parts, to replicate the ideals of the Emirate (1996-2001). Pakistan is not short of grounds either for recreating the fun and Islamic Friday afternoons. There is no shame in learning from the success of others, the Taliban in this case.
Very well written and meaningful,needs a little more research
I would like to add:
“Yeh kia janeyn bechareay dou rakat kaey Imam
qoum kia hai qoumoon ki immamat kyia hai.”
Most of them try to misguide the nation as they are not aware of new scientific social developments around them.
All the best
Mehdi
We are still like stubborn staying with the rotten
helloween, which does not bring us any good.
there really is a parallel universe
Ibrahim,
There is no pinch of a doubt that Islam does not
appriciate israaf on such and such occasions, we
have chosen to live, with free will, in :
Darul Harb or
Darul Amn or
Darul Islam or
Dar al Ahl-e-Kitab etc .
Now, if we look at all the countries we come from,
they are “officially” non Dar-ul-Islam, HOW ?
We agree: all the so called countries of muslims have
No Islamic basic Human rights,
No Government gives any Islamic social guarantees,
Education, Child care, Health, Pension,
Employment, unemployement benifs, social
justice, Normal justice, protection of any kind,
provision of any facilities, no one has his or her
respect guaranteed, free media, journalism etc.etc
I am only talking about Islamic guarantees, in the absence
of such basic Islamic rights, are we not trying to do
” baile kay agay gari jottna”.
Since 400 years the corrupt backward division among fuqahas and their schools and furqahs have contributed nothing but weakness and lupeholes, with Ijtihad’s doors closed and monopolised, a layman ask questions we
can not avoid, 21st century is not the outcome of Islamic
degradation, of course, colonials are there to dominate, efface Islam with the help of seculars and communists,
we know that, but what are the strategies of the present
day Islamic Scholars ?
We see that they are only involved in “furo’aat” giving Fatwas from Al Azhar at random to make the Hakim
happy, or calm down the westerners of their worries.
.
Look at our electoral list in any country of muslims,
from, Eygpt to Bangladesh, wins the “elections 99.98% “.
Look at Fazlurrehman and his corrupt religio-political
party, any thing is permitted, why learned, educated
open minded Islamics have no “say”. Do you disagree
that what ever participation of Islamics we have,
are marginal Jahils, and instrumentals to Seculars,
communist, socialist shobdehbaz circus mentors ??
We need imperatively a combined Islamic front without
our fur’oaat of thousand years of Ummayyadism, you
were agitated on this subject, do you think Muawwiya
was elected ???? our problem is arab ummayyadist
politics among non arab nations. It does not fit with our
temprament and human history.
I am completely solidaire with you against Indian run
Pakistani “politixs” patronised by leftist hooligans.