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!!!
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”.
I liked reading Ten Commandments more then the post. It is just matter of time when we adopt with variation the customs of our newly settled country and there is nothing wrong or right about it. It is a just a social process. The point is how well we adopt mainstream customs within the Islamic framework based on monotheism. Important is how well we are able to introduce our own customs and traditions in this society (i.e. EID, Milad, Ameen, Bismillah, Aqeeqa, Rooz khushae, Shabe Barat, use of Salam or Aadab as more welcoming salutation) list can go on. We Muslims have lots to learn and share. We need to be open about it.
The idea about our own theme costume is a good one but it is no small feat and take lots of imagination and improvisation and lots of resources.
Ye kaam kuch ziyada hi mahnat talab hai… aur her saal kuch mushkil hai….product design, saaman ki khareed, napna, katna, silna, trial and error etc….
Thanksgiving hi kafi hai :)
Dear, I believe that islam is very flexible religion. No one have the right to stop you from enjoying and celebrating anything unless it causes harm to someone like if you play music and dance when somebody died next door to your house/apartment. besides that the problem is that where do we draw the line like what is ok and not according to our tradition and sharam-o-hyaa.
you are very right that it is not what we do but what our intentions are - is important. even quran says that you will be judged not on your actions but what your intentions were.
Times are changing man. You think americans don’t see, but I was raised a catholic, and I see the brainwashing for what it was, all religions contain some measure of it. Like flavors of ice cream. Religion seeks to define the infinite. I have no issue with your flavor of worship, as long as you can be tolerable in others preference. I’m actually Irish-american, and Halloween was my people’s holiday, long before Christianity came to that little Island. What’s wrong with pagan religions? Once we worshiped the stars, the sun, the moon, and the earth. We thanked the universe that made us. What’s the difference, in a particular flavor of religion, if they all nurish us? If they feed the soul? The thing we must remember is these books were written by men, and over time, chapters have been added so that the religion can control the people, but for man’s advantage. So, that one may profit over the few obeying. Those added chapters have nothing to do with the soul. Nothing to do with life. Here’s a bit of advice of all muslims, your culture and religion must be mutable, able to absorb the good of other cultures, and to blend, obviously you wish to keep your culture identity, and so you should. But keep the good, toss the archaic, life is change.
Sorry, there’s a typo in the comment above. I meant to say that old people’s homes often host parties on Halloween. There is trick or treating and costumes without any of the death or devil association. It’s very nice for kids, unless they are some of those unfortunate suburban kids who have learned to be “grossed out” by old people because they don’t live with/never visit theirs.
Another option is actually in the churches, many of them host “harvest parties” with costume and candy as a substitute for “Halloween”. The good ones won’t spend the evening trying to convert you.
Really though, especially this year right on the heels of Eid Al-Fitr I can understand those Muslims who don’t participate, it is something that comes from a foreign culture. But it’s also mostly a kid’s festival, and if your kids want to get a bag of candy and dress up, there are some different non-religious ways to do it, a couple of which I mentioned above. That way they can go to school and compare the “loot” with their peers and peace will reign in the world…..
Tina, you are right. Christian fundamentalists also do not like Halloween for same reason as Muslim fundamentalist. But for us who just want to have a little fun without hurting anyone or offending anyone, it is no big loss. Both are scary enough without the costumes anyhow!
Thank you for the comments. I respect the criticism. I knew this when I was sending it to Pakistaniat that people will question my beliefs based on this article and measure my musalmaniat. However, please bear in my mind, my point is not to promote Halloween, not to compare it with our Eids but to say that “trick or treating” does not exclude you from Islam. If you agree great, if you don’t let’s just agree to disagree.
Regards
As always, people seem to miss the point of the post. No one is or ever has suggested that Halloween is an Islamic festival. It is the fundamentalist idea that by enjoyng something that is ‘not in’ Islam we actualy become ‘unislamic’. There are Talibal who kill people because they shave and wear trousers, since these are also not ‘in’ Islam. Same extremists shout against Halloween for same reason.
The real point here is not about what is or is not in Islam, it is about the tendency of people to interfere with other people’s faith. If we spent half the time trying to become good Muslims ourselves that we spend telling others how they are bad Muslims, then maybe some of our problems will disappear.
Lot of Christians these days are against Halloween as well because it’s “of the devil”. In fact, I think the extreme fundie Christians have always been against it.
If you would like your kids to enjoy the costume and trick or treating without the devil, demon, and horror aspects, call to some of your local old people’s homes in the U.S.A. They often host families in which the elder ones give out candy and host a party for the children. The kids (dressed up very cute) take their bags around the rooms and then have a harvest dinner in the community area.
This is a great and very safe way to enjoy the event with kids, and gives a day of enjoyment to the old people who are unfortunately left in these homes. It’s also good for the kids to spend time with the grandmas and grandpas there.
I don’t see how anyone could find anything un-Islamic in that. Try it, it might be a good compromise.