Author: Sabour Al-Kandari

Asalaamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatu,

OPEN THREAD! This means you comment, we read, you comment again, and we either pick a fight or learn something.

Reading week is upon us! Of course, it goes without saying that any sort of reading is blasphemy for the next 10 days, but since this isn’t school work, it seems like a great time to get a lot of website news up to date.

First, as you may have noticed, I’ve been playing around with the colours and added a winter effect. I’m a newbie photoshopper so just to let you guys know these things aren’t difficult if you try them, it doesn’t take much skill to google/youtube a quick lesson for what you want and implement it. Anywhoo the idea is to have some colour and thematic changes corresponding to stuff that’s actually happening, like for example the snow effect came on snow day, and something like a student NOT reading would correspond to reading week =).  Constant updates like that sort of give the feel that this website is still alive, and that I haven’t spontaneously fluctuated into another dimension, at least not yet anyway. This is where you guys come in, what do you think of the plan? Do you have any sort of cool effects or days in mind? Do you think such updates are better to be more frequent or less frequent? I didn’t want to make this into a poll because I need a little bit more detailed feedback.

Speaking of polls, can someone please look to the right and tell me WHAT is going on? Over half of our people are officially giving their school progress a death sentence. This is not cool guys, it’s a bit alarming if such a large amount of us aren’t feeling hype for school. Yes I know the education system sucks, but there still are ways to make the most of it. I wrote an article a few weeks back about doing better in school in case you missed it. Obviously that’s not really going to do much, but the point is to start a dialogue and get people to thinking that maybe it’s possible to really enjoy school. Drop a comment, especially if you voted (which all of you should if you’re on the website). What’s wrong? How are we going to fix this? Is there anything the MSA can do?

Another thing on the technical side is I’m thinking about integrating facebook comments on the website. This is really just a thought at this point and I have a bit of research to do, but I think it might encourage people to comment and *share* articles with their friends more. For some reason people are not too keen on commenting or *sharing*, they think you need a log-in account (you don’t need ANYTHING), and some feel overly-formal when writing. I want people to feel a part of a community on this website, but there’s no “u” in “community” at this point – oh wait there it is, err you get what I mean.

Also, we’re in need of blog submissions, so start cracking. If you have something interesting to share, write it, send it in, and as most of the authors have noticed I do give feedback and help throughout the process. Your brothers and sisters will benefit, you can tell your parents you’re a published writer, and they in turn will exaggerate further and tell their friends over dinner that you’re a best-selling author. I haven’t personally written as much as I’d like to, so I’d like to know what type of articles and categories are you interested in reading?

Oh yeah, this is a reading week thread too. Some of us have had our tests before and some will have it after insh’Allah.  10 days is a really long time guys, there’s a lot of potential to get some really beneficial stuff done (both Deen and dunya) and also have a ton of fun, so what do you have planned? Maybe your ideas will serve as encouragement for the benefit of others insh’Allah.

Author: Ahsan Aqeel

Before I discuss whether Muslims should be celebrating Halloween or not, I will describe its origin and how it evolved through out many years into what it is today.

Halloween is said to have originated from the Eve of Samhain. Samhain marks the start of winter and the first day of the New Year among the ancient pagans of the British Isles. At this time, it was believed that supernatural forces gathered together and that the barrier between the supernatural and human worlds was broken. They (the pagans) believed that spirits from other worlds (such as the souls of the dead) were able to visit earth during this time and wander. Also, on this occasion, another festival was celebrated for the “sun god” and the “lord of the dead”. The “sun god” was thanked for the harvest and the moral support for the upcoming struggle with winter. The pagans made sacrifices of animals and crops to please the gods. The pagans also believed that on October 31st, the “lord of the dead” gathered all the souls of the people who had died that year. The souls upon death would dwell in the body of an animal, then on this very day the lord would announce what form they were to take for the following year.

Christianity
When Christianity came to the British Isles, many churches attempted to get rid of these pagan rituals by replacing them with their own holiday on the very same day (e.g. October 31st & February 14). In Christianity, the Feast of All Saints recognizes the saints of the Christian faith as pagan gods by Samhain. The custom of Samhain survived and became intertwined with the Christian holiday. These cultural tradition and practices then became widespread and brought into the US and Canada through European immigration.

Halloween’s Traditions and Customs
Have you ever wondered why kids, teens, young adults and adults go from house to house saying: “Trick or Treat”?

It is believed that during the Christian holiday – the Feast of All Saints, many of the peasants went from door to door asking for money to prepare for the upcoming feast. Furthermore, people dressed in various costumes would play tricks on their neighbours and blame the resulting chaos on the spirits and goblins – so it was sort of like begging mixed with being the local jerk.

You might have seen images of black cats, bats, and vampires etc for Halloween. The reason for using these specific animals is that they were “able to communicate with the spirits of the dead” and that black cats housed the souls of witches.

As for games such as bobbing for apples, the ancient pagans used these as divination techniques to foresee the future. There were various methods of doing this, and many have continued through traditional games that are often played at children’s parties.

The Jack-O-Lantern is based on the mythology surrounding a stingy, drunken man named Jack. This legend is famous in Ireland and their culture. There are many, many different variations of this legend but all of them hover around the story that Jack played a trick on the devil whereby the devil promised not to take Jack’s soul. When death fell upon Jack, he was denied entry into heaven because he was mean, drunk and stingy. Since he already had an agreement with the devil, he became lost on earth with nowhere to rest. The devil then gave Jack a “lighted coal” from the hellfire, which Jack placed in a carved out turnip and used as a lamp. From that day onward, Jack travelled all over the world with his Jack-O-Lantern in search of a resting place. The practice of carving out vegetables to use as lanterns was common in Ireland and Britian, and this became embedded with the mythology surrounding the Jack-O-Lantern and eventually adopted into Halloween. When these practices were brought to America in late 1840s through immigration, the people discovered pumpkins made better lanterns and thus the usage of pumpkins for Halloween became an American tradition.

Islam on Halloween

As can be seen from the history of these practices, Halloween is deeply rooted in a number of major sins such as shirk (idolatry) and sihr (black magic) which are mixed with Paganism and Christianity. As Muslims, we believe firmly in tawheed (nothing is worthy of worship except for Allah) and we direct all of our acts of ibadah (worship) towards Allah, including prayer, sacrifice, and supplication. Any sort of reverence towards shayateen and seeking their help through black magic, fortune-telling and other rituals are seen as selling-out the akhira for a measly price in the dunya. As Muslims we should only celebrate what is permitted in Islam and honour and uphold our faith and beliefs. How can we as Muslims pray salat (or namaz), read Al Qur’an yet partake in these pagan rituals, divination and the crazy “spirit world”? It is important to educate ourselves about the roots of these holidays! Knowledge is heavily encouraged in Islam, and in today’s world informing ourselves about simple history is just a few clicks away :). Many might say that they do not believe in any of the ideas and only enjoy the candy, but even that requires a degree of compromise and agreement with what everyone is doing. Christians themselves used to be a people of tawheed at one point, but all of the compromises and mixing up of religion eventually lead to the norm we see today. So brothers and sisters, inform as many Muslims as you can about this pagan holiday and how sinful it is to part-take in any of its form. Holidays are not just excuses to binge and be reckless. In Islam, our holidays retain their religious importance, while allowing proper time for rejoicing, fun and games.

Verses from the Qur’an:

It is said in Al 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)

“Has not the time arrived for the believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been revealed to them? That they should not become like those to whom was given the Book aforetime, but long ages passed over them and their hearts grew hard? For many among them are rebellious transgressors.” (Qur’an 57:16)

Sources:
Wikipedia, “About.com – Shamhain”, Encyclopedia (Microsoft version)
Picture taken from getaroom (google images) of the halloween pumpkin.