O servants of Allah! People of Islam (ahl-Islam)! People of the Qur’an (ahla l-Qur’an)! I want to remind myself and you that the most important, greatest mercy that we have been awarded with is our Lord’s guidance to His religion, to Islam. He honored you and me by making us from the people of Iman (Ahlul-Iman). Therefore, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) turned to families, people, and clans with the good news and said:
أيُّما أَهلِ بيتٍ منَ العربِ أوِ العجمِ أرادَ اللَّهُ بِهم خيرًا أدخلَ عليهمُ الإسلامَ
“Any clan (any family), be it Arabs or non-Arabs, if Allah wishes good for them, then He introduces Islam to them.”
The hadith was narrated by Ahmad (15917) and Ibn Majah (5956), Sheikh Muqbil called it authentic.
Appreciate this mercy of Allah towards you, and hold on to it tightly while you are alive, and do not get tired of thanking Allah (The Most Glorified, the Most High) a lot for it. Rejoice in this! Study the rules of this religion and follow them! And strengthen this religion, do not weaken it. And know that the greatest mercy of Allah (The Most Glorified, the Most High) is that He has made faith (iman) beloved for your hearts and that He has made unbelief (kufr) hateful for your hearts. Allah (The Most Glorified, the Most High) reminds us of this mercy in the Quran and says:
وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْإِيمَانَ وَزَيَّنَهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَكَرَّهَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَالْفُسُوقَ وَالْعِصْيَانَ
Allah has endeared faith to you, making it appealing in your hearts. And He has made disbelief, rebelliousness, and disobedience detestable to you.
(Quran, Surah “Rooms”, 49:7).
And then be aware, O servants of Allah, that people of unbelief and hypocrisy envy you with the utmost envy. You don’t realize it, but they are jealous of you. They envy you that Allah has guided you to this religion. They envy you for fulfilling the requirements of faith. They envy you because of the outcome promised by Allah (pure and exalted is He). They envy people who believe that they will be from the inhabitants of Paradise. Therefore, they strive to do everything to divert you from your religion by any means: words and deeds, seductions and threats, cunning and deception, sowing various doubts and confusing you. And Allah (pure and exalted is He) speaks about this in the Koran, if anyone reads the Koran for real, he knows this. Allah (pure and exalted is He) says:
وَدُّوا لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ كَمَا كَفَرُوا فَتَكُونُونَ سَوَاءً
They wish you would disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so you may all be alike
(Quran, Surah “Women”, 4:89).
O people of the Koran! O people of Islam! Be proud of your religion, hold your heads high. Seek greatness in following the precepts of this religion. If you truly follow this religion, then you will be great and then you will not be doomed to humiliation, then you will become stronger in hearts, unity and power. Look at what ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
إنَّا كنَّا أذلَّ قوم، فأعزَّنا الله بالإسلام، فمهما نطلب العِزَّة بغير ما أعزَّنا الله به أذلَّنا الله
“We were the most despicable (humiliated) people, and Allah exalted us through Islam. And whenever we try to gain greatness through something other than what Allah has exalted us with, Allah will humiliate us.”
Athar reported by al-Hakim (1/130), al-Albani called it authentic in “Silsila al-Hadith al-Sahiha” (1/117).
Every time we seek greatness not in Islam, but in something else, we will be doomed to humiliation, O servants of Allah.
O people of Islam, know that people around you need you and your religion. They need you for their worldly life and for their eternal life, so don’t be greedy, don’t skimp on your calling them to Islam! Don’t be stingy when it comes to inviting these people to Islam; they want and need you. In your religion you do not need any fictitious opinions and views. You do not need any innovations. You don’t need to follow any unbelievers. You don’t need to have any new celebrations. You don’t need the holidays of unbelievers and libertines, because this religion is complete, you don’t need any of this.
But, unfortunately, nowadays many Muslims – both men and women, instead of influencing people, explaining to them the mercy of this religion, teaching them the principles of this religion, they themselves are exposed to the influence of the enemies of this religion. Instead of explaining to people, on the basis of clear, precise arguments, with gentleness and decency, the religion of Allah (The Most Glorified, the Most High), on the contrary, they themselves are subject to pressure and attack from people of unbelief, from the atheists, from hypocrites, and respond to their call, and are influenced by their words and deeds, become like them and weaken this religion. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) informed us of this bitter fact, warning us, he said:
لَتَتَّبِعُنَّ سَنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ شِبْرًا بِشِبْرٍ وَذِرَاعًا بِذِرَاعٍ حَتَّى لَوْ دَخَلُوا فِي جُحْرِ ضَبٍّ لَاتَّبَعْتُمُوهُمْ
You will follow the ways of those nations who were before you, span by span and cubit by cubit (i.e., inch by inch) so much so that even if they entered a hole of a mastigure, you would follow them.
People said:
يا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ، اليَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى؟
“O Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)! (Do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?” He said,
فَمَنْ؟
“Whom else?”
Hadith narrated by al-Bukhari (3456).
These people are unbelievable! Islam exalted them and made them callers to mercy and the straight path, but they become captives of the people of unbelief, imitate them in their customs, imitate them in their morality, in their festivals.
O people of Islam! Every year at this time, in mid-February, probably on February 14, we see that from all sides the media in all their manifestations, Internet sites, social networks, retails, stores, advertising – everyone is calling for one of holidays, which is the holiday of the unbelievers. And this holiday, which adds even more corruption to the corruption that exists, and while so little modesty and chastity exists nowadays, also weakens them on this day. They call this holiday so cunningly in order to confuse people, they call it the ‘day of love’ or ‘Valentine’s day’. But this is generally the custom of the shaitan; he always embellishes some vile things and calls them beautiful names. He calls those who are treacherous, sincere, those who lead astray, he calls them guides to the straight path. Allah (pure and exalted is He) explained this custom of the shaitan to us, because the Shaitan swore to our father and our mother, Adam (peace be upon him) and Havwa, that he was sincere, in order to lead them out of Paradise:
وَقَاسَمَهُمَا إِنِّي لَكُمَا لَمِنَ النَّاصِحِينَ
And he swore to them, “I am truly your sincere advisor.” [I sincerely wish you a good]
(Quran, Surah “Fences”, 7:21)
O servants of Allah, O people of Islam! O people of the Quran and Sunnah! This holiday, what is called the day of love (‘idu l-hubb) or something else, a Muslim man and a Muslim woman do not have the right to celebrate. You cannot congratulate on this holiday, you cannot give gifts on this holiday, you cannot somehow highlight this holiday by wearing special clothes, or giving flowers, or saying special words, or sending letters, messages . You cannot decorate houses and any premises with some kind of emblems in the form of hearts, etc. All this is from the customs of unbelievers. This means spreading their delusions and being influenced by them. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) strictly forbade these things, restrained these things very strictly. He said:
وجُعِلَ الذُّلُّ والصَّغارُ على من خالفَ أمري ، و من تشبَّه بقومٍ فهو منهم
“May humiliation and contempt fall on those who disobey my orders. And whoever is likened to a nation is one of them.”
The hadith was transmitted by al-Bukhari in the form of mu’allaq before hadith 2914 and Ahmad (5667), Sheikh al-Albani called it authentic.
Ibn Kathir (may Allah Almighty have mercy on him) said: “Here is a [clear] indication of what is strictly prohibited, and here is a strong threat regarding likening the disbelievers (it is strictly forbidden to be like) the disbelievers, be it their words, or their deeds, or their festivals, or their rites of worship and other things proper to them.”
O servants of Allah, even if this holiday were invented by one of the Muslims, we would say: “It’s impossible, this is a terrible sin, and it is forbidden (haram).” What can we say then if it was also invented by people of unbelief? Even if it were Muslims who introduced this holiday, it would still be haram, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
مَن أَحْدَثَ في أَمْرِنَا هذا ما ليسَ منه، فَهو رَدٌّ
“Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours (i.e. Islam) that is not part of it, will have it rejected.”
Hadith narrated by al-Bukhari (2697).
And said:
كلَّ بدعةٍ ضلالةٌ
“Every innovation is a misguidance.”
Hadith narrated by Muslim (867).
Someone may say: “But this is a matter which is related to the world, to worldly issues.” No, O servants of Allah! The holiday at its core is the worship of Allah (pure and exalted is He). A holiday is a day that you rejoice in, it is something that brings you closer to Allah (pure and exalted is He), it is worship (‘ibadah). This is part of religion, so there can be no other holidays except those that Allah Almighty established for us. And we have already talked and mentioned that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when he arrived in Medina, saw that people were celebrating two days and having fun on these two days. And he asked: “What are these two days that you are celebrating?” They said: “We celebrated these holidays (these days) [Nawruz and Mahrajan] in the era of Jahiliya.” And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to them:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَبْدَلَكُمْ بِهِمَا خَيْرًا مِنْهُمَا: يَوْمَ الْأَضْحَى ، وَيَوْمَ الْفِطْرِ
“Allah has substituted for you something better than them: the day of sacrifice and the day of breaking the fast.”
The hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud (1134), an-Nasai (1556) and Ahmad (12006), Sheikh al-Albani called it authentic.
O people of Islam, in the end I want to remind you that not only you cannot celebrate this holiday yourself, but you also cannot help Muslims or non-Muslims in celebrating this, somehow reinforce and strengthen, somehow support people in the attributes of this day, whether by congratulating someone, or giving any gifts to them, or printing cards, making items related to this holiday, or drawing emblems, or making clothes, or selling all this, or selling special items, or flowers, or hearts, or preparing food for this holiday and selling it. This is prohibited (haram)! And the income that a person receives as a result of this is also prohibited, because Allah (pure and exalted is He) strictly forbade us from this and strictly threatened us and said:
وَلَا تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
do not cooperate in sin and transgression. And be mindful of Allah. Surely Allah is severe in punishment.
(Quran, Surah “Meal”, 5:2).
