Non-Muslim Religious Celebrations & Ruling On Part Participating

Sheikh Muhammad Salih al-Monajjid
Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 57 | Size: 1 MB

The conflict between truth and falsehood is ongoing and will last as long as this world remains. The fact that some groups among the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) are following the people of falsehood such as the Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, idol-worshippers and others, whilst a group is remaining steadfast to the truth despite the pressures, is all part of the decreed system of the universe. But this does not mean that we should give in and follow the ways of those who are astray, because the one who told us that this would inevitably happen also warned us against following this path, and he commanded us to adhere firmly to Islam no matter how many people deviate from it and no matter how strong they become. He told us that the blessed one is the one who adheres steadfastly to the truth no matter what the distractions, at a time when the one who does righteous deeds will earn the reward of fifty men whose deeds are like those of the Sahaabah (may Allaah be pleased with them) – as was reported in the hadeeth of Abu Tha’labah al-Khushani (may Allaah be pleased with him).

Among the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) there will be people who deviated from the truth and went towards falsehood, changing and altering things. Their punishment will be that they will be kept away from the Hawd (Cistern) whilst those who adhered to the Straight Path will come and drink from it. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:

“I will precede you to the Cistern, and men from among you will be brought to me, and when I stretch forth my hand to them, they will be pulled away. I will say, ‘O Lord! My followers!’ and it will be said:

‘You do not know what they innovated after you were gone.’” According to another report: “I will say: ‘May he be doomed, the one who changed (the religion) after I was gone.’”

The Ruling On Meat Slaughtered In The West

Imam ‘Abdullah ‘Azzam
Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 52 | Size: 1 MB

“…During my visits to the West, and when I am being served meals on planes or in restaurants in Europe or America, I would find that I was very hesitant to eat the food, and I wanted very much to search for halal food and find that pure bite to eat in order to protect any part of my flesh from being nourished on haram, as the Fire is more deserving of every bit of flesh nourished on the haram…”

This is a treatise that I had written a few years ago at the start of my frequent visits to the West – especially America – to attend student conferences organized by the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) that have been held until this year, and it is an annual conference that takes place during Christmas, which falls at the end of each Gregorian year. MAYA was the precursor to many Islamic organizations, and the Muslim Youth Association in America was formed from the Muslim Student Association (MSA), which initially was composed of just thirteen students in Chicago.

And this issue has concerned me on my travels, and I exhausted myself in investigating it. If there is anything I could forget, I could never forget my visit to Spain as I was making my way around Grenada and Cordova, as the Islamic awakening there had not yet led to any viable communities forming that could operate their own markets and shops, especially those for halal foods and meats. So, I would spend most of my trip eating roasted pistachios.

I dug deeply into this issue – and it deserves to be dug into deeply – as the West has its own system of life. Carcasses and pork are not considered prohibitions in their daily life. In fact, pork and lard are ingredients in many products and desserts, and the life of the Muslim in the West has become unbearable considering the temptations that surround him and the prohibited ingredients that are found in most foods – in many places, you will find that even bread is made with lard!

The problem also has spread to most of the Muslim lands, with the Muslim populations and nations importing meat from Communist and Western nations without giving any consideration as to the status of the permissibility of such meat. When concerns are raised here and there from those who are hesitant to eat imported meat, a simple seal is placed on the meat that says ‘Slaughtered Islamically.’ So, if a country does respond to some concerns, it sends an envoy from the Department of Commerce to the slaughterhouse to task the embassy in the country from which the meat is coming to supervise the process of slaughtering. The problem is that the issue usually means nothing to the diplomats who work in these embassies of the Muslim countries in the Western or Eastern world. They usually pay no attention to it, let alone spend all of their time in slaughterhouses making sure Allah is mentioned at the time of slaughtering, mentioning and exalting Him whenever another animal is slaughtered. To make matters worse, commerce officials in the Islamic world don’t care much for this issue as they consider it a manifestation of backwardness, closedmindedness, and strictness on the part of religious people due to their so-called extremism.

Also, what would you say if you knew that many commerce officials in some Muslim countries – those who are responsible for declaring what foods are religiously permissible or prohibited – are Christians who refuse to import products from the Muslim nation of Turkey, and accept only to import meat from the Eastern nations like Bulgaria? This is despite the fact that Turkish meat is generally cleaner and cheaper.