I have been seeing this disease everywhere on social media for a long time. On that day, for the first time, I researched it and found out how terrible this temptation is, which is rapidly spreading in our Muslim society. Today there is no end of surprise when you see the pictures on social media that this festival is being celebrated with great enthusiasm in Saudi Arabia.
Many of us are saying so easily that what is wrong with it? Different costumes and masks are worn and chocolates and candies are distributed among the children. So where is the problem?
Now it is very important that we understand its history, where did this festival come from and what is purpose of it?
Halloween actually is "Hallow" and "Evening" which slowly became "Hallow-even" and later "Hallow-een" "Hallow" means to make or set apart as holy. The origins go back to the "Celts", the ancient tribes of Europe.
Halloween is a combination of two words Hallow + evening. Hallow means to take something holy and Evening means evening. That is "Holy Evening".
Halloween is a Christian festival celebrated on October 31. This festival started with the Celtic people who were natives of Ireland. It was very cold there and there was a lot of snow in November, so many of them died, there was a lot of loss of life and money.
Their belief was that those who die go to the other world and either become gods or ghosts. And in November, the door between our world and theirs opens and they come into our world and kill us, spill blood. So to prevent this, they decided to light a bonfire on the last night of October and gather around it and wear all kinds of scary masks and costumes so that the evil spirits would not recognize us, or mistake us for them. Leave or fear us.
Later, the Roman emperor saw his political and religious benefit in it and added more things to it, and today it is even known as the Halloween festival.
Now let's talk about why Muslims are prevented from participating in it, it is because this festival is only for the devils, it is celebrated because of their fear, to avoid their wrath.
So, being a Muslim, how can we join such a festival where devils are being shown to be so powerful that they are wearing different masks for fear of them, hiding from them. Islam is the pure religion and has no need to accommodate any custom, practice or celebration that is not a part of it.
Have we ever seen non-muslims celebrate our occasions such as Eid ul Fitr or Eid ul Adha? In India, we saw outrage on celebrating Eid ul Adha. They don't welcome our events but why do we readily adopt everything from them? Both of our events hold meaning and have purpose but we lack interest in our own festivals and take interest and participate in heedless festivals of other religions and cultures.
