Muslim Strategies for Haloween
A letter from a student of Dr.Farhat Hashmi regarding Halloween
Bismillah
Assalamo Alaikum WRWB dear Ustadhah,
May Allah SWT bless you for all your hard work and dedication to help us live our lives as Muslims.Alhamdulillah, my children never went trick or treating on halloween ever,instead we always tried to educate ourselves and others about this event. We tried different strategies every year. Couple of times I gathered my children and invited their friends to share the reality of Halloween on that evening that helped them stay away from the influence of this event. Alhamdulillah, children respondedvery well and they were shocked as well as disgusted when they found out the
reality behind this tradition. They were so exited that they even wanted to tell all this information to the children that were coming to the door for candy.
About the candy giving issue we tried different strategies as well. One year we just went to the Masjid during that time and came home after it was over. One year my children made different signs and put them on the entrance door facing outside. They had different messages like “sorry! No candy, your dentist will be mad! Etc.
Last year we tried a different approach as we are always apprehensive and skeptical whether to give candy or not because generally it is not a good manner to let someone go empty handed when they come to your door for whatever reason. So along side the candy we gave books. The book was “An illustrated guide to understanding Islam”, which we have been distributing in our community for some time now, Alhamdulillah.
Tonight, Insha Allah we plan to give the book “One Message” along side the candy. Alhamdulillah, I believe this is a blessing from Allah SWT because the people are already coming to our door so we can do dawah work instead of letting this opportunity slip by or just get mad at them. We are fortunate in this way that we have a facility here which provides us with books for dawah in large quantity, Alhamdulillah. People can look for similar options in their areas, e.g. masaajid, Islamic libraries or dawah centers to provide them with materials or just print out something good and relevant to the occasion from the internet if possible.
I hope that we can all learn and practice our beautiful Deen the way we are supposed to and help others do the same. I hope and pray that this can be beneficial for others as well. Any ideas or comments to improve our ways further will be greatly appreciated.
I will insha Allah print out the pamphlet that Alhuda has sent us about Halloween and share it with other Muslims too.
JAK
Your student
