Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
- Just as you may invite Christians or others to share the joy of Eid, Muslim children can share the joy of Christmas with non-Muslim friends.
- However, we should not participate in their particular religious rituals.
Answering your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a Senior Lecturer and an Islamic Scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states;
Celebrating Christmas by Muslims
Just as you may invite Christians or others to share the joy of Eid, your children can share the joy of Christmas with their non-Muslim friends. However, they should not participate in their particular religious rituals.
You can partake of their feasts and celebrations so long as you stay away from their specifically religious rituals. And so long as you are clear in your mind that Christmas has nothing to do with the original teaching of Jesus.
While remaining steadfast to your beliefs about Jesus, you can join Christians in their feasts in order to reciprocate kindness with kindness.
By doing so, you may even be helping them remove their misconceptions about Islam being a fanatical religion. So go ahead and participate in their feasts, and let them know the true image of Islam.
Having said this, let me also point out: Muslims can join with everyone in prayers addressed to God for peace and harmony free of pagan notions of intermediaries in worship.
The Quran calls all people to come to common terms. Allah ordered Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to declare: Our Lord and your Lord is One, and we submit to Him alone.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.