Congratulating mery Christmas

Syaikh Muhammad bin Shalih al-Uthaymeen
rahimahullah was asked: What is the ruling regarding wishing
“Merry Christmas ” to them [the Christians]? What about giving them an
answer when they wish us with the same?
Is it permissible to go to the places of
festive occasions or parties which celebrate
this occasion? Is someone considered to
have sinned when he does something related to the above without intending to do
so [his real reason] yet he did it only to
show respect to his friends, or out of
shame, or other reasons? Is it possible to do
so in these circumstances? Answer: Praise be to God. To wish the non-Muslims with Merry
Christmas or any of their religious festivals
is haraam (forbidden), by consensus of the
ulama (ijma’), as Ibn al-Qayyim, may God have mercy on him, said: “Congratulating the kuffaar on the rituals that belong only to them is haraam by
consensus, as is congratulating them on
their festivals and fasts by saying “A happy festival to you ” or “May you enjoy your festival ”, and so on. If the one who says this has been saved from kufr, it
is still forbidden. It is like congratulating
someone for prostrating to the cross, or
even worse than that. It is as great a sin as
congratulating someone for drinking wine,
or murdering someone, or having illicit sexual relations, and so on. Many of those who have no respect for
their religion fall into this error; they do not
realize the offensiveness of their actions.
Whoever congratulates a person for his
disobedience or bid ’ah or kufr exposes himself to the wrath and anger of God. ”1 Congratulating the kuffaar on their religious
festivals is haraam to the extent described
by Ibn al-Qayyim because it implies that
one accepts or approves of their rituals of
kufr, even if one would not accept those
things for oneself. But the Muslim should not accept the rituals of kufr or congratulate
anyone else for them, because God does not
accept any of that at all, as He says
(interpretation of the meaning): “If you disbelieve, then verily, God is not in need of you, He likes not disbelief for His
slaves. And if you are grateful (by being
believers), He is pleased therewith for
you. . . ”2 “This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you,
and have chosen for you Islam as your
religion …”3 So congratulating them is forbidden,
whether they are one ’s colleagues at work or otherwise. If they greet us on the occasion of their
festivals, we should not respond, because
these are not our festivals, and because
they are not festivals which are acceptable
to God. These festivals are innovations in
their religions, and even those which may have been prescribed formerly have been
abrogated by the religion of Islam, with
which God sent Muhammad (P) to the whole
of mankind. God says (interpretation of the meaning): “Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and
in the Hereafter he will be one of the
losers. ”4 It is haraam for a Muslim to accept
invitations on such occasions, because this is
worse than congratulating them as it
implies taking part in their celebrations. Similarly, Muslims are forbidden to imitate
the kuffaar by having parties on such
occasions, or exchanging gifts, or giving out
sweets or food, or taking time off work,
etc., because the Prophet (P) said: “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah said: “Imitating them in some of their festivals implies that one is pleased with their false
beliefs and practices, and gives them the
hope that they may have the opportunity to
humiliate and mislead the weak. ”5 Whoever does anything of this sort is a
sinner, whether he does it out of politeness
or to be friendly, or because he is too shy to
refuse, or for whatever other reason,
because this is hypocrisy in Islam, and
because it makes the kuffaar feel proud of their religion. God is the One Whom we ask to make the
Muslims feel proud of their religion, to help
them adhere steadfastly to it, and to make
them victorious over their enemies, for He
is the Strong and Omnipotent.
''we still love islam''