Halloween: Harmless or Harmful?
Halloween or Hallows eve is a festival, which is celebrated worldwide on the last day of October. The earliest trace of Halloween dates back 2,000 years ago to Celtic times. It started as a celebration of New Year for the Celts, originally called Samhain. The word Samhain meant ‘summer’s end’. Druids (Celtic pagans) believed that the spirits of those who died the preceding year roamed the earth the night of Samhain. The Druids celebrated this holiday with a great fire festival to encourage the darkening Sun not to vanish and people danced around bonfires to keep evil spirits away but left their doors open in hopes that the kind spirits of loved ones might join them. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically including animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. Crops were burned and animals were sacrificed. The spirits were believed to be either entertained by the living or to find a body to possess for the upcoming year, giving everyone a reason to believe why mostly everyone dresses up like witches, ghosts, and goblins, to avoid being possessed.
In the Holy Quran Chapter 4: Verse 49, God Almighty states: Surely, God will not forgive that any partner is associated with Him; but He will forgive whatever is short of that to whomsoever He pleases. And whoso associates partners with God has indeed devised a very great sin. Many Abrahamic Prophets prophesied and warned to keep away from practices relating to divination, sorcery, and the occult, and many devout believers follow the teachings of their scriptures. But the scripture revealed through the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the Holy Quran, takes this subject a step further by defining the wisdom and logic in not partaking in any such harmful innovations, by introducing and explaining the concept of “shirk” (associating partners with God).
His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community talking about the background of Halloween in one of his Friday Sermons said, “The reality of Halloween entails the belief in the existence of witches, evil spirits and satanic worship. Whilst people celebrate Halloween on the pretext of having ‘fun’, it is entirely wrong and dangerous to ‘believe in’ things that are supernatural for ‘fun’. Ahmadi children in particular should therefore avoid this. Even until recently some villagers would offer something to children believing that it would save them from spirits. This also emboldens children to commit wrong acts for the sake of fun. For example, rude manners towards elders is becoming common. Movies also give wrong messages and in particular when children are encouraged to watch them by adults — the result is the society will only deteriorate.” He further said: “For us, the biggest matter is the bringing of dead spirits, as if, equal to God and thus committing shirk (associating partners with God) — that rituals at Halloween are not limited to wearing scary costumes and going door-to-door; rather, some older children deliberately frighten people in their homes, cause trouble and disturb the surrounding population. Hence, Ahmadi Muslims should avoid this and should instead focus on strengthening their connection with God, in whose hand rests all real power.”
To conclude, it is clear that Halloween is simply “harmful” rather than “harmless” as people are prone to move away from the concept of unity of God.
By: Shama Tul Mahdi
Age: 12
