Praise be to Allaah.
It is not permissible to greet or congratulate the kuffaar on
the occasion of Christmas, New Year or any of their other holidays, and it
is not permissible to respond to them when they greet us on those occasions,
because they are not festivals that are prescribed in our religion, and
returning their greeting is an affirmation and approval of them. The Muslim
should be proud of his religion and its rulings, and he should be keen to
call others and convey to them the religion of Allaah, may He be glorified
and exalted.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) was
asked about the ruling on greeting the kuffaar on the occasion of Christmas
and how we should respond when they greet us on this occasion. Is it
permissible to go to the parties that they hold on this occasion?
Is a person sinning if he does any of the things mentioned
without intending to, and he only does it to be nice, or because of or
shyness or embarrassment or other reasons? Is it permissible to imitate them
in that?
He replied:
Greeting the kuffaar on the occasion of Christmas or any of
their other religious holidays is haraam according to scholarly consensus,
as was stated by Ibn al-Qayyim in his book Ahkaam Ahl al-Dhimmah,
where he says:
"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 Allaah." End quote.
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
Allaah does not accept any of that at all, as He says (interpretation of the
meaning):
"If
you disbelieve, then verily, Allaah 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.
.
[al-Zumar 39:7]
".
. .
This
day, I have perfected your religion for you,
completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islaam as your
religion . .
[al-Maa’idah 5:3]
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 Allaah. These
festivals are innovations in their religions, and even those which may have
been prescribed formerly have been abrogated by the
religion of Islaam, with which Allaah sent Muhammad
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to the whole of mankind.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"Whoever
seeks a religion other than Islaam, it will never be
accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers."
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