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Fatwa CenterHelping Christians hold celebrations
Question
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh, (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you). Hope your goodself and your family is fine by the help of our Allah Most High. Apologize to interrupt, Need clarification and confirmation through Qur’an and Sunnah of Prophet (pbuh) of following: We are Alhamdolillah Muslim and working in Muslim Company but few staff who working with us is belongs to Christian faith, they all are respectable person but getting low salary as per their low category field. Sometime they requested to the Muslim staff to help and give some amount as loan to celebrate their Christian festival. Few Muslim helping them time and again when they requested, later they completely return their loan to the Muslim. The question is; can a Muslim help them by this way as Christian’s belief is Associating Partner with Allah Most High? can a Muslim participate in their Festivals where they requested to Muslims to attend? can a Muslim eat something when Christian offering / given them through their Festival which is not Haram things at all? can a Muslim take them for shopping and bearing all necessary expenses devotedly / human dignity? Kindly help us to be cautious if it is wrong. Thank you very much for any help in this matter. Sorry, took your precious time.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.
Allaah, The Exalted, has underlined in His Book that there is no harm in a Muslim treating non-combatant disbelievers kindly. Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {Allaah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes - from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them. Indeed, Allaah loves those who act justly.* Allaah only forbids you from those who fight you because of religion and expel you from your homes and aid in your expulsion - [forbids] that you make allies of them. And whoever makes allies of them, then it is those who are the wrongdoers.}[Quran 60:8-9] Fatwa 7885 highlights the permissibility of interacting with non-Muslims, treating them kindly and helping them solve their problems. This, however, does not include helping them commit a prohibited act such as assisting them in celebrating their religious occasions and festivals that are considered religious rituals by means of lending them money or the like.
Also, it is impermissible for a Muslim to offer a loan to a disbeliever if he knows that he will spend it on something prohibited in Islam even if the disbeliever would repay the debt.
It has been highlighted in Fataawa 196791 and 131758 that it is impermissible for a Muslim to attend the religious celebrations and festivals of non-Muslims. Fataawa 12267 and 45347 underlines that it is permissible for a Muslim to accept the gifts and eat the food of non-Muslims – as long as they are lawful – even if the food is made during their religious celebrations.
For further information, please refer to Fatwa 88293 about the relationship between the Muslim and non-Muslim (and its due boundaries in Islam).
Allaah Knows best.
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