3- What if the festival originated as a religious festival, but currently has no relation to any religion but is simply an occassion to enjoy and have fun. People at holi do not celebrate it as holi, they just throw colors at each other for fun. Does that make it a religious festival?
The same argument can be used for almost all non Muslim religious holidays even Christmas. Do you consider Christmas or Easter as halal?
Holi still holds religious significance for Hindus. The origins of Holi was religious and about their beliefs. If people want to throw colours at each other for fun then why do it on the same day as Holi is done and why do it with people who are there celebrating Holi?
That’s like saying a Hindu will come to the slaughter house with me on Eid ul Adha and watch me slaughter a cow for qurbani because he’s just bored and wants to spend the day with me.
But let’s not even discuss this. It’s by consensus of all four schools of thought of Sunni Islam that participating in festivals like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Holi etc are not permissible for a Muslim. They are haram for Muslims to take part in.
Even for Holi, why do they throw colours? It’s because it originates from their Hindu belief and to Muslims it’s considered Shirk. You might argue these festivals are not religious anymore but the fundamentals of these holidays are still based on religious beliefs of a certain group of people.
Anyways, I’m not a scholar but I will tell you that scholars, at least Sunni scholars of Islam, say participating in such festivals are not permissible. It’s unanimously agreed by all schools of Fiqh. I don’t know what the Shia’s believe but I believe it’s something similar to what Sunnis believe when it comes to such holidays. Maybe
@AA_ can share the Shia ruling in celebrating Holi.
1- You follow Pakistani news enough that you post a tweet about an event at QAU in Islamabad, but do not know about basant? Weird, but ok.
I’m pretty young and I’ve never lived in Pakistan. And you don’t even need to follow Pakistan news to see QAU tweets pop up because some of them do cause quite the controversy.
2- Yes, basant does have roots in Indian religious festivals.
It most likely wouldn’t be permissible if its roots are religious. It would be best to consult a scholar who knows what the festival is. But as far as I know, as a Hanafi, Sunni it is impermissible for me to celebrate any festival which origins is religious and not Islamic.
According to seerah of the Prophet and his companions, any festival of non-muslims is not permissible to be celebrated:
Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, reported: "The Prophet
came to Madeenah while they had two days they celebrated. The Prophet
asked,
"What are these two days?" They said, 'These are two days we used to celebrate in our pre Islamic era. The Prophet
said:
"Allah has replaced them with two better days: 'Eed Al-Adh-Haa and 'Eed Al- Fitr."
Abdullah Ibn Amr Ibn al-'Aas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “Whoever celebrates the Persian New Year's Day or their carnival and imitates them till his death he will be resurrected with them on the Day Judgment.”
Yes exactly. A Muslim can only celebrate Muslim festivals.
