CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS BY A MUSLIM IS HARRAM

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islaam!

It is Haraam for you to celebrate at the time of Christmas and decorate your house with balloons.
It is well known that the Muslims do not have any festival apart from Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and the weekly “Eid” which is Friday (Yawm al-Jumu‘ah).

Celebrating any other festival is not allowed and is either of two things:
Either it is an innovation (bid‘ah), if it is celebrated as a means of drawing close to Allaah, such as celebrating the Prophet’s Birthday (Mawlid); or it is an imitation of the kuffaar, if it is celebrated as a tradition and not as an act of worship, because introducing innovated festivals is the action of the people of the Book who we are commanded to differ from.

So how about if it is a celebration of one of their actual festivals?
Decorating the house with balloons at this time is obviously joining in with the kuffaar and celebrating their festival.

What the Muslim is required to do is not to single out these days for any kind of celebration, decorating or adornment, or special foods, otherwise he will be joining the kuffaar in their festivals, which is something that is undoubtedly haraam.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
It is forbidden for the Muslims to imitate the kuffaar by holding parties on these occasions, or exchanging gifts, or distributing sweets or other foods, or taking time off work and so on.
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
“Whoever imitates a people is one of them.”

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said:
Imitating them on some of their festivals implies that one is happy with the falsehood they are following, and that could make them (the non-Muslims) take this opportunity to mislead those who are weak in faith.

Those who do any of these things are sinning, whether they do it to go along with them, or to be friendly towards them, or because they feel too shy (to refuse to join in) or any other reason.
Because it is a kind of compromising the religion of Allaah to please others, and it is a means of lifting the spirits of the kuffaar and making them proud of their religion.

We ask Allaah to make Us feel proud of our religion (Islaam) and to help Us adhere steadfastly to it.