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Assalam-a-a-a-harmuza-Lawah and barakatu.

Al-Lah, and Salat, and al-Aul-Las-Lam-A-Rasolah,

and on al-Alihi and sahabil.

Today we have a very special Q&A,

and we're going to start off by asking Sister Kanwal's question, I think from Canada, I believe, where she asks the Islamic ruling on celebrating Thanksgiving. She asked this last month because Canada has Thanksgiving different than America. And Brother Imad also has emailed a few months ago and I'm'm combining both of these, and he is saying that can you please explain the ruling on various celebrations that we do here in America.

He's running from America, and he begins with Thanksgiving, New Year's, birthdays, marriage anniversaries, Halloween, Independence Day, Memorial Day, etc.

And so today's question is going to briefly

discuss the issue regarding celebrations and participating in such celebrations. Now, this topic

is actually far more difficult and convoluted than comes to First Light. And before I even begin, I do understand because I have so many, you know, diverse people

who follow that automatically people are tending to be skeptical of the entire topic.

On the one hand, you have one group that basically says that isn't it a little bit petty

that people

are asking you about celebrating Thanksgiving into that group obviously we're talking

about Muslims here I say well then where does one draw the line does one open the door

for celebrating other religious festivals should Muslims be celebrating Christmas by

having Christmas ornaments or whatnot?

So before you trivialize the question, actually realize it's a very interesting question

that deals with a number of topics.

You can call it an intersectional topic.

It deals with culture.

It deals with theology.

...