Rituals
Mu' meneen Brothers
and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Assalam Aleikum
Warahmatullah Wabarakatu.
I would be
grateful if you could answer my question in regard to Traditional rituals. I
have come across alot of people who tell me that if you do not do this
traditional rituals when you are born it will affect you in the long run
meaning that all that you do in life will not go well. Is this true? .
According to me I
know that the only important thing that a muslim should do when a child is born
is Aqeeqah. The reason why am asking this question is because I have a sister
according to maalim she is repossessed with evil spirits and they say this is
because some traditional rituals were not performed when she was born and that
she has to do this rituals so that she becomes okay. Please advise.
Thanking you in
advance.
Masalam.
(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the name of Allah, We praise
Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none
can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright.
We bear witness that there is no one (no idol,
no person, no grave, no
prophet, no imam, no dai,
nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that
Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Firstly, every believer who sincerely believes in
Allah and the Last Day, should know for
sure that no good or evil can ever befall him except by the Permission and Will
of His Merciful Lord; thus he should
always trust and fear his Lord Alone and absolutely no one else.
Indeed it is the Sunnah of the
noble Messenger of Allah (saws) to perform an ‘Aqeeqah’ for a new born
child, and every believer should strive
do so. The rite of ‘Aqeeqah’ is a part
of the worship and obedience of the believers,
who sacrifice a part of their wealth in the name of their Merciful
Lord, to show their gratitude to Allah
Subhanah at the birth of their child.
The rite of ‘Aqeeqah’ is a
Sunnah, and if for any reason, one does not perform the ‘Aqeeqah’ there is
no sin upon him. There is absolutely
no truth in the superstition that if one does not do a particular rite of
Islam, evil will befall the new
born, or some jinn or evil spirit will
possess him, etc. These are absolutely
false fears, and should be discarded
and rejected immediately by the believers.
Allah Subhanah Alone has the power over all things, and one should be content and satisfied with
the belief that nothing, absolutely
nothing, in the heavens and the earth
can harm him without the Will and Permission of Allah Subhanah.
Most of such fears and
superstitions are put into the hearts and minds of mankind by the priests and
moulvis, which have absolutely no basis
or evidence from the Quran and Sunnah.
If anyone ever tries to scare the believers with such self-invented
superstitions, the believers should
immediately demand these priests to bring their evidence from the Quran and
Sunnah for what they say!
Don’t ever care for such
unfounded fears that if the Aqeeqah was not performed, some evil will befall a person; for these fears are absolutely baseless and
the imagination of some unscrupulous people whose only interest is fleecing the
ignorant believers of their hard-earned wealth! Allah Subhanah has warned the believers about such priests and
holy men who devour the wealth of others through illegal means in the Glorious
Quran.
Allah
says in the Holy Quran Chapter 9 Surah
Taubah verses 34-35 :O you who
believe! There are indeed many among
the priests and the holy men who devour the wealth of others by evil means, and debar the people from the Way of
Allah. Give them the good news of a
painful torment, who hoard up gold and
silver and do not expend these in the Way of Allah. The Day shall surely come when the same gold and silver shall be
heated in the fire of Hell, and with it
will be branded their foreheads, their
bodies and their backs. (And it will be
said): “Here is that treasure you had hoarded up for yourselves! Taste now the evil of your hoarded
treasure!”
Whatever written of Truth and
benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error
is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He
is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in
Islam,
