Personally, I think Thanksgiving in America is a beautiful holiday. Thanksgiving meal is about sharing a bountiful feast with the people you love. The holiday contains good spirit and noble message. It is a secular holiday but has deeply religious and spiritual meanings.
After I wrote about Halloween, I received a few requests to write about Thanksgiving so sharing my views once again.
I am not an Islamic scholar so the perspectives expressed are my personal opinion about the Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve found the scholars divided in two thoughts about Thanksgiving. One group sees no issues celebrating the holiday and the second group marks it as haram(not permissible).
After carefully studying the split opinions for a few years, I tend to lean towards the opinion of the first group. As a Muslim, I don’t find any problem living in America like an American, behaving like an American or engaging in American culture as long as the lifestyle or behavior does not contradict with my religious boundaries.
Thanksgiving is a holiday when the family comes together. Thanksgiving Day centers around principles such as being thankful, thanking God(Allah swt), keeping family ties and feeding others. None of these values contradict the teachings of Islam. Islam not only teaches us to thank God, but we are also told to thank our parents, our spouses, our friends, neighbors and all those who surround us.
Maintaining family relationships is prescribed in the Quran, and it is the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet. We try to take advantage of the days off from work and school and make it a priority to be with family or friends during Thanksgiving. We don’t necessarily make it a tradition to cook a Thanksgiving meal every year, but we do occasionally make halal roasted turkey and share with friends. Other years, it’s just a potluck; a trip to somewhere; nothing set in stone.
Like I mentioned before, I see no problem following or engaging in American culture as long as it is not contradicting my religious boundaries. We say bismillah and thank Allah before and after each meal, everyday. Therefore, I don’t see any issues hosting a halal Thanksgiving meal sometimes. However, we do refrain from using any alcohol. Like always, we don’t splurge too much and try not to overeat and waste food.
If you are a Muslim living in the USA, I would love to know your opinion about Thanksgiving and how you celebrate. If you are outside of the US, do you have a similar celebration?
AA,
As an American Muslim, I did share for the first year Thanksgiving with my non Muslim family. Most of them are no longer in my life but I do have children that are grown and practicing Muslims. We never celebrated Thanksgiving at all with them. They insist to celebrate Thanksgiving and most of the immigrant Muslims I know celebrate too. Most stories I read are directed at converts and celebrating with their non Muslim families.
I am so torn as I see in Islam were we should not copy the non Muslims in their celebrations and yet so many Muslims do. What makes the last Thursday in November any different than any other day to give thanks and why turkey? Many native American were killed before the “dinner” between them and the Pilgrims. If we follow the Sunnah then we should be fasting on Thursday.
I am torn because all the Muslims I know celebrate and I feel uncomfortable to say I do not.
I agree with what Ann wrote.
I also am torn. I am the only Muslim in my Christian family, some are practicing Christians.
Thanksgiving to them is treated as a Christian holiday with them praying in Jesus’s name.
One time I did attend, but walked into another room to say my own prayer while they did
their prayer circle. It is a large group and I am not comfortable around a lot of people, even
many family members whom I do not know very well.
Many say it is now a cultural holiday, but if it was just to eat with family with no religious
tones then for me it may not be an issue. I have been researching for some type of guidance,
but with different opinions even of U.S. scholars, it makes it difficult to decide. I do not want
to break family ties, but I can see them other times. I have been praying for guidance.
Besides, trying to find a place in an unfamiliar environment for Salat would be difficult.
So, should I attend or not?
I think it is more rooted in what you believe it. I think we can definitely celebrate with our non-muslim friends and family members without associating with anything that is maybe religious or associated with it. For example: If a Christian prays before thanksgiving dinner, we do not take part in it even if thats a cultural tradition to them. This is because it is rooted in a different religion from ours. So yeah, anything that is within our religious boundaries, is definitely permissible and should be celebrated. There’s nothing wrong or religious about celebrating being thankful, so I personally celerbrate it.