Islam

Accepting a Christmas Gift

Bismillah hir rahmanir raheem

Assalamualaikum my wonderful brothers and sisters! How are you all? Hope you're doing well inshallah! Allhamduillah my week went great! How about urs?

I know today is Christmas and this is probably up too late but still. I felt the need to do this due to this time of the year.

Firstly: 

The basic principle is that it is permissible to accept gifts from kaafirs.

Prophet (SAW) use to share gifts with kaffirs (Pagans/Christians/Jews etc.)  to maintain the relationship with them and to keep the bond depicting the Islamic values.

Al-Bukhaari gave a chapter in his Saheeh the title of: Accepting gifts from the mushrikeen. He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Abu Hurayrah (may Allah have mercy on him) said, narrating from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): “Ibraaheem (peace be upon him) migrated with Saarah and entered a city in which there was a king or a tyrant, and he said: ‘Give her Haajar (as a gift).’” And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was given as a gift a (roast) sheep in which there was poison. Abu Humayd said: The king of Aylah gave the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) a white mule and a cloak, and wrote to him. And he mentioned the story of the Jewish woman and her gift of a poisoned sheep to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). 

Secondly: 

It is permissible for a Muslim to give gifts to kaafirs and mushriks, with the aim of softening their hearts towards Islam, especially if they are relatives or neighbours. 

 ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) gave a hullah (suit) to his mushrik brother in Makkah, as was narrated by al-Bukhaari (2619). 

But it is not permissible to give a kaafir a gift on the day of one of his festivals, because that is regarded as approving of or participating in celebration of the false festival.  

If the gift is something that will help in celebrating the festival, such as food, candles and the like, then it is even more haraam, and some of the scholars are of the view that this is kufr. 

Al-Zayla’i said in Tabyeen al-Haqaa’iq(6/228): Giving gifts on the occasion of Nayrooz and Mahrjaan [two non-Islamic Persian festivals] is not permissible, i.e., giving gifts on these two days is haraam, and is in fact kufr. Abu Hafs and Kabeer (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If a man were to worship Allah for fifty years, then on the day of Nayrooz he were to give an egg as a gift to one of the mushrikeen, intending thereby to venerate that day, he would have committed kufr and his good deeds would be cancelled out. The author of al-Jaami’ al-Asghar said: If he gives a gift to another Muslim on the day of Nayrooz, not intending thereby to venerate that day, but it is the habit of some people to give gifts on that day, then this is not regarded as kufr. But he should not do it on that particular day; he should do it before or after, so that he will not be imitating those people. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” It says in al-Jaami’ al-Asghar: A man bought something on the day of Nayrooz which he did not buy before that. If he intended thereby to venerate that day as the mushrikoon venerate it, then he has committed kufr, but if he wanted to eat or drink or enjoy himself, then he has not committed kufr. End quote. 

It says in al-Taaj wa’l-Ikleel (a Maaliki book – 4/319): Ibn al-Qaasim regarded it as makrooh to give a gift to a Christian on the occasion of his festival, or to give palm leaves to a Jew on his festivals.

It says in al-Iqnaa’, which is a Hanbali book: It is haraam to attend the festivals of the Jews and Christians and to sell them things or give them gifts on the occasion of their festivals.