The ruling on congratulating disbelievers on the new year
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, what is the ruling on congratulating disbelievers on the occasion of the new year, whether the Christian or the Hijri, in order to demonstrate the leniency of Islam?
Answer:
It is not permissible to congratulate disbelievers on their festivals, because their festivals are falsehood. Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Furqan 25:72] It was stated in the exegesis that the intended meaning of falsehood is the festivals of the disbelievers, because they are festivals of disbelief that Islam does not approve of. The Mawlid festival is one that Islam approves of. The festival in which they celebrate Jesus and say that he is the son of Allah, or the third of three, or that he is Allah, is one that Islam approves of. It is not permissible to congratulate them on this. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, what is the ruling on congratulating disbelievers on the occasion of the new year, whether the Christian or the Hijri, in order to demonstrate the leniency of Islam?
Answer:
It is not permissible to congratulate disbelievers on their festivals, because their festivals are falsehood. Allah the Exalted said:
And [they are] those who do not testify to falsehood
وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَشْهَدُونَ الزُّورَ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-008-أصول أهل السنة|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (54:47)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.