Witches on brooms, dracula, evil powers on Halloween night: this is the stuff of Halloween nightmares many Muslims think.
We often assume that magic does not exist and that cultural rituals associated with it (i.e. Halloween) have little real meaning or significance. The reality is quite different.
Magic is real. It does happen. Magic is declared haram by Islam. God speaks of magic in the Quran in a number of places. (See Quran 20: 56 to 76 and 2:102).
Magic has been used in the past and is still used by people for different purposes.
A modern day example of witchcraft
"Sara" is a Muslim sister living in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Prior to becoming Muslim five years ago, she had dabbled in a number of religions. She has been a Catholic, Baptist, born-again Christian, into New Age religions and the occult. She also practiced witchcraft for a short period of time.
Sara explains that all of this experimentation was part of her quest to find the Straight Path.
In an interview with Sound Vision, she noted that today's witches, who often call themselves Wiccans following the religion of Wicca, where they also have their own rules and books.
She adds that a number of witches start off believing the magic they are practicing is for the good. Good witches are called "white witches" practicing white magic.
But the potential for evil is always there. Sara recounted one incident where a friend of hers who also practiced witchcraft got into a disagreement with her husband and wanted him to have an accident because he had hurt her. That day, both she and her husband got into an accident.
Sara explains that even when using witchcraft to do good, the potential for evil is there."Satan can whisper good things," she says."Sometimes you think you're doing good, but you feel like you're in control. To me that's very dangerous because we know God is in control.
"With witchcraft..you're not at peace because you are always trying to be in control," she adds.
Muslims seek God's protection against all sort of magic. Since Halloween casts magic and whitcrafts in a harmless way, it is important for Muslims to stay away from it.
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Halloween’s origins date back
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.
This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.
When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
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