Dear brothers and sisters,
The MSA is doing its best to follow Islamic rulings and avoid innovation and immitation of non-Islamic rituals. We received important feedback about our last message that requires clarification. The wording of the last email said that "MSA will hold a candlelight vigil", which is aparently a non-Islamic ritual and therefore Muslims are not supposed to do it. What we really want to announce is that MSA is sponsoring and participating in the "Remember 9/11" event. According to the Hadith that is reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim, that when a funeral passed in front of Rasulillah,Salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam, he stood up. It was said to him (SAAWS) that it is the funeral of a Jew, and he replied "isn't it a soul." So we are going to stand up there and do only permissible actions, like sharing our group statement and personal statements. Muslims will NOT hold candles.
We thank our brothers and sisters who help us with their feedback and advices and ask Allah to show us right as right and guide us to follow it.
See you there at 7:00pm.
MSA
For more details about
For more details about prohibition of immitating non-Islamic practices, please refer to http://www.islam-qa.com/index.php?ref=21694&ln=eng and for the symbolism of candle lighting in Christianity please refer to http://www.stots.edu/article.php?id=62.
JAK
Saleh