Halloween never was anything more than a cool night where you got to dress up as a super hero and get free candy, as a kid, so you can see why most people would be for it. However when you couple it with the explanations and questions Hope listed, you just may have an effective logical reasoning on the matter.

JazakAllah Khair for the share. I’m currently looking into the stuffing behind Thanksgiving (lol!) and what that was about, so inshAllah I find some FRUITFUL and DELICIOUS knowledge… lool. But if anyone had already come across such I’d appreciate the share, else may my search bear fruit… lol.

Similarly I strongly feel that in regards to dealing with children (some cases even adults), if one fundamental aspect is not properly understood or grasped, all attempts to shed light on the origins of Halloween will fall upon deaf ears.

What is that aspect? Well if such a child/individual has not grasped the notion of Tawheed, no matter how ‘straight up shirky’ its origin may appear, such historical facts or explanations (as the above) will carry no validity or be accepted as feasible. When it comes down to explaining ‘Why Halloween is Haraam’ to your child, it’s real helpful to have established a foundation built upon the notion what it means to ‘submit to Allah’. To explain to your child that when their all alone and overwhelmed by the threatening fear of the ‘bogeyman’ hiding underneath the bed, they should turn to Allah sbt for comfort.

Other times, Muslims are overwhelmed by an undying need to ‘make their kids happy’ and in our efforts (or lack of) to attain a ‘balance’ within a mainstream consumer culture we fall victims to the biggest sin of all, Shirk…

Sometimes we brush aside historical facts and reasoning as ‘too complex for a child to understand’ in matters that can easily be explained and comprehended. Several weeks ago, I was approached by my 7 year old sibling as he innocently inquired “Why is Halloween haram?”. After asking him the following questions in return:

“Did you know why people dress up for Halloween?”
“Or why people give treats at their door step”
“Or even where ‘jack-o-lanterns’ come from”

As I explained the answers, he immediately built interest and attentively held on to every word. Of course when answering I would additionally discuss what these actions really mean in accordance to an individual that says they ‘believe & fear only Allah’ yet their actions says else wise. In the end, he stated, “I can’t believe ppl celebrate halloween. I’m sooo gonna tell everyone at school tomorrow how dumb they are”.

So maybe that wasn’t the exact response I was aiming for… but I knew that in a few weeks I wouldn’t have to worry about how he will feel when all the other ‘dumb’ kids where decked out in costumes, overdosed on candy.

In the end… I knew he got it.

As for people dealing with kids during this time, it might be a better idea to just ignore the whole thing but have a lot more fun activities throughout the year and really make a spectacle out of Eid. Of course, it should be clearly explained why we don’t do what everyone else does and what’s wrong with it on a level they can understand. One of the easiest ways to connect with the youth is to have really cool slightly older role models that the kids will look up to. It’s called the cool big brother/sister effect, and it works wonders from the day they’re born to well into their adult life.

A lot of people push for having an alternative around the masjid during this time. That could be a good idea or it might give the holiday a degree of legitimacy and still enable a level of psychological attachment non-Muslim practices.

Even though it’s a bit more challenging, it’s a lot more fruitful to give kids a stronger sense of independence and identity because they will have to learn sooner or later how to deviate away from the crowd and challenge the status quo. They need to grow to be really comfortable and happy with that while maintaining a healthy level of self-esteem.