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Thursday, April 02, 2015

The Origins of Easter and Good Friday

Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah [may Allaah have Mercy on him] said:

And this was their practice! They destroyed the religions of the Prophets…

The Jews and the Christians invented new ways of worship which corrupted the respective Legislation's they were given.

For example, they have Good Friday. This day is venerated with them and they have the false belief that this was the day where ‘Esaa bin Maraym was crucified[1]. The day after, is Holy Saturday were they believe ‘Esaa was in his grave and some of them call this the ‘Night of Light’. This day is also venerated; their religious leaders innovated a belief that light descends from the heavens on this day upon the Church of Litter in Palestine[2]. To the extent that the misguided ignorant among them believe that the light that descends on this place spreads throughout the land, and they seek it in order to gain blessings from it. All of this is nonsense and easily refuted by the texts and sound intellect.

The Saturday after Good Friday is the day where they believe that the Jews went looking for ‘Esaa in order to crucify him, but he had passed away and located in his grave. 

The next day is Easter Sunday, a day where the Christians believe that ‘Esaa rose from his grave. 

The following Sunday is another day venerated by them. It is a day of celebration, where they wear clothes of adornment and partake in various other festive practices. 

As the People of al-Islaam have the Day of Nahr (‘Eid al-Adhaa) where we slaughter after standing on the plains of ‘Arafah, they too use the time after striving in worship to celebrate. So on this Sunday they break their fast by eating and drinking, specifically egg, cheese and meat. Some of them choose to break their fasts with egg. 

So this is a time of celebration for them, however the practices introduced during this period of celebration differ from custom to custom. The general folk usually follow what is dictated to them from their religious leaders. 

With this, we can get an idea of how their priests and monks control and manipulate the religion and its rulings. They claim that they are the upholders of the Legislation of the Messiah, and as a result, they have every right to change the beliefs and rulings found in the religion. Although they argue that they have the right to modify theology and abrogate jurisprudence, what this results in is a huge contradiction in the religion between the different generations.


Because of this, the Christians have no real Legislation (Sharee’ah) for them to follow anymore. They have altered and added to their religion, much that which has no precedence within it. 

It is also reported that a fraction of other Christians have innovated various other aspects in their rituals, which the rest may not follow. Some of them visit the graveyard on the Saturday prior to Good Friday (some start on Palm Sunday) and they venerate these graves; placing on it incense and seeking blessings from it, sacrificing animals for the sake of their deceased (all of which is equally partners to God in Islaam otherwise known as Shirk), ring bells within the graveyard and also at this time, they place crosses on their houses seeking from it blessings also.  

This is what I have witnessed and even some of the Muslims partake in these rituals as imitation of them. In fact, there are many other practices which are far worse. Some of these Muslims, who claim to have knowledge (or want to propagate Islaam by using the guise of 'inter-faith dialogue') take part in their activities yet not truly knowing Islaam (or the origins of these Christian rituals).

Some of them even place huge crosses on the entrance of their houses and of imitation and the seeking of blessings.

Some of them even use the incense to ward off evil-eye, diseases and spirit possession from Jinn[3]


Once their rituals are completed, they celebrate in exchanging gifts and eating meat. They also dye eggs and adorn their children. 

The beliefs and rituals practiced at this time are all ways in which the heart becomes hardened and causes it to die. Those who realize goodness for what it is, will realize this and those who want corruption will be pleased with their corruption. 

Many of them supplicate to Maryam bint Imraan and ask her to bless them from the heavens. So with those who have the least bit of Emaan (faith in Islaam) in their hearts, will they not realize that the religions of the Jews and the Christians have been corrupted (and no longer monotheistic)?!

[Taken from Iqtidaa as-Siraat al-Mustaqeem with the Explanation of Shaykh Muhammad bin Saaleh al-‘Uthaymeen (Pg. 348-353)]


[1] Allaah, the Most High, Says, “they killed him not, nor crucified him” [an-Nisaa’ 4:157]
[2] Shaykh Muhammad bin Saaleh al-‘Uthaymeen [may Allaah have Mercy on him] explains: It is called the ‘Church of Litter’ because the Jews used to use the church as skip for their waste as a means of ridiculing the honor given to this Church by the Christians. Thus it became known as the ‘Church of Litter’. End quote.
[3] Shaykh al’-Uthaymeen explains, “Some of them have special practices they adopt in order to control or worship the Jinn. For instance, the pretend executioner will ask the sick patient to sacrifice a black hen on their behalf. This is often from the Jinn. They order the sick patient to sacrifice on their name (which accounts to polytheism or Shirk in al-Islaam). Therefore, it is not permissible to succumb to such demands or participate in them, whatsoever. Some of them even get the raw leather of a skinned wolf and place them in their houses. They do this for the Jinn, in sacrifice to them or seeking of protection against them.

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