Taking part in Red Nose Day in the UK

2-4-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

Asallam U Alaikum,In the Uk in they have a day in March. which is to raise money for charity called red nose day. They do it every other year. The children in schools wear their own clothes or something red and bring in money to send to poor people in Africa. It is nothing to do with religion just to raise money for poor. Was it sinful for me as a parent to let my daughter take part and is this kufr (Naozubillah), like other shirk festivals.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

If this practice is one of the customs of the society and is not related to any of their religious rituals or false deviated beliefs and this money is not donated to missionary charities and the like, then there is no harm – Allaah Willing – in taking part in it as long as there is a legitimate reason for participating in it.

The permissibility of the matters related to worldly customs is to be judged according to their purposes. Ash-Shaatibi asserted, “The Lawgiver (Allaah) foregrounds the aspect of servitude in matters of worship (‘Ibaadaat), and the aspect of consideration of purposes in matters of custom, and the opposite (i.e. foregrounding the aspect of consideration of purposes in matters of worship and the aspect of servitude in matters of custom) in both matters is rare.” [Al-Muwaafaqaat]

Allaah Knows best.