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Fatwa CenterLighting up houses when the call to the Maghrib prayer is made
Question
In our country, Bangladesh it has become a tradition to light up the house when the Maghrib Athaan is being pronounced. Many says that it is Hindu tradition and as a Muslim we must refrain from such act. What does Islam say in this matter?
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 is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
If the situation is as you mentioned in the question that the people are objecting to that tradition due to it being a Hindu tradition, then they are right as we are prohibited from imitating the polytheists and we are ordered to differ from them as it was emphasized on in many Prophetic narrations. For instance the Prophet 
said: "Be different from the non-Muslims…” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] The Prophet also said: "He who imitates other than us is not from us.” [At-Tirmithi] Another Prophetic narration reads: “Whoever imitates a people, he is one of them.” If one deliberately lights a fire when the Maghrib Athaan (call to the prayer) is called believing that this is from religion, then this act is an innovation. As far as we know, there is no commandment to this effect neither in the Book of Allaah nor in the Sunnah of the Prophet . On the contrary, the Prophet said: "Whoever introduces into this matter of ours [Islam] that which is not a part of it, it will be rejected." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] On the other hand, if there is no imitation to the non-Muslims in putting the lights on and people do not believe that it is a part of religion, but they just turn the lights on in order to light the place because of the night fall, then there is no harm in this.
Allaah Knows best.
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