Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-04-01

Don't be a fool this April by succumbing to the idiosyncrasies of a custom that ridicules even an educated person to stoop to a level an animal would not dare thread.

The history of April Fool’s Day is not totally clear. No exact date can be found which prognosticate the first official celebration of this "holiday". There are however many tales regarding the reason the tradition is practiced.

 One tale states that it is a day the Spanish celebrate in remembrance of the day that they defeated the Muslims and swept them from power in lower Spain. According to this narration, the Christian army could not conquer the Muslims there and sent spies to discover why. They discovered that the Muslims were strong on faith and obedient to Allah (SWT).

The tradition goes on saying that the Christians sent in alcohol and tobacco, which the Muslims used and became the means in which they lost their obedience to Allah (SWT). Then the Christian army invaded lower Spain and conquered the Muslims on the first of April and began celebrating April Fool’s Day ever since.

As this story has been circulating between Muslims strengthening their beliefs about the history of this day it is deemed appropriate to clarify the history of April Fool’s Day. The truth of the matter is that this story is not true in many aspects.

The history of April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day is uncertain, but the current thinking is that it began around 1582 in France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25 – April 1 (New Year’s week) to January 1.

These people were labelled "fools" by the general populace, were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them. The butts of these pranks became known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish" because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke.

This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavour with each country celebrating the"holiday" in its own way.

Regardless of the history of April Fool’s Day or not, there still isn’t any sort of a reason for a Muslim to practice such a foolish and insignificant tradition. It is in reality a holiday created by the enemies of Allah (SWT) to prove how really foolish they are by denying the truth revealed to the world through the Holy Prophet Muhammad  (peace be upon him).

 As Muslims it is our duty to avoid imitating the nonbelievers in all aspects of life and this includes celebration of their holidays. No matter how hard a person tries to please them you will always fail unless you become one of them. And to become one of them is to earn Allah’s (SWT) wrath. And to earn Allah’s (SWT) wrath is to condemn oneself. Allah (SWT) says in the Qur’an, “And never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their millat (traditions, ways, religion, etc.).” (Chapter 2, verse 122)

(Twitter: @Faizie143)