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Is it shirk/haram to say words that have pagan origin/etymology in them?

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Fatwaa.com

As-salamu alaykum

My question is, is it possible that if a person says things such as “Thursday, Monday, Saturday, Neptune, Jupiter (the 2 planets, not the idols)” that they have comitted shirk? Also is it even haram to say these things?

Could you please advise me as to whether this is waswasa or genuine concern and how do I know from the sunnah that I can use these terms (even though they used to have shirk connotations thousands of years ago) without worrying that I have comitted kufr/shirk?

Please I realize this question might be stupid but it’s urgent for me to know whether using words that have a non-polytheistic meaning but used to have a pagan meaning in their etymology make me commit shirk or not…

JazakAllahu Khayran

Answer

Wa’alaykum as Salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

We will take into consideration the ‘Urf (social usage) of these words. Most people are not even aware of the origin of these words, and only understand these words to denote upon days and planets. Hence, it will not be Shirk to use these words, and you should not have unnecessary Waswasa or concerns.

And Allaah Ta’aala knows best

Wassalaam,

Ismail Moosa (Mufti)

This answer was collected from Fatwaa.com which is an excellent Q&A site managed by Mufti Ismail Moosa from South Africa. .

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