Christmas - For Muslims??
- Categories: Prohibited Deeds -
Written by Editor:
ShareIslam.com
Thursday, 07 December 2006
What is this - Christmas?
The word Christmas comes from the words Cristes maesse, or
"Christ's Mass". Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus
for members of the Christian religion. Most historians peg the
first celebration of Christmas to Rome in 336 A.D.
Muslims Celebrating Christmas - Is
This Possible?
While you may find this strange, we have received letters asking
about the permissibility of allowing Muslim children and adults to
join along Christians in celebrating Christmas; giving gifts,
decorating their homes, lighting candles, putting up Christmas
trees and lights and greeting each other with "Merry
Christmas."
No candles?, No Christmas tree, No sleigh?, No reindeer?, No
mistletoe?, No bells?, No elves?, No stockings by the chimney?, No
Christmas Carols, & NO SANTA CLAUS?
Let us consider some important facts about this occassion and what
it really means:
Christmas - For
Muslims??
By A Loving Muslim brother
I was a Christain for many years, and I used to get really upset
when people took the "Christ" out of Christmas, and I could not
imagine why people would let all of this gross commercialism
overwhelm the remembrance of the birth of Christ Jesus. So, it came
as a great surprise, in my little world, to learn this was from the
Solstice celebration, and had been going on for hundreds of years
before the time of Jesus. Also, we find no evidence Jesus was even
born in the month of Decemeber (and in fact, it becomes obvious
from close study of the Bilbe he was not even born in the year
claimed to be 2,006 years ago.
Let's consider some very important evidence about the event called
"Christmas":
No proof for his birth in December - nor for exactly 2006 years ago
for that matter. New Testament claims he was born during the reign
of King Herod. He was already dead 6 years before.
No proof for Christmas trees - actually, the Bible (Jerimiah 10)
forbids the act of cutting down trees or holly or anything and then
taking it into the house and decorating it up.
Nothing about Santa Claus except a bishop who attended the Council
of Nicea in 325 A. D. named, Saint Nicholas who was generous with
money and used it to help a man get his two older daughters married
off by throwing a bag of silver into their open window for their
dowry (women paid men - the opposite of the dowry system of Islam),
thus earning himself the title of St. Nick.
There can be no absolute proof of the particulars and details
surrounding all of the many factors coming together in Rome in 325
A.D. (after Christ's birth), in order to establish with certainty,
Jesus Christ was born on December 25, as mentioned.
Solstice Celebrations:
From Babylon to Rome, for thousands of years, virtually every
culture has had some sort of celebration for the solstice. The
winter solstice is the darkest, shortest day of the year, and since
it marks the time at which the glorious light returns, the solstice
has long been an occasion for great celebration and
rejoicing.
On the surface, the solstice celebration is often a rejoicing of
the return of the sun with the promise of the greening of the earth
and the warming of the days. But on a deeper spiritual level, the
solstice celebration honors the birth and rebirth of the glorious
Holy Light which guides and sustains all of creation, the One Light
that illuminates every heart and promises new growth, the warmth of
loving-kindness and the brilliance of illumination to all of
mankind.
The sun god Mithra (Mithra in Persian, Mitra in Sanskrit) was
highly honored and well known across the entire region from India
to Rome. In the ancient Vedic hymns of India, Mitra is often
invoked together with Varuna so that the two are combined as
'Mitravaruna': Varuna is lord of the cosmic rhythm of the celestial
spheres, while Mitra brings forth the light at dawn, which was
covered by Varuna.
In the Zoroastrian religion, the sun-god Mithra was highly honored
as a major deity, and interestingly, the birth of Mithra is
celebrated at the eve of the winter solstice called Shab-e Yalda in
Farsi (Persian).
The Romans had a great number of temples dedicated to Mithra, and
the winter solstice celebration dedicated to the sun god Mithra was
indeed a major event in their lives.
In the ancient world, much of the day to day life was centered on a
keen awareness of the sun, the stars and the seasons. For thousands
of years, the return of the sun at the time of the winter solstice
has been a time of good cheer and great celebration, both secular
and spiritual.
Early Christians:
The early Christians did not celebrate the birth of Jesus. The
early church fathers Origen (d.255), St. Irenaeus (d. 202), and
Tertullian (d. 220) do not include Christmas or its date on their
lists of feasts and celebrations.
In fact, nobody really knows when Jesus was born. Church father
Clement of Alexandria tells us that certain theologians had claimed
to have determined not only the year of the Jesus' birth but also
the day; that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus and on the
25th day of Pachon (May 20) (Stromata, I, 21). He also added that
others said that he was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi
(April 19 or 20). Another piece of evidence is De Paschae Computus
of 243, which states that Jesus was born on March 28.
Many modern scholars, using the details given in the bible, suggest
that Jesus' birthday was likely before October or after March. So,
although we don't know when Jesus was born, it seems quite unlikely
that it was on December 25th.
The Church In Rome:
The early church fathers in Rome were perhaps feeling a bit left
out by all the celebrations that were going on at the time of the
Solstice. It's all too difficult to control people who are busy
celebrating for just any old reason.
It was not at all common in those days to celebrate a person's
birthday, but something drastic had to be done to get the church
into the celebration. So, in order to eclipse the solstice
celebration of the sun god Mithra, in the middle of the 4th century
after Jesus' death, the newly converted Emperor Constantine
declared December 25th to be the official birthday of Jesus.
Within a few years, the altars of the temples of Mithra had been
destroyed and the temples were quickly rededicated to the
activities of the church of Rome. Just that suddenly, the winter
solstice which was perhaps the greatest celebration known to the
ancient world, was transformed into a matter of church
doctrine.
In later years, the English gave this celebration the name Cristes
mæsse, literally, Christ's mass... and from that we have
inherited the word Christmas.
Now...
We see clearly, Christmas as it is celebrated today is not
something associated with Judaism or Islam in their original
teachings. We must ask the question, "If the prophets of Allah and
their people did not engage in such acts of pagan worship, then why
should we?"
Our prophet, peace be upon him, ordered us to refrain from
following in the footsteps of those who had gone astray before us.
He also made sure we understood our celebrations are two; namely:
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
Even though some will join in with others to celebrate the beliefs
and and practices of non-Muslim activities, we as believers, must
not engage in such offensive acts toward our Lord, Allah. He hates
that we involve ourselves in practices of worship not ordained by
Him and we must avoid such activities at all costs.
We ask Allah to forgive us for our past mistakes and errors and to
guide us to do better in the future and grant us from Him, Mercy,
Compassion and Forgiveness, ameen
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