A Muslim perspective on Christmas.

[RedSea]

Assalamu calaykum,

 

I hereby with respect invite my dear brothers Roobleh and Marx to read this article in regards to their earlier claim that Muslims should celebrate Christmas in honor of their adopted nations though it extremely conflicts with ones believe in the Quran and Sunnah.

 

 

Muslim perspective on Christmas

 

 

To a Muslim living in the West, the Christmas Holiday period is one of the most stressful times because of the differences in our attitudes towards holidays and celebrations of the status quo. Even in Islamic countries, there can be misunderstandings on these issues with our Christian colleagues. The following essay is my personal attempt at bridging this gap to promote an understanding of the Islamic perspective regarding this topic.

 

The word Christmas comes from the Old English term Cristes maesse, meaning "Christ's mass." This was the name for the festival service of worship held on December 25th to commemorate the birth of Jesus . There is neither certain information on the date of his birth, nor even on the year. One reason for this uncertainty is that the stories of his birth, recorded in the New Testament books of Matthew and Luke, were written several decades after the event. Those who wrote it gave no specific dates for the events they mentioned.

 

For several centuries the Christian Church itself paid little attention to the celebration of Jesus' birth. It ranked after Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany in liturgical importance. The major Christian festival was Easter; the day of Jesus' purported resurrection. Only gradually, as the church developed a calendar to commemorate the major events of the life of Jesus did the celebration of his birth become significant.

 

Because there was no knowledge about the date of his birth, a day had to be selected. The Eastern Orthodox and the Eastern Rite Churches within the Roman Catholic Church chose January 6th. The day was named Epiphany, meaning "appearance" (i.e. the day of Jesus' manifestation). The Western Church, based in Rome, chose December 25th. It is known from a notice in an ancient Roman almanac that Christmas was celebrated on December 25th in Rome as early as 336 AD.

 

In the latter half of the 4th century, the Eastern and Western Churches adopted each other's festival, thus establishing the modern Christian 12-day celebration from Christmas to Epiphany. In some places the 12th day is called the Festival of the Three Kings because it is believed that the three wise men, or magi, visited the baby Jesus on that day, bringing him gifts.

 

Today Christmas is more than a one-day celebration or a 12-day festival. It is part of a lengthy holiday season embracing at least the whole month of December. In the United States, the holiday season begins on Thanksgiving Day and ends on January 1st, New Year's Day, a period of about five weeks. Actually, it is also an essential part of the business cycle - definitely the month comprising an important retail period of the year.

 

Gift giving is one of the oldest customs associated with Christmas: It is actually older than the holiday itself. When the date of Christmas was set to fall in December, it was done at least in part to compete with ancient pagan festivals that occurred about the same time. The Romans, for example, celebrated the Satumalia on December 17th. It was a winter feast of merry-making and gift exchanging. Two weeks later, on the Roman New Year - January 1- houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. As the Germanic tribes of Europe accepted Christianity and began to celebrate Christmas, they also gave gifts.

 

Ancient, pre-Christian winter festivals used greenery, lights and fires to symbolize life and warmth in the midst of cold and darkness. The use of evergreens and wreaths as symbols of life was an ancient custom of the Egyptians, Chinese and Hebrews, among other groups. Tree worship was a common feature of religion among the Tectonic and Scandinavian people of northern Europe before their conversion to Christianity. They decorated houses and barns with evergreens on New Year's Day to scare away demons, and they often set up trees for the birds in winter. For these northern Europeans, this winter celebration was the happiest time of the year because it signified that the shortest day of the year - somewhere around December 21st - had passed. They knew the days would get longer and brighter. The month during which this festival took place was named YOL, from which the word Yule is derived. In fact, Yule has come to mean Christmas in some countries.

 

Thus, many Christians do not realize that much of the celebration of Christmas is actually of pagan origin. The Romans celebrated the Feast of the Invincible Sun on December 25th. The early church fathers elected to celebrate the birth of Jesus on this date, although there was no particular reason to choose this one. In fact, many Christian scholars contend that Jesus was actually born in summer. This is consistent with the Quranic account that follows, because there is a specific mention of ripe dates falling to Mary (may Allah be pleased with Her) in the Quran (which means): "And shake towards you the trunk of the palm-tree; It will drop upon you fresh ripe dates." [Quran 19: 25]

 

A common theme to many Christian holidays is their actual pagan origin. It seems that the early church elders elected to keep many of the celebrations already in practice and redefine them in Christian terms, rationalizing them as a celebration of some aspect of their dogma of the life of Jesus . Nowadays, few may remember the reasons for the various customs that they practice.

 

The fundamental issue for Muslims everywhere is whether or not to celebrate Christmas. Their Christian colleagues may stress the secular aspects of the holiday and need to comply with social customs in order to advance in the society. Many times I have been told to forget Christmas as a religious holiday and just consider it as a social occasion - especially in the United States. In many businesses in the US, it is customary to have a big party for all employees at this time. Failure to participate makes oneself an object of ostracism. One needs to climb the social ladder to optimize one's chances for promotion, etc., and it is difficult to resist the pressure to conform!

 

Unfortunately, many Westerners feel that we Muslims should celebrate Christmas. They cite the examples of many other non-Christians doing so, including many Jews, Hindus, etc. who join the merrymaking. They find it frustrating that many Muslims will not comply and yield to the social pressure. It is regretful that they do not apply the same standard to themselves. They don't expect us to pressure them to celebrate our holidays nor do we, Muslims, put such pressure on them. After all, we must follow the Quranic verse 2:256 (which means): "There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion…" Yet, some feel that it is their duty to try to force their celebrations on us. In fact, I recently heard from some who consider it an insult that we do not celebrate. For this reason, I ask them: "Did Jesus or any of the other prophets celebrate their birthdays?" Then, what authority do they base this on?

 

 

By: Dr. Zeyd Ali Merenkov, M.D.

[RedSea]

 

 

PartII:

 

Of course, there is also the problem of the children. They are bombarded with numerous advertisements for toys and are essentially brainwashed so that they should expect something "under the tree" on Christmas Day. One must admit that the brightly lit, multicolored Christmas tree is an attractive sight, made even more tempting when there are numerous wrapped presents underneath it.

 

To Muslims, each and every thing we do is a part of our worship of the One, Supreme God - nothing is excluded. We do not make any distinction between the secular and the religious. Actually, the English term religion does not convey the all-encompassing nature of the Arabic term Deen. We might be branded as "Fundamentalists," but is there anything else more basic (or "fundamental") than applying our absolute moral code too consistently to everything we do? Isn't that the highest standard?

 

The basis of our moral code is the Quran, the only intact Revelation, and the strict authenticated observation of those who observed the Prophet Muhammad known as the Hadeeth. In other words, we Muslims follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad upon which we base our daily life practices.

 

Strictly speaking, for Muslims there are two holidays, the two 'Eeds: Namely, 'Eed al-Fitr - the festival of fast-breaking immediately after the end of Ramadhaan, and 'Eed al-Ad'haa - the festival of sacrifice during the major pilgrimage time. I emphasize that we do not celebrate birthdays (despite all the Western conventions to the contrary) - not even the births of the prophets - including Muhammad, may Allaah exalt their mention.

 

Muslims hold Jesus, in great respect as one of the greatest prophets. However, they do not celebrate his birth or the birth of any other of the prophets. Although it may seem intolerant to Christians that Muslims do not celebrate or wish them well on their Christmas holiday, it is out of respect to Jesus that we refuse to participate in its practices. We cannot condone practices that in our view misrepresent Jesus and help make him the focus of worship as a god figure. In addition, the above evidence has shown that many of these practices have no relationship whatsoever to Jesus and instead have pagan origins.

 

We ask! Do we need to celebrate the winter solstice? Are we afraid that the sun will not come back to us in this cold, dark wintry period? Are the pagan customs of gift giving or the symbols of renewal (such as the evergreens) a necessary reminder for us that spring will come again? Is the materialism in this season, so evident in the West, something worthy of emulation?

 

The Quran explains the most important things to celebrate. Allaah Says (what means): "So be patient over what they say and exalt [Allaah] with praise of your Lord before the rising of the sun and before its setting; and during periods of the night [exalt Him] and at the ends of the day, that you may be stisfied. And do not extend your eyes toward that by which We have given enjoyment to [some] categories of them, [its being but] the splendor of worldly life by which We test them. And the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring." [Quran 20: 130-131]

 

To Muslims, Jesus is one of a series of prophets [25 of whom are mentioned specifically in the Quran with the final one, or the seal of them, being Muhammad ]. These prophets and messengers were sent to specific groups of people, with the exemption of Muhammad whose message was the final one sent (in the form of a revelation) for the benefit of all mankind. Jesus was one such messenger sent to a particular people, the Jews. Unfortunately, with the exception of the Quran, none of these previous messages were preserved intact. More specifically, we do not have the Gospel or Injeel according to Jesus : Rather, we have a series of writings, most of which were fabricated after the passing of Jesus and principally influenced by Paul.

 

Many Christian scholars, themselves, would concede that these writings are historically of questionable accuracy and do not represent the views of the early adherents of Jesus . In contrast, the Final Revelation, the Quran, is precisely preserved and consists only of the original Arabic text. Unlike the Christian Bibles (and I emphasize the plurality of versions and differences between them), there are no revisions nor are there versions in other languages of the Quran. Simply put, all Muslims have the same original Arabic text as the Quran.

 

When I was the Director of Da'wah (religious propagation) activities at one of the Islamic centers in Chicago, I had the opportunity of meeting with many visitors to our center, including missionary students from the nearby Billy Graham headquarters in Wheaton, Illinois. Once, one of their students asked one of the Muslims who had come to Friday prayer, "Do you accept the true teachings of Jesus?" His reply (as all knowledgeable Muslims must answer) was "definitely." The student then asked, "Then you accepted that he died for your sins?" The Muslim replied, "Of course not!" He was not trying to ridicule or goad the student on. On the contrary, he was showing respect to the prophet Jesus as we know him from the Quran itself. This can be very frustrating to a Christian, since he may not be aware of the Islamic perspective of the life and role of Jesus . I want to emphasize that Muslims deeply respect Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary (may Allah be pleased with her), and hold them in high esteem. There is nothing disparaging in this Revelation about them.

 

It is indeed unfortunate that a similar degree of respect is often not shown towards Muslims and the final Prophet Muhammad . Since Muslims respect them so highly, they naturally do not want to perform any acts, which misrepresent them or their purpose or past life. The Christian beliefs have distorted their roles, thus, we as Muslims cannot condone nor should we participate in those practices. I emphasize, it is not out of disrespect to our Christian colleagues that this is done, rather, it is out of respect and love to Jesus and Mary and God Himself that we must refuse!

 

In conclusion, I pray that we remember what we are really supposed to celebrate (i.e. the praises of The Supreme God) as stated in the Quran (what means): "Do you not see that Allaah is exalted by whomever is within the heavens and the earth and [by] the birds with wings spread [in flight]? Each [of them] has known his [means of] prayer and exalting [Him], and Allaah is Knowing of what they do. And to Allaah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and to Allaah is the destination." [Quran 24: 41-42]

 

 

By: Dr. Zeyd

[MAXIMUS POWERS]

Thank you Redsea! I have now read the article and can truly say i have been cured of my tolerance and respect towards others. i dont celebrate christmas! Thanks though, its nice to know there are people who care about their brothers and sisters.

[RedSea]

I hope you meant that brother and are not being sarcastic with me.