HAPPY CHRISTMAS
Mohammad Yaqub Khan
Editor : The Light
THE Christian world, today, all over the surface of this earth, is plunged in great rejoicing. The high and the low, the rich and the poor, every Christian of whatever his station in life, is in a festive mood and putting up a gay appearance; for, Christmas comes but once a year, but when it comes it brings good cheer. Special gifts, greetings and entertainments of the most sumptuous kind will be exchanged for a whole week. They are celebrating the annual Church festival of Christmas in memory of the birth of their Lord, Jesus the Christ. According to their belief, Jesus, the Saviour of the sinful humanity, was born on the 25th of December. This day, the 25th of December, has a distinctive importance in the world of religion. All the sun-gods of the ancient paganism – Apollo of the Greeks, Hercules of Rome, Mithra of Persia, Adonis of Syria, Osiris of Egypt, Baal of Babylonia etc. were born on or around the 25th of December. The followers of the Sun-worshipping cult, obviously, got this idea of the birth of their god on the 25th of December from an observation of a natural phenomenon. The Supreme Luminary, the Sun which is apparently the source of all life through his light and heat, begins to decline after crossing the Autumnal Equinox on September 22, during his southward motion; and the decline continues until the Winter Solstice is reached when he is farthest below the equator. On or around the 25th of December the sun-god begins to rise again above the horizon, and takes a new birth as it were. But it is not our intention to enter into this discussion at the present moment. We wish to offer our heartiest greetings of a Happy Christmas to our friends of the Christian faith:
Peace on earth and goodwill to men
We, the people of the Holy Quran, hold Jesus in high honour and esteem. He was a true and righteous prophet of the Most High God, raised for the good and guidance of the Children of Israel. Of him we read in, the Holy Quran (3:44):
He will be worthy of regard in this world and the Hereafter, and of those who are drawn nigh to Allah.
Jesus is ours as much as he is of the Christians; and his bidding is equally binding on both. On this happy and auspicious occasion when there is Jesus and nothing but Jesus all over the Christian world, we invite, most cordially and in the spirit of brotherly affection and good will, our Christian friends to ponder over an important bidding of Jesus, which we propose to present in the following lines: —
Jesus and John the Baptist were almost of the same age, and closely related to each other. Jesus was baptized by John in the holy water of the Jordan river. John the Baptist proclaimed and preached: Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand…… Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight…… he that cometh after me is mightier than 1, whose shoes I am not worthy to wear (Matt. 3:2, 3, 11).
The Baptist announced the approach of the kingdom of heaven which was to be inaugurated on the advent of the Lord; and this great event was to take place after the Baptist’s departure from this earth. It is very easy to understand that Jesus was not the person referred to in this proclamation, for the simple reason that he was present in flesh and blood before the Baptist; and the Baptist, too, did not believe him to be the Promised One up to the last day of life. When the Baptist was in prison, he sent two of his disciples to enquire of Jesus:
Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? (Matt. 11: 4).
When the Baptist was beheaded in the prison by the Command of King Herod, Jesus took up his cry, and began to preach:
Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 4: 17).
Later, he sent forth his disciples into the outer country, commanding them:
”Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 10: 5-7).
It is written in Luke, 4: 43, that Jesus said unto the people:
I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also; for there for am I sent.
From these verses it is but obviously clear that the kingdom of heaven had not come in the time of Jesus, and that Jesus was only a proclaimer and preacher of that Kingdom. The two main items of his mission were:
(I) To tell the Children of Israel that the Kingdom of God would be taken away from them, and given to another nation, i.e., the Sons of Ismael, who would bring forth the fruits thereof. (Matt.21: 43).
(2) To proclaim that “the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you”, that is to say, there would be no other prophet between Jesus and the Lord of the Kingdom of heaven. (Luke 10: 9).
Jesus further explained himself through the famous parable of the
vineyard (Matt. 21: 33-41). He said, to put it briefly:
When the former people did not give the vineyard to the Lord’s servants, his son came at last; but the wicked husbandmen killed him also, thinking him to be the heir. Then the Lord would come himself, and destroy those wicked people, and let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen who would render him the fruits in their seasons.
Jesus said to the Children of Israel in quite explicit terms that the Divine gift of prophethood would be taken away from them on account of their transgression, and given to another people, the Sons of Ismael. And the world has seen with its own eyes that whereas prophets had been appearing, one after the other in long succession for 1400 years, among the Children of Israel, none came to them after Jesus the Christ, but a Great Prophet appeared among the Sons of Ismael, namely, the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace and blessings of God be upon him). The coming of this Great Prophet, the Lord of the Kingdom of heaven, has been, in the sacred scripture, likened to the coming of God Himself. In Deuteronomy, 18:15, the Most High God said unto Moses with reference to this Great Prophet:
”The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.”
Blessed are they who, in solemn obedience to the word of Jesus, enter the Kingdom of heaven with an open mind, and bow their heads in reverence before the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
(The light – Thursday, January 1, 1959)
