So just a few days ago, as one of my many New Year's resolutions, I decided to take this opportunity to address this issue about Christmas and Jesus for the Muslim community.
First, I was brought up in a Jewish household. All we were ever taught about Jesus was that he was a nice Jewish boy, who got in with the wrong crowd.
Before embracing Islam as my path in life, I experimented with many paths, cults and philosophies including Christianity. I have always been curious about "others," the goyem as my parents used to call people who weren't Jewish.
My parents were from small villages in Eastern Europe and when they immigrated to the United States we lived in a Jewish neighborhood in New York. Living to ourselves contributed to our sense of identity, but it also fostered a ghetto mentality of looking toward others as "them and us".
As I grew older and more exposed to "others" of different faiths and cultures I was deeply impressed with seeing the sameness and commonality of all people. I began to embrace a more universal view of myself and all others, learning that we are all the "others".
Before embracing Islam I was informed by my Muslim friends that I could not be a Muslim unless I accepted Jesus Christ as a prophet, messenger and God's representative on earth.
By that time, with all of my forays into other religions and paths, I was open and ready to accept it, and I did.
Muslims love Jesus!
He is mentioned in the Quran by name more times than Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Stories of his miracles and works are recanted throughout and he is honored in the Quran by exclusively being referred to as "the Spirit of God on Earth".
In the first early community of Muslims the Prophet Muhammad sent his followers out of Arabia to seek safety from oppression and extinction by his own people to the Christian King Negus of Abyssinia. When the King heard the case and teachings of the new Arab prophet he metaphorically drew a line in the sand and said the difference between you and us is thinner than this line. He granted Muslims protection so they could remain in Abyssinia as long as they needed.
Muslims believe in the miracle of Jesus' virgin birth, that he spoke wisdom in his infancy, that he healed the sick, raised the dead and will return one day to help in establishing justice and righteousness in the world.
In some way it took becoming a Muslim for make me even prouder of my Jewish heritage when I learned that one of "my own" actually did not "get with the wrong crowd," but rather was one of the greatest living examples of human potential that ever lived.
You may not see Muslims with a Christmas tree or participating in the frenzy of Christmas gift giving etc., but as Muslims we take special pause to remember and honor the birth, life and divine example of Jesus as part of the chain of Divine Universal Guidance, that includes all the prophets of the past and all those who have followed in their footsteps.
Wishing all of us profound Peace in the New Year.
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