Understanding Islam and Christianity, example

Here is an interesting article:

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=208625&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

snip

MUSLIMS celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in Qatar have come under fire as several Doha-based Muslim scholars yesterday criticised the practice as an “un-Islamic habit” imported from Christians. Sheikh Raad al-Hussein, who was giving the Friday sermon at Hussein Bin Kamal Mosque at al-Hilal, criticised the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday as bida’a (an innovation in the religion) saying that none of the Muslims who accompanied the Prophet during his life ever celebrated his birthday. “It has not been proved that any of the earlier Muslims commemorated the occasion. Even the exact day of birth of the Prophet is not known with certainty. Some contemporary researchers have confirmed that he died on the 9th of Rabee’ al-Awal rather than the 12th as is commonly believed. Arabs were not known for using calendars or writing history during that time,” al-Hussein said.Al-Hussein said that the celebration was always full of undesired and wicked things which oppose the basis of the religion of Islam. “There are many sins committed in the name of that day like free mixing of men and women in one area and many other objectionable acts,” he said. The scholar warned Muslims against what he called “over praising the Prophet Muhammad” saying that Christians have started praising Jesus excessively and ended up as “worshiping him as a son of God”. “Muslims have been warned by the Prophet himself not to exalt him as the Christians did with Jesus and worshipped him instead of Allah. This celebration has no basis in the holy Qur’an or the tradition. The Prophet has never performed it or informed his nation to do so,” he said. He blamed the then-Christian peoples of Egypt and Syria for “exporting their habit of celebrating Jesus Christ’s birthday” to the Muslims in the region.

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I have no comment about the propriety of either celebrating the Prophet (PBUH) birthday as some do, or not as this scholar criticizes.

However, this is a great opportunity to educate and correct an error. Christians need to better understand their own faith, and Muslims should not believe what is not true about Christians.

First of all, Christians are not celebrating the birthday of Jesus as an ordinary birthday event. Muslims need to understand that the first faith of our shared forefather Abraham, which is the faith of the Jews, predicted at God's word the arrival of the Messiah. The Messiah is predicted throughout what Christians call the Old Testament by both the Prophets and by King David. Therefore the birthday of Jesus is celebrated because it is the arrival of the Messiah. The Qur'an devotes considerable attention to the occasion of the birth of Jesus. So it is an error to think that the celebration of Jesus' birthday on the designated date of Christmas, or as we call it the Nativity, is a "birthday event." It is celebration of the day that Christians believe, and the Qur'an confirms, that the Jewish Savior and Messiah arrived on earth.

In the same Bible passages that predict the Messiah, it is predicted that he will be referred to as the "son" of God, who will treat him as a Son. I don't want to get into the entire "excess of worship of Jesus" argument because that is beyond the scope of what I want to clarify here. The point I want to make for the education of Christians and Muslims alike is that your discussion about the celebration of the Prophet's (PBUH) birthday, or not, does not have an intellectual scholarly parallel with the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus. Jesus' birthday is not a cultural event but the day where it is remembered that the promised Messiah arrived. That is different than a birthday. If Jesus had arrived on a cloud rather than through human birth from the Virgin Mary, Christians would celebrate the Messiah arriving on the cloud day.

I hope this helps and best wishes to all who dialogue in good faith.