Dr. Haj Nour Ali Tabandeh
In many societies, it is believed that one of these very days is occasioned by the birth of Christ (AS). The birth date of His Excellency is in an atmosphere of uncertainty. It is not obvious exactly when he was born; hence there is a lot of doubt and confusion about it. Today’s world has become the world of doubtfulness, hesitancy, meticulosity and fuss. It does not mean that it particularly belongs to the modern era and it did not exist in the ancient times, but these features has been boosted and reinforced increasingly in our time, for example, some have recently doubted over the writers of some books published in the past. For a couple of times I have happened to hear that one of Attar’s (of Nishapur) books is not his work and belongs to a different writer. Another example is about the dates. The birth date of our Prophet is on Rabi’ al-awwal 12, according to what is mentioned in Usūl al-Kāfī (Kitab al-Kafi)2. The Sunnites also believe the same, but there are other versions saying it is on Rabi’ al-awwal 17. Fortunately the deviation is not that much and it is only 5 days and has been celebrated in 5 consecutive days in the recent years, called “the week of unity” and it is a very good work. Although this does not have anything to do with being a Sunnite or a Shiite, it has been prevalent that if someone says that the birth date of the Prophet is on Rabi’ alawwal 12, he is believed to be a Sunnite, and if a Sunnite says that the Prophet’s birth date is on Rabi’ al-awwal 17, he is thought to be converted to Shi’ism.
There are also, at the moment, controversies over the birth date of Jesus Christ (AS). Now, I do not want to thoroughly go into details, but in Iran, for example, Armenians celebrate the birth of Christ on one certain day and Assyrians do it on another. But it is customary to celebrate it in these very days3 and almost a majority of the Christians celebrate it these days; it makes no difference in essence for us, as unfortunately we do not follow his (Christ’s) and our Prophet’s spiritual instructions. In effect, we; the Muslims, are also Christians, we are Christian Muslims; because we follow the one whose advent Jesus Christ (AS) had annunciated, but as a Muslim Christian, (unfortunately) the kindness and affection that Christ talked about are not there in our personalities, the forgiveness and mercy that he talked about are not there in us; he said that if your cloak has been taken away from you, give your cassock away too, if someone slaps you in the face, turn the other cheek 4. We have such order in Islam too, but we consider different levels; as such orders cannot be expected from all people. At first and at the beginning stage it is stipulated in the Quran for public: “In the law of equality (qisas) there is (saving of) life to you, o ye men of understanding”5, but in upper levels it states: “and those who restrain anger, and pardon (all) men, for Allah loves those who do good”6, that are four levels in total.
In any way, whether the birth of Christ (AS) were 2000 years ago, whether 1780 years ago or a few years ago, it would not make a difference for us at the moment since we pay more attention to the spiritual aspect of events than to the historical details. We consider this date as our criterion too, because the majority believes that the birth of Christ happened in these very days, in other words, consensus and agreement of many people, so to speak- that it happened on such a day- this consensus and agreement stress the importance of this very day. Allah states: “and remind them of the days of Allah”7. Every day belongs to God, they are “days of Allah”, but the days He has bestowed on us a godsend, we pay respect and tribute to them in the name of Allah’s days and we hope that the inner Messiah will be born inside us. This mentality of doubtfulness and fuss that I mentioned in the beginning has been developed so greatly that some say the existence of Jesus Christ is just an imagination, a myth, there was not any Christ at all. We definitely reject such statement. This is not the question of the birth date as it makes no difference for us what date it was; we reject it because aside from all the historical records, there is a more convincing evidence and that is the Creator of Jesus who has directly said: “to Allah, the example of Jesus is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: “be”. And he was there.”8 So let the historians say whatever they think. We say there really was some Jesus- as there was some Adam too- and words have been left as inheritance from Christ (AS) which have mostly been recited in the Gospels. Therefore, we are rest assured up to this point that there was some Christ who is respected by us, Muslims, too, because his name is cited in the Quran which is of the greatest validity to us. Moreover, some teachings attributed to His Excellency have been passed on to us.
In Islam, the Quran is the afflatus; the very words and sentences of which Allah has spoken. There are also some traditions (hadiths) that are the conversation or direct relation between Allah and the Prophet; which Allah speaks to the Prophet, but the Prophet was not allowed to announce them as some part of the Quran. Such traditions (hadiths) are called the “Hadith-e-Qodsi”. Aside from these, there are other narrations and hadiths attributed to the Prophet as well. Whereas, there is no such categorization in both the Old and the New Testament- in other words, Jesus Christ’s words, the stories, teachings and the divine words have all come together and they are not distinguishable. Anyhow, it is a sacred book and reading it is useful for us. The four Gospels existing at the moment are as narratives. Four accounts of Christ’s (AS) life, which of course in all of them, Christ’s words have not been brought cohesively, mostly in story-telling style, though. The Quran has stories too, every word of which is a lesson and a reminder. For example, in the story of Joseph (AS), it states: “We tell you stories in a highly desirable fashion”9. What does “a highly desirable fashion” of storytelling mean? Does it mean “We” are story tellers? No, it does not. “Highly desirable fashion” here means that “We” tell you stories every word of which can be a lesson for you. Here, the word “story” does not own the literal meaning. In other places, the Quran states that there were many other prophets whose stories “We” never read to you, meaning it was not necessary.
Christ (AS) has a particular place from the historical point of view, too. The Jews also had been awaiting the Messiah. The Messiah; as they say Mashiah10, which is the term for their belief of The Promised. God had promised them that a Jewish king would come and gain mastery over the world. Due to their ethnicity, breed and genetic heritage, the Sons-of-Israel tribe interprets everything based on its materialistic and worldly meaning, they thought that this king or sultan would be the same as David (AS) or Solomon (AS) who would also have the worldly kingdom and would rise via invasion and force, as they sometimes abuse this idea politically. In effect, the word Sultan had to be interpreted as the divine one, meaning someone who has a divine kingship. Just like when we name the Holy Imams such as Imam Reza: Al-Sultan Ali, son of Musa (father of) Reza. Of course, if they (the Jews) had rallied to the Christ’s flag all together, they would have achieved that kingdom and superiority, in effect, the followers of Jesus Christ have been promised to have dominance over the others. By followers, we Muslims also are certainly included, because we are following the one whose emergence had been annunciated by Jesus (AS) and His Excellency also had ordered us to follow him. Due to this, in general, the spiritual power worldwide belongs to the Muslims and Christians, even though the materialistic and worldly powers are in the Jews’ hands. Yet they still need help from the uslims and Christians. Apparently, such annunciation is almost similar to the annunciation told about Mahdi’s reign (AFTS) and we are awaiting his emergence.
By the time, Prophet John who was Jesus’s cousin emerged with all his special miraculous acts and grandeur and some people thought that John might be the Messiah. They asked John and he answered: “I am his annunciator, I have come to annunciate his emergence and the Messiah will come soon.” After that Jesus Christ raised. At the same time, the Jews had conglomerated in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Perhaps,because they were awaiting a prophet to emerge, they had gathered together there. Just like after the time of our Prophet, the Jews were still awaiting a prophet, they had speculated about emerging a prophet, and this way they were awaiting the emergence of a prophet in that area by the time. That was why they had come to that place. Why did they come to Mecca and Medina; an arid desert area with little population, while they had basically had that materialistic point of view? If it were not for the above-mentioned reason, even no single person would come there. Also, by the time of Jesus, the Jews were awaiting the emergence of the Messiah. Those days, there were two powerful empires: Iranian and Roman. The Roman Empire had dominance over that area and had assigned a governor. In spite of that governor, the rabbis exerted the public will. Jewish religious men’s attention was drawn to worldly affairs just like any other Jews. The mentality of Jesus (AS) was right against such things; that is, it was suitable for the good of those days. All of the prophets emerged for the good of their own times, except our Prophet who is suitable for all times and places. Moses’s (AS) general mission was to save the Sons of Israel and because of that, he also handled the worldly affairs. Jesus (AS) totally ignored the worldly world. It was like someone put an ice cube in a cup of hot tea, so hot that it burnt the hands. When the ice is completely melted, the tea will be less hot, so the temperature extremes of these two (the ice and the hot tea) will become moderate. As though, God wanted to put ice in the Jews’ heat. The attitude of Jesus was in direct contrast to that of the Jews. As an obvious example, it is said that some people were going to give a coin to the Caesar as jizyah (poll tax), they asked Jesus about it: What do we do with it? He said to them: Give back to Caesar what is his and to God what is God’s.
Give the coin whose inscription is in the name of Caesar back to Caesar, and give back the heart which is God’s to God11. He paid no attention to financial affairs. Succeeding Christians also developed this attitude so that it ended in monasticism. The Quran states: “the monasticism which they invented on their own, We (Allah) did not prescribe for them but the seeking for the pleasure of Allah”.12 As you can see, God somehow verifies this monasticism. When the world and the prevailing mankind’s way of thinking became conducive to introducing the Islam, the Islam adjusted this condition. The Islam is between these two (religions), and it is the balance, between and betwixt. In the Islam, we have two mottos, so to speak. One says: To whom there is no sustenance; there is no attention to the Last Judgment either. As the proverb says, the hungry mouth cannot maintain its faith. There must be attention to worldly pursuits in order to protect the hereafter. Does it mean we have to provide just a living? No, it does not. Because, on the other hand, The Quran states: “if humankind finds themselves super independent, they will run riot” Being independent can be in any kind, but the most important of all is the independence in worldly and financial affairs. Therefore, the Islam presses both dishes of the balance to even them up.
1 The speech made on January 5, 2006 to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ (AS). Translated from Irfan Iran, Collection of papers, No. 25 & 26. Collected by Dr. Seyed Mostafa Azmayesh, Haqiqat Publishing, PP. 5-20,Tehran, Iran (2006).
2 Usūl al-Kāfī, translated by Haj Seyed Javad Moَstafavi:p323
3 Also about this date, an agreement has been reached now that, in fact, this day is occasioned by the birth of Mehr (Mithra); the god of ancient Iranians and after Constantine; the emperor of Roman empire who first was a follower of Mithraism, converted to Christianity, he designated this date in the 4th century AD as the birth dateof Jesus Christ (AS).
4 Matthew 5: 39 & 40
5 The Quran, Al-Baqara (The cow)179
6 The Quran, Al-e-Imran (The family of Imran)134
7 The Quran, Ibrahim (Abraham),5
8 The Quran, Al-e-Imran (The family of Imran),59ِ