The Birth of Jesus Christ (a.s)

[Introduction]

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 cheek4 . 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.