The Real Truth about a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
By Ansar Khan
”As to those who are righteous, when a suggestion from Satan assails them, they remember God: and behold! they begin to see things rightly.” [The Holy Qur’an, 7:202]
Imran ibn Husain (ra) relates that he heard the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: ”Between the creation of Adam and the Judgement Day there is no affair greater than the mischief of the Anti-Christ (Dajjal).” [Muslim, Gardens of the Righteous, 1820]
For many Westerners, Christmas (or Christ’s Mass as it was known) is supposed to be about the birth of the Christian Messiah Jesus (peace be upon him). But as Ahmadi Muslims, we all recognise that no Prophet of God would ever have condoned this. However, what many of us don’t realise is the real philosophy and underlining origins behind today’s Christmas and New Year celebrations; a history that, once known, would lead any righteous believer to immediately start to beg forgiveness from the Almighty.
The true history behind these celebrations, rooted in the veneration of pagan idols and idolatrous customs, is both serious and troubling for a believer in the Oneness of Almighty God. It underlies the extent to which most people truly don’t realise how entrenched some of the prominent events around us are in idolatry.
The problem is further compounded when one considers the numerous books, school nativity plays and films presenting over and over the falsehood of this holiday period and its fake ‘moral foundations’. This form of shirk is made more prominent by the malevolent and hypnotic box placed at the centre of most homes – the TV. The shiny eye-catching decorations in houses and shops, and the fake promise that an imaginary person will deliver presents as rewards for nothing done, are just some of the ways pre-school children are entwined into its philosophy.