The Oft-Forgotten Meaning of Christmas

Every Christmas I hear a lot of people complaining about how Christmas is not the actual birthday of Jesus and how it is a pagan holiday of some obscure Roman sun-deity, and here is a bit of a shocker: we know that, thank you! Yes, believe it or not, a large number of people are actually aware of the fact that Christmas is not the exact birthday of Jesus the Messiah but if you’re solely focused on that, my friends, the true meaning of Christmas is lost on you.

See, the thing is, Christmas is not a mere combination of the numbers two and five calibrated on the twelfth month of the Gregorian calendar. It is a celebration of the birth of Christ but that is merely the surface of it. It goes deeper, much deeper. The guys out there lighting up Christmas trees and all that, they are not doing it for Sol Ivictus – the ones who know of the “pagan origins of Christmas” and especially the ones who do not know. You cannot be celebrating the birthday of someone whose birthday you do not know! Having a celebration on the 25th of December for the birthday of Jesus does not automatically qualify it to be the celebration of the birthday of every person or being born on the 25th of December – this is not that hard of a concept to grasp.

Now, this obviously does not deal with the fact that we know, historically, 25th of December is not even the birthday of Jesus, but does it matter? I don't think so. You see, December 25 may not be the birthday of Jesus but it is the birthday of Christ – Christ the Messiah, the Savior, the Symbol: a Symbol of Hope, of Courage, of Perseverance and Solace, Comfort and Tolerance, Mercy, Justice, Charity, Repentance and Forgiveness; an Icon. That is Christmas.

Christmas is not some physical birthday party with candle-lights and fudge cakes regardless of what Walmart wants you to believe; it is a spiritual revival. It is a rekindling of Hope. It is a celebration of Mercy. It is a commemoration of God’s Affection. A reminder that God loves and God forgives.

So what can Muslims do on the day of Christmas? Well, for starters, we can reevaluate what Jesus Christ and his birth means to us. What was the Message he was born to propagate? What were the values he exemplified? We reinstill our hearts with Faith in his Lord, the Lord of Abraham, the Lord of Jacob, the Lord of Joseph, the Lord of Moses and Muhammad. Jesus was born to preach His Message, His Glory, His Mercy to a people who forgot, does not matter when. The point is, we know the man was born someday sometime in 1st Century Palestine to a Virgin devoted to the Service of God. And Christmas is a celebration of that. That, to me, is the true meaning of Christmas.

— Fahim Ferdous Kibria