{"id":148,"date":"2008-12-25T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-25T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html"},"modified":"2008-12-25T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-25T01:00:00","slug":"light-shineth-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html","title":{"rendered":"and the light shineth in the darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andin their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Lawthat had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidanceand light<\/b>, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: aguidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah. (al-Maaida, 5:46)<\/font><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On this day, I pray salawat<\/i> for the Prophet Jesus AS, and pay my respects to my Abrahamic cousins in faith who revere him. I also think that this day is the high tide for the season, which is one that spans religious boundaries and has come to mean goodwill and fellowship for all, irrespective of creed. I am not a cynic about Christmas, finding even value in the commercialism (as a symptom of the underlying human emotions of love and cheer). <\/p>\n

Behold! the angels said: “O Mary! Allah hath chosen thee and purified thee<\/b>– chosen thee above the women of all nations. (al-Imran, 3:42)<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Behold! the angels said: “O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of aWord from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary<\/b>, held inhonour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) thosenearest to Allah; (al-Imran 3:45)<\/font><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus was indeed a light unto mankind. In many ways, in fact, Christmas is all about Light, spiritually and literally. This season, we are all aglow, from within and also recipients of light from above. I think it fitting, therefore, to share the following segment from Northern Exposure<\/i><\/a>,<\/p>\n

Enjoy this clip. It is worth your time. And Merry Christmas<\/b>, everyone!<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andin their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Lawthat had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidanceand light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: aguidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah. (al-Maaida, 5:46) On this day, I pray salawat for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[105,170,155,24,151],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expressions","tag-christianity","tag-christmas","tag-entertainment","tag-islam","tag-tv"],"yoast_head":"\nand the light shineth in the darkness - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"and the light shineth in the darkness - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andin their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Lawthat had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidanceand light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: aguidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah. (al-Maaida, 5:46) On this day, I pray salawat for the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-25T01:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"and the light shineth in the darkness - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"and the light shineth in the darkness - City of Brass","og_description":"Andin their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Lawthat had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidanceand light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: aguidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah. (al-Maaida, 5:46) On this day, I pray salawat for the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2008-12-25T01:00:00+00:00","author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html","name":"and the light shineth in the darkness - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-25T01:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-25T01:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/light-shineth-darkness.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"and the light shineth in the darkness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}