{"id":2138,"date":"2013-12-24T09:15:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T14:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=2138"},"modified":"2013-12-24T09:28:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T14:28:38","slug":"merry-christmas-isa-nabi-milad-mubarak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/12\/merry-christmas-isa-nabi-milad-mubarak.html","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas, Isa Nabi milad mubarak!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"christinchristmas\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is Christmas Eve, and it is time to put the Christ back in Christmas. <\/p>\n

The title “Christ” is derived from a greek word, Khristos, which means “to anoint” – anointing<\/a> being the process of pouring perfume, oil or water over a person to signify their spiritual elevation, and is common to many religions. Christians believe that Jesus was anointed with the Spirit of God, rather than oil, which (the obvious theologic differences aside) is analogous to the Islamic idea of being a Prophet<\/a>. <\/p>\n

For Muslims, love of the Prophets, especially the Messengers of God who brought new revelations to mankind (including the Torah, the Bible, and of course the Qur’an) comes naturally. In about a month, we will be celebrating Milad al-Nabi<\/a> as well, after all. Therefore as a Muslim I find the “put Christ back in Christmas” message to be an appealing one – to remember and honor of the greatest human beings who ever lived, and be thankful for the message of God to humanity over the centuries. <\/p>\n

Personally, I also think that having a merry Christmas is more meaningful than having a merely happy holiday. You can have a happy holiday at the beach, but there’s no deeper meaning in it. Being merry on Christmas requires finding and acknowledging the joy of spirituality, and accepting the responsibility of the message of God. The first and foremost message of Jesus was love and forgiveness, and that is something that is in short supply in American civil discourse. Honoring Jesus during Christmas means more than just words about putting Christ back, it requires action in charity and forgiveness. I think that cancelling unemployment benefits<\/a> and blocking immigration reform<\/a> runs deeply counter to that Christmas spirit.<\/p>\n

Let’s hope that we all find the strength to remember that Jesus is indeed the reason for the season – but to uphold the values that the Prophet Issa AS espoused all year long rather than just paying lip service to them for two weeks a year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is Christmas Eve, and it is time to put the Christ back in Christmas. The title “Christ” is derived from a greek word, Khristos, which means “to anoint” – anointing being the process of pouring perfume, oil or water over a person to signify their spiritual elevation, and is common to many religions. Christians…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16,14],"tags":[105,416,170,24,266],"class_list":["post-2138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purple-politics","category-republican-fitna","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-christianity","tag-christians","tag-christmas","tag-islam","tag-jesus-as"],"yoast_head":"\nMerry Christmas, Isa Nabi milad mubarak! - 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=\"Merry Christmas, Isa Nabi milad mubarak! - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is Christmas Eve, and it is time to put the Christ back in Christmas. 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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\/2138","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=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2144,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions\/2144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}