SHAFAQNA – “Dear loved ones, I want to say to all our brothers that it is not wrong to celebrate the birth of Christ. On the contrary, we encourage you to do so, for he is one of Allah’s Messengers, but we have to observe our traditions in the process. Let us meet on Christmas or New Year’s Eve and read the Surah of Mariam, or what it said about Christ and his mother in the Surah Al Imran. Let us remember what Allah says about creating him in this Surah: “Lo! The likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, then He said unto him: Be! and he was” to reaffirm the Islamic faith that he is a messenger of Allah who was given miracles that undermined the arrogance of his foes and made the disciples believe in him. “And (appoint him) a messenger to the Children of Israel, (with this message): ‘I have come to you, with a Sign from your Lord, in that I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah’s leave: And I heal those born blind, and the lepers, and I quicken the dead, by Allah’s leave; and I declare to you what ye eat, and what ye store in your houses. Surely therein is a Sign for you if ye did believe'”.
This is our faith regarding Jesus Christ. He is Allah’s servant and one of his messengers. He was not a God, and Allah was not personified in him, for Allah is above embodiment or materialization. Therefore, we have to reaffirm our faith and create our own traditions to celebrate his birth in what conforms to the Quranic line. We ought not borrow them from others, not even the Christmas tree which has come to us from Europe. Let that tree be a palm tree like the one that Virgin Mary shook and ate dates from when she was giving birth to Christ.”