WE WANT A CHRISTMAS TREE! (2)

The children ate their tea then did their homework. They had just finished their homework when they heard the sound of a car in the driveway -- daddy was home! The children rushed to the doorway and waited for their father. Soon they heard his footsteps coming nearer so they opened the door but as they rushed to give him a big kiss and hug they knocked his brief case out of his hand. "As-Salamu alaykum" their father said, "what's all this?" Both children started to speak at the same time and their father could not understand a word they were saying. "Just a minute, let me take my coat off and warm up." He took his coat off and hung it up and Sarah raced to bring him a pair of nice warm slippers to put on. "Now children, tell me one at a time what you were saying." Abraham said: "Oh daddy, today we put up decorations in our classroom, and Mrs. Short brought a Christmas tree and we decorated it with lights and lots of pretty things -- can we have a Christmas tree, please daddy, please!"

Their father sat himself down in the chair near the fire and told them: "Children, when we came to America, we noticed that lots of things were different from back home. We are Muslims and Christmas is a Christian celebration and we don't celebrate it." "But daddy!" Abraham protested, "its the birthday of Prophet Jesus, why can't we celebrate it and have a Christmas tree?" "No, Abraham, Christians say it is the birthday of Prophet Jesus, but it is not." "But daddy, Mrs. Short at school said it is!!" said Abraham. "Well, I am afraid she is wrong this time."

Sarah and Abraham were very upset, they wanted a Christmas tree more than anything. Sarah started to cry, Abraham forgot his manners and started shouting. In fact they were so naughty they were sent to bed early and they didn't even say their prayers!

As their mother tucked them into bed she reminded them of the lovely time they had at Eid, but this did not help, they could not understand why their father would not let them have a Christmas tree with lights that flashed on and off.

At last they dropped off to sleep, but as Abraham slept he sobbed. Suddenly, Abraham's bedroom was full of light. Abraham sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes, blinked and stared. There, sitting in the corner of the room on his prayer mat was something, or someone very, very unusual. "Who are you, what are you, go away or else I will scream!" said the bewildered Abraham. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startled you. I am a jinn, you have heard about my kind in the Koran," he replied. "Do you remember the story of Prophet Sulayman and the jinn who brought the throne of the Queen of Sheba to him in the twinkling of an eye?" asked the jinn. "Yes," replied Abraham, "Well, my great-great-great, I can't remember how many greats, but one of my great-grandfathers was there!" "Really," blurted Abraham, "That's really awesome," said Abraham, "but what are you doing in my bedroom?"

The jinn smiled with a smile that spread from ear to ear. "I was on my way to the Californian desert, when I popped down your chimney to warm up, and overheard you and your father talking about Christmas, I also heard all the fuss you were making. I know it's hard for children to understand about Christmas, especially as people make it look so nice. That is why I decided it was my duty to tell you children two stories," said the jinn. "Go and tell Sarah to come here and I will tell them to you."

Abraham went to Sarah's bedroom and woke her up -- she was still upset but when Abraham told her about the jinn she was very excited, she had never seen a jinn before. She jumped out of bed, put on her dressing gown, and together the children crept quietly back to Abraham's bedroom.

As the children peered around the bedroom door they saw the jinn still sitting on the prayer mat and as he looked up he gave them one of his big smiles that stretched from ear to ear.

"As-Salamu alaykum," said the jinn. "Wa laykum as-Salaam," replied the children. Although Sarah was excited, she was also a little bit shy. The jinn told the children that his name was Arafat ibn Jabel Arafat which means Arafat, the son of the Mount of Arafat. He told them that he had been given that name, because like his father he had been born not far from Mount Arafat, however, because he had grown to be rather big, his friends called him Jabel. Sarah asked: "Is that the mountain people go to on pilgrimage?" "Yes," said Jabel, "I am glad you know about it. Come and sit down by me and I will tell you two stories."

"The first story," said Jabel "is about Christmas celebrations and the decorations you have been talking about and making at school. I know you have been wondering why Muslims don't celebrate Christmas even though we love Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him. Well, I am going to tell you the reason why we don't celebrate it, and how the idea of Christmas and its celebrations all started. You are going to be quite surprised with what you are going to hear!"

"It all started a very long time ago, way before the time of Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him, and many years after Allah had taken Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, to the heavens.

At that time, Constantine was Emperor of Roman. He became so famous that a city in Turkey was named after him, it was called Constantinople, but today it has been renamed Istanbul.

When Constantine became Emperor of Rome many people envied him because they wanted to be the Emperor, and so there were always uprisings somewhere in the Roman Empire.

Most Romans were pagans, they worshiped lots of false gods carved out of stone. Some of these gods, the Romans said, had sons and daughters. Other Romans, like Constantine, worshiped the sun or even the moon." "That's silly," said Sarah, "didn't they realize that the statues were useless and made by people? "You are right Sarah, I am glad you realize that," said Jabel. "To get back to the story, Constantinople was full of temples to those pagan gods. There were lots of very big statues everywhere but like I said, the god Constantine worshiped was the sun and on December, 25th each year there were special celebrations in honor of its birth.

However, not all the people living in the Roman Empire were pagans, there was another group, people who refused to worship the pagan gods. They were called Christians. But, there were two kinds of Christians. One group followed the true teachings of Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, and worshiped One God and knew another prophet would be sent later on, these people were called Nazarenes." "Oh, I know," said Abraham, "they were waiting for Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him." "Yes, that's right Abraham," said Jabel.

Jabel continued, "the other kind of Christians followed a man called Paul who never met Prophet Jesus and claimed, that God was one of three persons; may Allah forgive me for repeating this, it is a terrible thing to say," said Jabel. "You see, when Paul first went to Greece he had difficulty preaching. The Greeks worshiped three gods, joined them together and said they worshiped one god.

Now Paul had an idea, if he referred to Prophet Jesus as being the son of God and then added the Holy Spirit there would be three in one, and that would make his preaching easier for them to accept. His idea worked, and people started to listen but he made a very big mistake, because we know that Prophet Jesus always taught that God, Allah, is One and does not have a son or any other one or thing else with Him.

Constantine was a very confused man, he saw the true followers of Prophet Jesus as a threat to his power. As for the other kind of Christians, they could be tolerated, because, like I said before, their idea of three gods in one, was similar to the religions of Roman. However, there were more true Christians than the other kind."

"Why did Constantine think the true Christians or should I say Nazarenes were a threat to his power," asked Abraham. "Well, like I mentioned, their numbers were growing, and he was afraid they might rise up against him -- there had already been twelve emperors in recent years and on average, each one only ruled for three years -- all of them died in a mysterious manner. Neither the Nazarenes nor the followers of Paul had anything to do with these mysterious deaths, the Emperors were murdered by greedy people, some of whom wanted to become the next Emperor. Needless to say Constantine wanted to be the Emperor of Rome for a long time!"

Jabel continued: "The Nazarenes were people who obeyed Allah and didn't much care about the Emperor. Emperors of Roman before Constantine had trouble accepting the two parties as well and would throw them to hungry lions because they refused to worship the gods of Rome." "Oh, how cruel!" said Sarah. "Yes," said Jabel, "those emperors were not nice people at all, however, they were dedicated to their beliefs and refused to give them up and would rather be martyred than become pagans.

Now, Constantine was determined to stamp out the Nazarenes, so he devised a plan. Both parties had books which they called Gospels, some of them reported the true sayings of Jesus, whereas others contained the teachings of Paul and others who followed his false teachings of three gods in one which they called the trinity.

Constantine had an idea, so he pretended to convert. The next thing he did was to declare that it was time that both parties be united and share the same belief, and it was through this declaration that Constantine set his plot in motion.

Not long after, Constantine invited all the arch-bishops, bishops and notable clergy to a council meeting at a place called Nicea. He ordered them to bring their gospels with them so that they might debate with one another and then he would determine who was right. He also told them that once the matter was decided their gospels would be made into one book, which is what Christians today call the "New Testament".

The most influential arch-bishop who taught the true teachings of Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, was a man named Arius. He was a very good man and knew the teachings of Prophet Jesus well. Needless to say the bishops welcomed Constantine's proposal and journeyed from far and wide to attend the great council over which the Emperor was to preside.

Arius wasn't too happy about Constantine presiding over the council as he wasn't thoroughly convinced about Constantine's conversion. However, Arius was a truthful, convincing speaker and felt that the truth he was about to present would be very clear and simple for all to understand and that through it he would unite them all in the worship of One God.

The day of the great council arrived. The bishops and clergy with their books sat down before, Constantine, Emperor of Rome. There were more Nazarenes at the council meeting than the followers of Paul, and when arch-bishop Arius spoke it was clear that he spoke the truth.

Now this bothered Constantine, he had hoped that the followers of Paul would win the day, but now he realized it wasn't going to turn out like that, however, he was too clever to show his true feelings.

It was time for Constantine to fall back on another plan he had devised just in case things did not go in his favor. He ordered the bishops and clergy to leave all their gospels on top of the conference table and told them he would let God decide overnight which were authentic. He told them that he would ask God would remove the false teachings from the table and that the books remaining on the table the following morning would from then on be the official books.

That night, Constantine's men gathered together all the gospels that spoke of the Oneness of Allah and burned them. The next morning when the bishops gathered, the Nazarenes realized they had been tricked -- none of their gospels were left on the table! Arius protested and accused Constantine of deceit, but it was no good -- the damage had been done." "Didn't they have other real gospels, like we have real copies of the Koran?" asked Sarah. "Oh, Sarah, there were a few, but you see in those days everything had to be written down by hand, and that took a long time, so you can see there weren't many of them," said Jabel, "but I will get to that in a minute."

"Arius and the rest of the Nazarenes left the conference in disgust. However, Constantine realized these bishops knew their scriptures very well and that he could not allow them to return home where they would continue to preach, so he arranged to have them all murdered. He also decreed that anyone found in possession of the true gospels would be put to death and their gospels burned.

Meanwhile, back at the conference, a creed was drawn up by the followers of Paul." "What's a creed," asked Abraham. "A creed is something that you bear witness too," answered Jabel, "Now, I understand," said Abraham, "Its like our shahadah 'I bear witness that there is no god except Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet.'" "In a way," replied Jabel, "but, you must remember they did not believe in One God, so you really can't compare it to ours. By the way, the creed they devised that day still forms part of their prayers in church each Sunday, its called the Nicene Creed."

"What you have told is very interesting Jabel, but what has this got to do with Christmas?" asked Abraham. "Well, from that time onwards, Constantine declared that Christians should celebrate the birth of Jesus on the same day the pagan Romans celebrated the birth of the sun god, the most popular god of the Roman Empire and that day was on December 25th, which Christians, now call Christmas day." "Oh, I would hate Prophet Jesus to be part of that," said Sarah. "Has it been like this ever since Constantine?" asked Abraham. "No, things changed, but they didn't get any better, I'll tell you about that in a minute."

Constantine continued to rule the Roman Empire for a long time, and the life of a Trinitarian Christian became much easier. Just before he died, his sister who had become a follower of Prophet Jesus but had kept it secret, tried to convince him he was wrong, but the damage was done.

As time passed the great Empire of Rome fell, it became more corrupt than ever and it just got too big to control! As for the Trinitarian Christians, they traveled across Europe preaching the doctrine Paul had taught, many were people trying to do good, but their belief was wrong. However, they too had problems preaching their religion and so they included part of the pagan rituals into Christianity." "How do you mean?" asked Sarah. "A good question," replied Jabel. "Well, there are many, but let's just take one example, an example which seems to attract you.

In a part of the United Kingdom called Wales, there were pagans called Druids. Each year in December when the days were short and the nights long they would worship their pagan god by tying apples and other gifts onto the branches of a tree.

The Germans did something similar, but they used a fir tree which you know as a Christmas Tree. To the pagans, fir trees were also a sign that winter would end and warmth would once more return to the earth so they would decorate the trees with lots of different trinkets, masks and hold a party around it. When these people accepted Christianity, they continued with this pagan ritual but renamed it, and so it became part of the Christmas celebrations.

The Germans were not content with just the tree however, they invented another story which has been passed down right up until this day. The story they invented was that on Christmas Eve -- that's the night they claimed Prophet Jesus was born -- his mother, Lady Mary, and the angels fly over the countryside, so, they place a candle in their windows to guide them and leave some food for them on a table, rather like the pagan tree offerings in the old days. Of course, the Germans weren't the only ones to invent stories, each country has their own, the Spanish have a similar story."

"Oh, that's horrid," said Sarah. "Prophet Jesus was such a good, pure person how could they do even think of even connecting him to those pagan things!" "Well I guess they just did not think what they were doing," replied Jabel, "now you know why your parents don't want you to have a Christmas tree."

"Well, now that I understand the origins of a Christmas tree I don't want one, do you Sarah?" asked Abraham. "No, I agree with you!" said Sarah.