{"id":4425,"date":"2018-12-17T19:44:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T00:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/?p=4425"},"modified":"2020-06-26T23:42:06","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T04:42:06","slug":"santa-comes-what-muslims-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/santa-comes-what-muslims-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do Muslim Do When Santa Comes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Muslims living in the west are faced with the question of what to do when they are asked to participate in Christmas celebrations<\/a>, gift giving, and parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\n the one hand, they have a shared reverence for Jesus Christ.  Muslims \n honor him and they value everything that he bought as the next to the \nlast Prophet sent by Allah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Muslims today are faced\n with the fact that modern day Christianity, with its celebrations, is \nmore a product of modern day paganism than the religion of Jesus.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In public schools throughout America, Muslims students have to walk into schools with Christmas trees and lights,<\/a>\n watch their teachers play Secret Santa, watch their Christian \nclassmates exchange Christmas gifts, and sing Christmas songs in music \nclass such as \u201cJingle Bells\u201d and \u201cRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.\u201d They \nalso attend assemblies with Christmas carols and Christmas plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\n a public school teacher, I am faced with watching students go to Secret\n Santa workshops to buy gifts and observe a week-long Secret Santa gift \nexchange where teachers secretly pull names and for a week put a gift in\n another teacher\u2019s class until the final day when the Secret Santa is \nrevealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinking in Debts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One element of Christmas that drives many people into a depression is the excessive shopping<\/a>,\n and the pressure to buy gifts they cannot afford. The gift buying \npressure can cause people to take on large debt on their credit cards \nand end up in bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children will face constant pressure to \nconform and participate in Christmas in some way or another if they \nattend public schools in the west.  The only way to avoid the \nbombardment of Christmas festivities is to send your children to Muslim \nschools and stay away from shopping malls and the television from \nNovember to January.  If you are unable to do this then be prepared to \nexplain to your children why it\u2019s not good to participate in the \nmultitude of Christmas festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a mother of school aged \nchildren, I have sent notes to the teacher at the beginning of the \nschool year explaining that they are Muslims and outlining the things \nthey are not allowed to do in school.  While some teachers will respect \nyour notes, others will totally ignore them or have to be constantly \nreminded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spell of Christmas and Our Kids<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When\n my three year old son first saw the Christmas commercials on television\n with Santa and his reindeer, he jumped up screaming gleefully, \n\u201cChristmas, Christmas!\u201d I told him that Muslims don\u2019t celebrate \nChristmas. He asked why and I explained that Allah does not like it and \nMuslims are put on earth to please Allah and worship Allah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At \nnighttime when we drive by our neighbor\u2019s houses which are decorated \nwith lights, Santa, and the reindeer, we explain that while it may look \nvery pretty, Allah does not like this. Everything that looks beautiful \nand good is not especially if it\u2019s done for the wrong reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\n is another reason why Muslims should make the effort to make `Eid \nspecial for their children and not just a day to take off school and go \nto the Masjid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is their time to have fun and enjoyment.  This\n is a good time to visit the school and ask the teacher if you could \ngive a short talk on `Eid so their classmates will know that they too \nhave a special holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslim children should be encouraged to \nnot be shy about their religion. They should not have an inferiority \ncomplex or feel sad that they don\u2019t celebrate Christmas.  Parents need \nto talk to their children and volunteer in the schools to encourage \nteacher support. Bring in a desert to share with the class during `Eid \ntime so they will know that Muslims are your neighbors and friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\n Muslim parents sit down with their children and talk about Christmas, \nthey need to share with their children the story of Jesus\u2019 birth in the \nQur\u2019an.  They need to explain to them that the best explanation about \nJesus comes straight from the words of our Creator, in the Noble Qur\u2019an \nSurah 19, verse 20 \u2013 35:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said: How can I have a son, when no man has touched me, nor am I unchaste?He\n said: So (it will be), your Lord said: that is easy for Me: And (We \nwish) to appoint him as a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us (Allah), \nand it is a matter (already) decreed.So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a far place\u2026..\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Be Ready When Santa Comes<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The key difference between Muslims and Christians <\/a>with respect to Christ is that Muslims believe that since Christ worshiped God, and since Christ ordered people to worship God<\/a>, that true believers should obey him and worship God alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians,\n on the other hand, changed the religion of Jesus and combined the \nreligion of Jesus with Roman paganism to allow the people to know \nChrist.  In doing so they replaced one of the Roman idols (called \nMithra) with the person of Christ to make things easy for the people to \naccept.  The Roman idol Mithra had a symbol of the cross and was the son\n of a greater god and was born on the 25th of December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emperor \nConstantine converted from pure paganism to the new found Roman \nChristianity and made it the official religion of Rome.  He put together\n a council in 325 A.D. to compile an official Bible which reflected this\n new Roman paganistic mixture of the teachings of Jesus with the \nheretical teachings of Paul. Emperor Constantine burned all of the \noriginal manuscripts and killed anyone who could speak the language of \nJesus (Aramaic) to ensure no one would learn of the real teachings of \nChrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line is that when Santa comes, Muslims need to \nbe forefront in educating their neighbors, peers, classmates, and \ncolleagues on the true religion of Jesus and giving a true example of \nhow to be a follower of Jesus which entails worshiping the creator and \nnot creation, being honest, charitable, and of good character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this example that will cause our neighbors to become curious about Islam and want to know more about the true religion of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Source: http:\/\/aboutislam.net\/family-society\/moms-dads\/muslims-santa-comes<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muslims living in the west are faced with the question of what to do when they are asked to participate in Christmas celebrations, gift giving, and parties. On the one hand, they have a shared reverence for Jesus Christ.  Muslims  honor him and they value everything that he bought as the next to the last … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[152,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-bible","category-jesus-in-islam"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1.jpg",1080,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1-300x188.jpg",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1-768x480.jpg",768,480,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1-1024x640.jpg",1024,640,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1.jpg",1080,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1.jpg",1080,675,false],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1.jpg",300,188,false],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1.jpg",400,250,false],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Santa-Comes-What-Muslim-Do-1.jpg",600,375,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Site Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/author\/admin2\/"},"uagb_comment_info":121,"uagb_excerpt":"Muslims living in the west are faced with the question of what to do when they are asked to participate in Christmas celebrations, gift giving, and parties. On the one hand, they have a shared reverence for Jesus Christ.  Muslims  honor him and they value everything that he bought as the next to the last…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcT0IL-19n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6803,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/jesus-freaks\/","url_meta":{"origin":4425,"position":0},"title":"Jesus Freaks","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/07\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was a child, growing up in the sixties and seventies just a few blocks away from the notorious Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, I was surrounded by the hippie movement. It was a \u201cturn on, tune in, drop out\u201d age of sexual freedom, cultural revolution and social recklessness.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Jesus (PBUH) In Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Jesus (PBUH) In Islam","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/jesus-in-islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8462,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/jesus-freaks\/","url_meta":{"origin":4425,"position":1},"title":"Jesus Freaks.","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was a child growing up just a few blocks from San Francisco's notorious Haight Ashbury neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s, I was surrounded by the hippie movement. It was the age of sexual freedom, cultural revolution and social carefree (\"turn on, tune in, drop out\"). 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