Di bawah ialah sedikit informasi yang ingin dikongsi bersama sekalian pembaca blog. berkaitan Hari Krismas, perayaan terbesar masyarakat Kristian. Thanks to my beloved lecturer, Asst. Prof Dr. Fadzlilah Din (she’s teaching me Evangelization and Christian Mission this semester) for the information and thanks also to a very informative book, Dimensions of Christianity written by Dr. Abdul Hamid Qadri.

Sesungguhnya agama di sisi Allah itu hanyalah Islam satu-satunya. Ia diturunkan oleh Allah dan tidaklah ia terpengaruh dengan mana-mana agama atau pegangan yang dicipta oleh manusia.


CHRISTMAS- A PAGAN FESTIVAL


Christmas or Christ-mass is the annual mass which the Christians celebrate in commemoration of the birth of Jesus. It is not owe its origin to the birth of Jesus, but it is the continuation of the heathen rituals.

All four Gospels, as also the Acts and Epistles included in the canonical Bible, are silent on the date and month of Jesus’ birth. Only two of Gospels, namely Luke and Matthew, record the story of virgin birth but they too indicate no definite time and are virtually silent on the date of his nativity.

Let us examine whether Christmas is really originated from Christianity itself or it is just like other minor festivals borrowed from pagan cults (Oriental religion or Mystery religion)

The first Oriental religion was the cult of the Great Mother of the Gods. At an early date there was associated with Cybele, the Great Mother, a hero-divinity called Attic who personified the life of the vegetable world particularly. Attis was the Good Shepard, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, who gave birth to him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the virgin Mary. According to the myth, Attis died, either slain by another or by his own hand.

It is evident that in Rome there was a festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Attis. This celebration was held annually from March 22nd to 25th. The influence of this religion on Christianity is shown by the fact that in Phrygia, Gaul, Italy, and other countries where Attis-worship was powerful, the Christians adapted the actual date, 25th, as the anniversary of Jesus’ passion.


Next is Mithraism. Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods of the ancient Persian pantheon, but at the time of Christ he had come to be co-equal with Ahura Mazda, the Supreme Being. He possessed many attributes, the most important being his office of defender of truth and all good things. Mithra was born from a rock, the god out of the rock.


The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the day of resurrection. But when we observe a little further we find that as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra; it is also interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as Lord, Sunday must have been the Lord's Day long before Christian use. It is also to be noticed that the Christmas, December 25th, was the birthday of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus.


We also have to mention here that in the Mediterranean world, 25th December has always been a significant date. The ancient people thought that a winter solstice the Sun commenced its annual journey around the heaven and therefore, the 25th December was thought to be its birthday which annually celebrated by great festivals in many part of heathen world.

Many sungods were believed to have born on the same date or a day or two before or after. As what have been mentioned before, Mithra was born on the 25th December, Isis and Osiris (The Egyptian sun-God) on the 362nd day of the year and Horus and Apollo on the 362 day, which means the last week of the month of December.

Therefore, it must be noted here that Christmas is not originally comes from Christianity. It is borrowed from the pagan festivals. Besides, Christianity itself was influenced by many creed and doctrine including Judaism, Oriental religion and Greek philosophy and Stoicism especially their concept of Logos, the fallen spirit by Heraclitus, Socrates’ idea of right and wrong and the Aristotle’s teaching on logos which constituted the concept of Trinity.

Wallahu’alam.

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Celebrating Student’s Academic Excellence- A very memorable moment!

Tahniah untuk 339 pelajar UIAM daripada pelbagai kuliyyah especially 16 sahabat-sahabat dari Kuliyyah Islamic Revealed Knowledge atas kejayaan anda menerima Anugerah Dekan selama 2 semester berturut-turut.

Semoga Allah memberkati kejayaan ini dan terus bersama-sama kita.

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Jemput baca cerpen saya Nama Saya Pinnachio di Majalah I Keluaran Januari 2007. Sudi-sudikanlah komen ye!