It is true that during Christmas, gifts are exchanged and time is spent with family, but is that all

what Christmas is just about? Before taking part in any event, or celebration, it is pivotal to do

research about its origins. For example, if a cricket match is being held somewhere in Karachi

and you come across a poster promoting it, you wouldn’t just hop into your car and head to it

right? You would, first examine the poster, by maybe checking out the address, the time, who is

organizing it, who the sponsors are and so on. If you are going the extra mile, you would carry

out research about the organizer or sponsors to see if they are authentic in the sense that if they

have promised a specific prize, they are bound to give it.

Hence, before engaging in any celebration, it would be wise to first and foremost carry out your

own research regarding it and examine its roots in order to acquire a much clearer idea of what

you are about to pursue. That’s why I have written this article to help get started with your

research at the most about the true origins of Christmas

Before anything else, “What is Christmas?” Well, it's a holiday celebrated annually, on the 25th

of December, marking the birth of Isa (AS). It is mainly associated with the Christians who

commemorate the birth of Isa (AS), their God. But did Isa (AS) ever preach the notion of him

being God which is called Trinity or the idea of 25th of December? The answer is absolutely not.

In Fact, the name “Jesus” which is what the Christians call Isa (AS) is a latinised version of the

name Esau, which was what Isa (AS) was called in his native tongue of Aramahic. Thus if Isa

(AS) was called “Jesus”, he would not recognise the name as the letter or sound “J” was not in

Aramahic.

Anyhow, its crucial to know a bit of history to understand Christmas in a more thorough manner.

Isa (AS), as we are aware of, was born a miraculous birth to Maryam (AS). She was a pious

woman and the Prophet (PBUH) even admitted that she was the most noble woman to walk the

face of the earth. She is also the only woman spoken by name in the Quran, and even has an

entire chapter in Quran, named after her, which speaks volumes about her virtue. As a young

woman, she was dedicated to the temple, which was Al Aqsa. Her uncle, Zakariya (AS) was in

charge of it and she was allotted her separate Mihrab where she would worship Allah in

solitude. She would receive food in abundance and even fruits out of season due to her piety.

When she was informed about her pregnancy, Maryam (AS), objected to it immediately as no

man had ever touched her, however Jibreel (AS), who had delivered the news said that Allah

has decided it and nothing is impossible for Him. She left Jerusalem to give birth to Isa (AS)

under a palm tree.

After giving birth, she returned to Jerusalem, holding baby Isa, and as Allah had forbidden her to

talk, she justified the baby by pointing to it and then signaling that it was from Allah.

However, the people failed to understand the sign, and that’s when Allah allowed Isa (AS) to

carry out his first of numerous miracles to follow. As a newborn, he said, “Indeed, I am a

servant of Allah. He has revealed a Book upon me and chosen me as a Nabi. He has

made be blessed wherever I go. He has commanded me to pray, pay zakat and be

generous as long as I live and to be good to my mother.”

Therefore, Isa (AS) gave a type of Khutbah to the people. But he goes on to say, “And salaam

(peace) is upon me the day I was born, the day I die and the day I will be resurrected.”

This statement is crucial as it shows us that Allah made the birth, death and resurrection of Isa

(AS), blessed, hence it makes no sense to celebrate his “alleged” birth on 25th of December.

Isa (AS) continued to preach to Bani Israel for a little more than 30 years and told the people to

repent sincerely to Allah, as the sins they carried out were far too great. He was the Messiah,

Bani Israel had been waiting for for decades. Bani Israel were even told that the Prophet or

Messiah to come, would perform several miracles, but when Isa (AS) did so, they outwardly

rejected him and forged cases against him. This lead the Romans, who were the government

figure, at the time, to crucify him, however as Muslims we know that undoubtedly, Isa (AS) was

not crucified.

“But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so. Even those

who argue for this ˹crucifixion˺ are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever—only

making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him.” [4:157]

Moreover, Isa (AS) would preach Musa ‘s(AS) law, meaning Taurat and was a practicing Jew

himself (Jews were the Muslims at the time). He ate Kosher and practiced it as well, and he

never taught anything different from laws bestowed upon Musa (AS), much less what modern

Christians believe.

But the question arises then, “Where did the notion of Christmas come from?” Well to

answer that there have been two individuals who have been the reason for corruption of Isa’s

(AS) original message, which was the message of all the Prophets, Tawheed. First one is a guy

called Paul.

Paul was a person who never met Isa (AS), but interacted with his disciples. He is mentioned

numerous times in the Testament because he himself authored it. He claimed to see Isa (AS) in

a vision and began preaching a totally different version of what Isa (AS) preached. He began

saying that the idea of halal and haram is abolished. One has to just believe that Isa (AS) was

sent to save you and nothing more. This was known as the Doctrine of Redemption. He also

introduced the Trinity, rejecting the Oneness of Allah, and in the Trinity there were three main

Gods, God, meaning Isa (AS), God the Father and then the Holy Spirit (Jibreel). During Paul’s

era, two main denominations of Christianity were introduced, Pauline Christianity which was

preached to the Romans and had a completely different and corrupt ideology and Jewish

Christianity which was frankly, today’s Islam with the commandments such as Zakat, Fasting

Salah etc. Paul lived somewhere after 40 CE.

The next pivotal figure in distortion of Isa ‘s (AS) original message was Emperor Constantine,

who ruled after 300 CE. It was during his reign that Romans began accepting Christianity, but

Pauline Christianity, not the true Jewish Christianity, as before Romans were pagans and

actually, persecuted the Christians. Constantine’s mother was a Pauline Christian and raised

Constantine as a Christian, thus when he became the emperor, he declared Christianity as the

state religion of Roman Empire in 314 CE, which was a significant event in history, leading to a

massive conversion throughout the Roman Empire, from England to Constantinople and

beyond. But this took centuries in some parts of Europe. In Nordic countries such as Norway, it

took more than 600 years. However, if we look at how long it took Muslims to eliminate

paganism from Arabia, it was only 3 years! He also introduced the Trinity, rejecting the Oneness

of Allah, and in the Trinity there were three main Gods, God, meaning Isa (AS), God the Father

and then the Holy Spirit (Jibreel). Moreover, Constantine went a step further and initiated

Christmas as well as Sunday. Now what Constantine was trying to do was, he in simple words,

merged the Christianity of his mother and Paganism of his father, therefore he introduced the

Trinity, which was a completely pagan concept which even Paul didn’t talk about. Regarding

Sunday, he kept it a holiday to honour the Sun, one of the Gods of the Romans and that’s why

even today, Christians observe Sunday as a sacred day similar to us observing Jumu’ah. Even

though the Trinity and Sunday is not the topic of the article, understanding its origins, helps us

fathom the roots of Christmas.

During the winter solstice which are the shortest days of the year, somewhere between

December 20 and 22, Romans had a festival called Saturnalia, in honour of the Sun getting

stronger as when the winter ended, Sun began to rise and it lead to more crops and an overall

agricultural boost, so the Romans celebrated it. Constantine took this paganistic festival and

moved the date to 25th of December and labelled it, the holiest day of the year for the

Christians. Now even an amateur can grasp the fact that this was extracted right out of a

paganistic festival and had nothing to do with Isa (AS) or the Christians, but he did this in order

to convert his people faster, and by propagating a mix of paganism in the alleged

“Christianity”, he had initiated.

Moving on, as Christianity spread throughout Europe, the vikings who lived in the Nordic

countries, had a completely different theology. They believed in Odon, who was their god of war.

According to them, he would bring gifts and stuff and had a white beard. Also, as they lived in

Nordic countries where it was cold, they introduced the notion of reindeers that too flying so

that’s how flying reindeers began to be associated with Christmas. Furthermore, in a particular

sect of Christianity, there was a saint by name of Saint Nicholas who was considered too be

extremely generous and would give gifts to the children, as a result the name “Santa Claus”

originated from Saint Nicholas and because the god of the vikings, Odon had a white beard, the

eventual perception of Santa Claus, a white bearded man, riding his reindeers and giving gifts to

children, was slowly adopted. In short, the vikings and other Christian sects added their pagan

twists into the mix to formulate the Christmas we know today.

Even though developments were being made and Christmas was gradually taking shape, a

large number of Christians, still objected to observing Christmas. When the Europeans initially

arrived in America, they were the Puritans who were hardcore Christians who founded places

such as New England and in 1659, the governor of Massachusetts, a state in the region of New

England declared anyone celebrating Christmas to be fined. This was a shocking move as

Christmas was quickly becoming a fundamental of Christianity. However, the Puritans did this as

they saw Christmas as an absolute pagan festival with no links to Christianity whatsoever.

But then a critical question surfaces, “How did Christmas become mainstream?”

To answer that, we need to go back to Europe. The concept of reindeers and Santa Claus had

emerged from Northern Europe, and then this mixture of theologies which became modern

Christmas, penetrated into Germany. Yet, the most pivotal catalyst behind the spread of

Christmas throughout Europe and then America was someone who would shock the masses as

it was none other than Queen Victoria of England.

For the record, many people don not know this, but the royal family of England isn't British at all.

Its actually German and Queen Victoria herself began speaking English later on in her life.

Therefore, as she was German, she celebrated the Christian German festival at the time which

was Christmas, because, as mentioned above, the idea of Christmas had made its way to

Germany. So in the 1840s a postcard went viral all over Europe with Queen Victoria, her

husband and their kids in front of a Christmas tree, surrounded by presents. That sight brought

extreme pleasure to the general public who wanted to imitate what the Queen did, as she was a

huge icon at the time.

Nonetheless, some groups still refuted the idea of Christmas and also began stating that its

spirituality had been completely usurped as especially nowadays, people celebrate it for

pleasure, purchasing all types of decorations, gifts and whatnot, making it a materialistic festival.

All in all, we as Muslims must be grateful that our religion has been preserved as the Christians,

just 300 years after Isa (AS) began holding meetings about who god is, how many gods are

there and so on, whereas in 300 AH, meaning 300 years after the Prophet (PBUH), our books of

Hadith and Islamic Law were firmly established with absolutely no doubt, and to this day no

matter how divided we maybe as Muslims, unfortunately, we have never and I say never

debated on the notion of who god is as our religion is simple and straightforward and has no

human intervention, hence I make du’a that Allah keeps us on the Al Siraat ul Mustaqeem

always and we remain firm upon our faith and that we remain indebted to Allah for preserving

our deen till the end of times Ameen, as the Quran say, “We have sent down this Message,

and will surely guard it (from corruption)” [15:9].