Christmas 2012 ~ What’s In and About…

First of all, I want to wish a wonderful Christmas to all celebrating this festive season. Christmas is like Christmas before this; An early start at the kitchen, foraging for foods, drinking soda, in the middle of the night. If Mr.Friedrich, my dietitian saw me gorging those oh-so-delicious-once-in-a-year punya food, I’m pretty sure, he’ll roll his eyes and strangle me on the spot.

Speaking of which, I was browsing my Facebook wall just now, and everyone is bracing themselves for next morning. Ramai juga yang sedang busy with their family and kin, tak kurang juga for some, the night-capping has already started. Drinking binge is not part of  the festive season as a whole, mind you (Westerners don’t spend their Christmases getting drunk until they’re totally wasted the next day), it just happened to be that Christmas is celebrated in this part of the world where unity (and sometimes total discord) can virtually be achieved through mutual drinking of Tapai, Montoku, Bahar and all sorts of Beers and Liquors.

Okey, skip that, now, to the serious matters which prompted me to delve into deep-thoughts ~

DISCLAIMER

First of all, before someone shoots at me saying I’m being insensitive and poking on the wrong subject-matter, I want to make it clear to you. THIS IS MY HUMBLEST OPINION. Whether you would agree to it or not, it is up to you. This is my opinion alone, I am not being influenced by any party or anyone in that matter, nor I am forcing my opinion to other people. But by far, what I am about to say in response to the above statement is this ~

BULLSHIT!!

First of all, let us look at this matter from the root of the Islamic Faith. Let us make it simple and digestible. Any good Muslim knows that his/her faith is based on the Holy Koran and Hadith. Straight to the point. There are NO SINGLE LINE WHATSOEVER stated in the Koran or the Hadith that bans a Muslim to wish his/her Christian neighbors a ‘Merry Christmas’. Here’s another quote from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/12/24/can-muslims-say-039merry-christmas039.html

“ Concerning using the Christmas greeting, there is no obvious Koranic verse or hadith regarding this matter. The Prophet Mohammad only had contact with a few Christians before he became a prophet and there was no further contact after he became one. Due to this fact, the reasoning of Muslims who ban wishing "Merry Christmas" is obviously questionable”.

It may sound like I am a social jerk, but it cant be helped. It really pissed me off to see such picture(s) as shown above, popped out like mushrooms on your Facebook wall on Christmas Day. I mean, duh! where’s that mutual respect and understanding we’ve been calling upon all this while?

Here’s another one that I would like to quote and share with you

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1851935

The arguments I've heard so far against being allowed to wish non-Muslims Merry Christmas are quite stupid, in my opinion.
They usually go something along the lines of "By wishing Merry Christmas, you're acknowledging that there is a religious need to celebrate Jesus' birthday, when there is not", or "You are agreeing that Jesus was born on 25th December, when there is no evidence for this".

I think the people who make these sorts of arguments usually come from cultures where Christmas is so rarely celebrated (and even then, only by those who are actually Christian) that they don't quite understand that for many people nowadays, Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with Religion. The people who celebrate it don't necessarily believe there is a religious need to celebrate Jesus' birthday, nor does anyone think that Jesus was born on 25th December. In that sense, it's no more religious than celebrating bonfire night, or new year's eve etc.

I know that I don't believe in the religious aspects of Christmas. The person whom I am wishing "Merry Christmas" will not assume that I do either. And presumably God has access to my every thought, and therefore knows that I'm not making or acknowledging any religious statement. So I don't really see what the problem is. In particular, I don't see any Qur'anic verse or Hadith that prohibits me from doing this either.

Nuff Said ~ To All My Christian Brothers and Sisters and to all my Muslim Brethren, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012.