The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
By Imam Rizwan Rizvi.
This year again the birth of Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Jesus (pbut) falls in the same month. Don’t suffice with just celebrating their birth, celebrate their lives.
Prophet Muhammad taught us the lesson of humanity, he said in one of his sermons, “Shall I inform you of the best ethics of this world and the hereafter?” Companions replied yes, he then said: Forgive the one who has oppressed you, connect ties with the one who has broken ties with you, be kind to the one who has been unkind to you and provide to those who deprived you.”
Similarly, Qurʾān lauds the immaculate character of Prophet Jesus. In the Qurʾān, Jesus is referred to in over 90 verses in 15 chapters. Islam corroborates that Jesus was born to a virgin, was sinless, performed miracles, and was superior to other prophets.
Here are some references from Qurʾān about Jesus (pbuh).
- 5:110 When God will say, O Jesus son of Mary, remember My blessing upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, so you would speak to the people in the cradle and in adulthood, and when I taught you the Book and wisdom, the Torah and the Evangel, and when you would create from clay the form of a bird, with My leave, and you would breathe into it and it would become a bird, with My leave; and you would heal the blind and the leper, with My leave, and you would raise the dead, with My leave; and when I held off the Children of Israel from you when you brought them manifest proofs…’
- 19:22 Thus she (Mary) conceived him, then withdrew with him to a distant place.
- 19:27-28 Then carrying him she brought him to her people. They said, ‘O Mary, you have certainly come up with an odd thing! O sister of Aaron [’s lineage]! Your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother unchaste.’
- 19:30-34 He said, ‘Indeed I am a servant of God! He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. He has made me blessed, wherever I may be, and He has enjoined me to [maintain] the prayer and to [pay] the poor-rate as long as I live, and to be good to my mother, and He has not made me self-willed and wretched. Peace to me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised alive.’ That is Jesus, son of Mary, a Word of the Real concerning whom they are in doubt.
- 61:6 And when Jesus son of Mary said, ‘O Children of Israel! Indeed I am the apostle of Allah to you, to confirm what is before me of the Torah, and to give the good news of an apostle who will come after me, whose name is Ahmad…’
According to Qurʾān Jesus predicted the coming of Prophet Muhammad and showed us the continuation of God’s message through one divine leader after another.
Let us celebrate the season of celebration by removing prejudice, hatred, bigotry that divide us, and come together in peace and gratitude. Let’s make this holiday season more joyful for those who are less fortunate than us. Because the real joy rests in making others happy.
Rizwan Rizvi is Imam of Masjid-e-Ali Mosque on Cedar Grove Lane.
