CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR ARE PAGANISM & LIES (2019 edition) (Part 1 of 6)

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR ARE PAGANISM & LIES (2019 edition)

ASSEMBLED BY MALLAM ABBA ABANA, KUBWA, ABUJA, NIGERIA

http://variousislamicdawadocuments.blogspot.com

https://web.facebook.com/abba.abana

emails:gonidamgamiri@yahoo.com; abba.abana@gmail.com

MONDAY, 16^th DECEMBER, 2019 CE and 18^th RABIUL AKHIR 1441 AH

(PART 1 OF 6)

Bismillah Walhamdulillah Was Salaatu Was Salaam 'ala Rasulillah. As-Salaam Alaikum Wa-Rahmatullahi Wa-Barakatuhu.

Praise be to Allaah; we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whomsoever Allaah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allaah leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allaah, and I bear witness that Muhammad (Sallalhu alaihi Wasalam) is His slave and Messenger.

PREAMBLE

In this 2019 edition of DAWAH, we want know the truth about holidays as end of Gregorian year is due. The following topics are discussed to enlighten nominal Muslims and youths:

1.    Is it permissible for Muslims to gather on New Year's (Gregorian) Eve to remember Allah, offer supplication (Du‘aa’) & read Qur'aan has been practiced by some?

2.    Do we accept a gift from a Kaafir on the day of his/her festival?

3.    If you were offered food at Christmas & New year (Gregorian)– what should Muslim do?

4.    Is it permissible to congratulate the Kuffaar on their festivals in any way whatsoever?

5.    What’s the ruling on celebrating non-Muslim holidays and congratulating by Muslims?

6.   What’s the ruling on the Muslims celebrating at the time of Christmas & decorating their homes with balloons like the Christians?

7.    Greeting Christians on the occasion of their festivals

8.    Does Quran really prohibit Muslim to say such a "Merry Christmas" to Christians?

9.    Is it haram for Muslims to wish Christians a Merry Christmas?

10. Does the Quran forbid Muslims from making religious well-wishes (example, Merry Christmas) to non-Muslims?

1.0 THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS & THE HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS

1.1 WHEN WAS JESUS BORN?

A. Popular myth puts his birth on December 25th in the year 1 CE.

B. The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth. The earliest gospel – St. Mark’s, written about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus. This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked interest in or knowledge of Jesus’ birthdate.

C. The year of Jesus birth was determined by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, “abbot of a Roman monastery. His calculation went as follows:

a. In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita (“the founding of the City” [Rome]). Thus 1 AUC signifies the year Rome was founded, 5 AUC signifies the 5th year of Rome’s reign, etc.

b. Dionysius received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years, and was followed by the emperor Tiberius.

c. Luke 3:1,23 indicates that when Jesus turned 30 years old, it was the 15th year of Tiberius reign.

d. If Jesus was 30 years old in Tiberius’ reign, then he lived 15 years under Augustus (placing Jesus birth in Augustus’ 28th year of reign).

e. Augustus took power in 727 AUC. Therefore, Dionysius put Jesus birth in 754 AUC.

f. However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus’ birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC – four years before the year in which Dionysius places Jesus birth.

D. Joseph A. Fitzmyer – Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and former president of the Catholic Biblical Association – writing in the Catholic Church’s official commentary on the New Testament [Addison G. Wright, Roland E. Murphy, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, “A History of Israel” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary, (Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990), p. 1247], writes about the date of Jesus’ birth, “Though the year [of Jesus birth is not reckoned with certainty, the birth did not occur in AD 1. The Christian era, supposed to have its starting point in the year of Jesus birth, is based on a miscalculation introduced ca. 533 by Dionysius Exiguus.”

E. The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed to have been written in North Africa around 243 CE, placed Jesus birth on March 28. Clement, a bishop of Alexandria (d. ca. 215 CE), thought Jesus was born on November 18. Based on historical records, Fitzmyer guesses that Jesus birth occurred on September 11, 3 BCE.

1.2 HOW DID CHRISTMAS COME TO BE CELEBRATED ON DECEMBER 25?

A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between 17-25 December. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.

B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).

C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians. [The first mention of a Nativity feast appears in the Philocalian calendar, a Roman document from 354 CE, which lists December 25th as the day of Jesus’ birth.]

D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.

E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.

F. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[Increase Mather, A Testimony against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in New England (London, 1687), p. 35. See also Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas: A Cultural History of America’s Most Cherished Holiday, New York: Vintage Books, 1997, p. 4] Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[Nissenbaum, p. 3.] However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.

G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[David I. Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001, p. 74.]

H. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[Kertzer, p. 33, 74-5.] On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles’ worth of property was destroyed.

2.0 THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

2.1 THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS TREE

Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas Trees”.[Clement Miles, Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance, New York: Dover Publications, 1976, pp. 178, 263-271.] Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.

2.2 THE ORIGIN OF MISTLETOE

Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim.[Miles, p. 273.] The Christian custom of “kissing under the mistletoe” is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.[Miles, p. 274-5.]

2.3 THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas (see below).[Miles, pp. 276-279.]

2.4 THE ORIGIN OF SANTA CLAUS

a. Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century.

b. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil” [John 8:44] who sentenced Jesus to death.

c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6.

d. The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.

e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th.

f. In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.

g. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.

h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red outfit.

i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.

2.5 THE CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE TO CHRISTIANS

1)    Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated carelessly. For millennia, pagans, Christians, and even Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.

2)    Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to rescue mankind from the “curse of the Torah.” It is a 24-hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid.

3)    Christmas is a lie. There is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really born on December 25th.

4)    December 25 is a day on which Jews have been shamed, tortured, and murdered.

5)    Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents, and Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced on earth.

Many who are excitedly preparing for their Christmas celebrations would prefer not knowing about the holiday’s real significance. If they do know the history, they often object that their celebration has nothing to do with the holiday’s monstrous history and meaning. “We are just having fun.”

Imagine that between 1933-45, the Nazi regime celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday – April 20 – as a holiday. Imagine that they named the day, “Hitlerday,” and observed the day with feasting, drunkenness, gift-giving, and various pagan practices. Imagine that on that day, Jews were historically subject to perverse tortures and abuse, and that this continued for centuries.

Now, imagine that your great-great-great-grandchildren were about to celebrate Hitlerday. April 20th arrived. They had long forgotten about Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. They had never heard of gas chambers or death marches. They had purchased champagne and caviar, and were about to begin the party, when someone reminded them of the day’s real history and their ancestors’ agony. Imagine that they initially objected, “We aren’t celebrating the Holocaust; we’re just having a little Hitlerday party.” If you could travel forward in time and meet them; if you could say a few words to them, what would you advise them to do on Hitlerday?

On December 25, 1941, Julius Streicher, one of the most vicious of Hitler’s assistants, celebrated Christmas by penning the following editorial in his rabidly Antisemitic newspaper, Der Stuermer:

If one really wants to put an end to the continued prospering of this curse from heaven that is the Jewish blood, there is only one way to do it: to eradicate this people, this Satan’s son, root and branch.

It was an appropriate thought for the day. This Christmas, how will they celebrate?

 3.0 SHIRKMAS & SHIRK YEAR

Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents & Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced on earth.

3.1.1 THE EXACT DATE OF JESUS’ CONCEPTION & BIRTH IS UNKNOWN.

In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians. Roman culture already celebrated a holiday on December 25: Saturnalia, the winter solstice. This tradition honored Saturn, the god of agriculture, and was celebrated with merriment, feasting & gift giving.
When Rome eventually instituted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century, the Roman church converted Saturnalia to a Christian holiday in order to commemorate Jesus’ birth.

Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas Trees”. Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.
Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated carelessly ever since. Since Christmas has its origins in pagan traditions, is it acceptable for Christians & non-Christians to celebrate it to remember the so called birth of their Lord, God & Saviour, Jesus Christ? These individuals continue to celebrate Christmas based on innovations to the true message of Jesus by Paul; who changed it to idolatry called; Paulinity.

It may be a matter of conscience for some, for as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 10:23: “‘Everything is permissible’—but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible’—but not everything is constructive.” For millennia, pagans, Christians, ignorant Muslims & Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.
Many who are excitedly preparing for their Christmas celebrations would prefer not knowing about the holiday’s real significance. If they do know the history, they often object that their celebration has nothing to do with the holiday’s pagan history & meaning. They say “We are just having fun.”

Advertisers, politicians & all those who wish to control our thinking understand this & use different techniques to distract of from examining those issues in details. They know & understand that the louder, more frequently or more threatening something is being said, the less likely you will question its truth status. Truth to them is persuasion. Get the crowd to believe you & you have got the truth. We don’t realize what is not been said often because of what is being said too often. We have heard the statements “Jesus is God”, “, “Lord Jesus is the Savior” or “God Jesus” was born on the 25th of December so many times that they sound so true as if God almighty revealed it.

Same for the New Year celebration we say “Happy New Year” without realizing that January 1st came from the arbitrary decree of the consuls of ancient pagan Rome.
The Gregorian calendar named after pope Gregory (III) who reigned over the Catholic Church in the 1500 was a revision of the Julian calendar (which was itself a revision of the pagan calendar). It retains most of the names of the days of the week and months of the year from pagan Rome. The ancient Greek named the days of the week after:

1)    the sun, the moon & the 5-planets known then (mars, mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn associated with Ares, hermes, zens, Aphrodite & cronus respectively).

2)    January named after Janus; the 2 faced roman god of door-ways,

3)    March (mars); the god of war,

4)    April for the fertility of goddess Aphrodite,

5)    July; Julius Caesar,

6)    August; august Caesar.

In a nutshell, Shirkmas & Shirk year are simply a globalization of ancient Rome idolatry following the marriage of convenience between idolatry Rome & the idolatry catholic church. It is fueled today by capitalism through monetization of the concept.

Thus, Christmas & New Year are paganism & lies.

3.1.2 CHRISTIANS (THEY) SAY, "ALLAH HAS TAKEN A SON.

They say, "Allah has taken a son.

وَقَالُواْ ٱتَّخَذَ ٱللَّهُ وَلَدً۬ا‌ۗ سُبۡحَـٰنَهُ ۥ‌ۖ بَل لَّهُ ۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ‌ۖ كُلٌّ۬ لَّهُ ۥ قَـٰنِتُونَ (١١٦) بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ‌ۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمۡرً۬ا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ ۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ (١١٧)

"Exalted is He! Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth. All are devoutly obedient to Him, Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, "Be," and it is. Holy Quran 2: 116-117.

وَإِذۡ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبۡنَ مَرۡيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلۡتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَـٰهَيۡنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ‌ۖ قَالَ سُبۡحَـٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنۡ أَقُولَ مَا لَيۡسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ‌ۚ إِن كُنتُ قُلۡتُهُ ۥ فَقَدۡ عَلِمۡتَهُ ۥ‌ۚ تَعۡلَمُ مَا فِى نَفۡسِى وَلَآ أَعۡلَمُ مَا فِى نَفۡسِكَ‌ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ ٱلۡغُيُوبِ (١١٦)

And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'" He will say, "Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen.  Holy Quran 5: 116.

بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ‌ۖ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُ ۥ وَلَدٌ۬ وَلَمۡ تَكُن لَّهُ ۥ صَـٰحِبَةٌ۬‌ۖ وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَىۡءٍ۬‌ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىۡءٍ عَلِيمٌ۬ (١٠١)

[He is] Originator of the heavens and the earth. How could He have a son when He does not have a companion and He created all things? And He is, of all things, Knowing. Holy Quran 6: 101.
 وَقَالَتِ ٱلۡيَهُودُ عُزَيۡرٌ ٱبۡنُ ٱللَّهِ وَقَالَتِ ٱلنَّصَـٰرَى ٱلۡمَسِيحُ ٱبۡنُ ٱللَّهِ‌ۖ ذَٲلِكَ قَوۡلُهُم بِأَفۡوَٲهِهِمۡ‌ۖ يُضَـٰهِـُٔونَ قَوۡلَ ٱلَّذِينَ ڪَفَرُواْ مِن قَبۡلُ‌ۚ قَـٰتَلَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ‌ۚ أَنَّىٰ يُؤۡفَڪُونَ (٣٠)

The Jews say Ezra is the son of God, while the Christians say the Messiah is the son of God. Such are their assertions, by which they imitate the infidels of old. God confound them! How perverse they are! —Holy Qur’an 9:30.

قَالُواْ ٱتَّخَذَ ٱللَّهُ وَلَدً۬ا‌ۗ سُبۡحَـٰنَهُ ۥ‌ۖ هُوَ ٱلۡغَنِىُّ‌ۖ لَهُ ۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ‌ۚ إِنۡ عِندَڪُم مِّن سُلۡطَـٰنِۭ بِہَـٰذَآ‌ۚ أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ (٦٨)

They say, ‘God has begotten a son.’ God forbid! Self-sufficient is He. His is all that the heavens and the earth contain. Surely for this you have no sanction. Would you say of God what you know not? Holy Quran 10:68.

مَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ أَن يَتَّخِذَ مِن وَلَدٍ۬‌ۖ سُبۡحَـٰنَهُ ۥۤ‌ۚ إِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمۡرً۬ا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ ۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ (٣٥)

Such was Jesus, the son of Mary. That is the whole truth, which they still doubt. God forbid that He Himself should beget a son! When He decrees a thing He need only say: ‘Be,’ and it is. — Holy Quran 19:35.

وَقَالُواْ ٱتَّخَذَ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنُ وَلَدً۬ا (٨٨)

Those who say: ‘The Lord of Mercy has begotten a son,’ preach a monstrous falsehood, at which the very heavens might crack, the earth break asunder, and the mountains crumble to dust. That they should ascribe a son to the Merciful, when it does not become the Lord of Mercy to beget one! — Holy Quran 19:88.

(١٥١) وَلَدَ ٱللَّهُ وَإِنَّہُمۡ لَكَـٰذِبُونَ (١٥٢)

Surely they lie when they declare: "Allah has begotten children". — Holy Quran 37:151

قُلۡ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ  (١) ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ (٢) لَمۡ يَلِدۡ وَلَمۡ يُولَدۡ (٣) وَلَمۡ يَكُن لَّهُ ۥ ڪُفُوًا أَحَدُۢ (٤)

Say: ‘GOD is One, the Eternal God. He begot none, nor was He begotten. None is equal to Him.’ — Holy Quran 112:1-4.

3.1.3 HADITH TRADITIONS

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said: “Whoever dies claiming that Allah has a rival, will enter Hell.” (Bukhari).

Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said: “Whoever imitates a people, he is one of them.” (Abu dawood). “He is not one of us who imitates other than us. Do not imitate the Jews or the Christians.”(Tirmidhi).
Anas Bin Malik (radiallahuanihu): When the Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) came to Medina, the people had two holidays from the days of Jahiliyyah. He (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said: “When I came to you, you had two days which you used to celebrate in Jahiliyyah. Allah has replaced them for you with better days, the days of slaughter (Adhaa) & the day of Fitr.” (Al Baihaqi). Uqbah bin Amir (radiallahuanihu): Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) : “The day of Fitr & days of Tashriq are our holidays, the people of Islam.”(Ahmad).
Imitating the Kuffar in any of their celebrations, symbols, or any matter of belief or gesture that distinguishes them as groups is forbidden (HARAM). Messenger (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) said, “You will indeed follow the ways of those before you, hand span by hand span, & cubit by cubit even if they were to enter into a lizards hole, you will follow them.” We asked ‘is it the Jews and the Christians?’ He replied, “Who else!”(Bukhari).

1.4 CELEBRATING, CONGRATULATING ON CHRISTMAS MEANS ACCEPTING PAGANISM & THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

The origin of Christmas is paganism shrouded with the divinity of Jesus (alehimsalaam). Celebrating or congratulating on Christmas, means we are accepting Paganism & the divinity of Christ. This is Shirk; the greatest Sin & Oppression against our souls; it’s a transgression against the unique rights of Allah (Subhanahu wa Taala).
“Shirk” in Arabic means taking a partner i.e. one as the partner of another or two of equal status. In shari’ah; means ascribing a rival to Allah in Lordship, Worship or in His Names & Attributes. This sin is not forgivable if one died upon it without repenting. Ibn al-Qayyim in his book Ahkaam Ahl al-Dhimmah, says:  "Congratulating the Kuffaar on the rituals that belong only to them is haraam by consensus, as is congratulating them on their festivals and fasts by saying ‘A happy festival to you’ or ‘May you enjoy your festival,’ and so on. It is like congratulating someone for prostrating to the cross, or even worse than that. It is as great a sin as congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone, or having illicit sexual relations, and so on.

(٧١) لَقَدۡ ڪَفَرَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوٓاْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلۡمَسِيحُ ٱبۡنُ مَرۡيَمَ‌ۖ وَقَالَ ٱلۡمَسِيحُ يَـٰبَنِىٓ إِسۡرَٲٓءِيلَ ٱعۡبُدُواْ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّى وَرَبَّڪُمۡ‌ۖ إِنَّهُ ۥ مَن يُشۡرِكۡ بِٱللَّهِ فَقَدۡ حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيۡهِ ٱلۡجَنَّةَ وَمَأۡوَٮٰهُ ٱلنَّارُ‌ۖ وَمَا لِلظَّـٰلِمِينَ مِنۡ أَنصَارٍ۬ (٧٢)

Our rulers are not allowed to make these (Kufr) days, official holidays. “Verily, whosoever sets up partners with Allah, then Allah has forbidden Paradise for him, & the Fire will be his abode. And for the Zaalimoon (polytheists & wrongdoers) there are no helpers” [Holy Quran 5:72].

In addition, holidays such as the New Year, Valentine’s day, Halloween, Xmas, Easter, thanks giving, all saints day etc. all without exceptions are not only filled with Shirk but with other Corruptions & Vices.