A Muslim's First Christmas Story
Below is an excerpt from the new book, Baghdad Believer.
A Sunni Muslim's first reading of the Christmas story.
(Excerpted with permission of the author).
If you have read the book, you know how interesting this is. If you have not read it..........
From: Baghdad Believer by J Nealson. 2007.
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page 6.
Checking behind me to see if anyone was watching, I read on, through the genealogy of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. I knew that Jews and Christians had different names for our prophets and that our Isa they called Yeshua. I prefer the sound of our Isa to that of their word Yeshua. Isa was a son of Daoud (David), ancient king of the Jews and a descendent of Ibrahim (Abraham), father of the Arab tribes. That was simple history -- nothing threatening -- and I relaxed. In the days of my grandfather, most people could recite their genealogies back many generations, but it was not so important to people now. Many tried to prove descent from the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him. I noticed Ishaq (Isaac]) was mentioned as son of Ibrahim, but not Ishmael. Of course! A Jew wrote this!
The record of genealogy mentioned ancestors of Isa who were exiled to Babylon. I wondered if some of them married into our local tribes, and if some of the same bloodline of the Prophet Isa was still in Iraq. There were some Jews living in Baghdad; there used to be thousands of them, but most left long ago for Israel. I knew one old Jew, and he seemed like a nice man, but people did not trust the Jews, and they were harassed a lot. I read on.
The book said that Maryam (Mary) became pregnant by the Spirit of God. Strange. I bet that was hard to explain to her family! I imagined what it would be like if my sister became pregnant and she said that God did it. Since she was engaged, we would assume that her fiance did it. We would have them marry quickly and hope that no one counted the months too closely.
If Yusif (Joseph), Maryam's fiance, said that he did not do it, her family would have had to find who was responsible and extract money from him, enough to cover the shame. Of course, someone would have had to marry her anyway.
I did wonder how in the world Maryam came to say such a thing. Even if it were true, there would be no way to prove it, even though a doctor might claim that she was a virgin. Of course, the doctor could be paid to say anything or paid to keep quiet. Either way, Maryam's family would have been frustrated with Maryam and the shame of the whole thing.
I was glad that the author wrote about Yusif getting his visit from an angel too. That eased the tension between him and Maryam, although both families must have still been angry. I wondered what the book meant by, "Yusif was a righteous man." I could not even think of a single person I knew who was righteous. Everybody I knew had at least some meanness or selfishness -- and that included the Christians. I thought of them. I knew one priest, and he was a good man, but he was not righteous. Certainly, no one who regularly ate pork and drank alcohol could be called righteous.
Like most of my family and friends, whether Muslim or Christian, I enjoyed an occasional beer or whiskey, and I had eaten pork while on holiday in Europe. I wondered if Christians who kept all the Islamic rules were in better favor with God than some of us Muslims who did not keep the rules. These were strange thoughts that my uncle had put into my head.
History does matter, and Uncle used to tell me stories of the glory of ancient Iraq and the days before Islam. Back then, most tribes in Iraq were not Muslim, and many were even Christian in belief.
That changed in the 7th century. Nomadic Arabs with the Sunni Muslim belief systems settled in the towns near the rivers of Iraq and married into Shia families. This added religious conflict to the wars between settled and nomadic tribes. Christians often tried to stay neutral in these battles and were generally left alone as long as they did not get involved in politics.
That was why they were still in positions of influence -- they tended to their own business, kept their religion inside their churches, and could be counted on to not be troublemakers as long as the government protected them from Islamic activists.
Christian or Muslim, I thought, there were no righteous people in all the tribes of Iraq. None.
Chapter 3
Fear and Mistrust, Honor and Shame
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I thought back to the word righteous. The sound of it was strange to me. It means sinless, but in the practical sense, it is impossible. All humans make mistakes, or sins, by accident or on purpose. And, yet I had been reassured all my life that God does not mind those sins if we intend to not be worse than others and to keep family honor. So maybe, when Matta recorded this story, his word righteous simply meant honorable. That sounded better -- Yusif was an honorable man who had to make a difficult decision. If he married Maryam, he might be accused of not protecting his family's honor. It would be better for his family if he divorced her and left her family the responsibility of dealing with her shame. Otherwise, there would be conflict between the families that would have to be settled with a lot of money or by killing Maryam to erase the disgrace to both families.
That must have been why the angel came to Yusif -- to help him take the risk of protecting Maryam and her family. The angel called him "Son of Daoud." Maybe that greeting was to give him extra encouragement to be brave like his ancestor Daoud. Although Daoud probably never married a virgin who was already pregnant! I kept on reading. "You are to name him Yeshua because he will free his people from their mistakes." That was an unusual claim -- freeing or liberating Jewish people from their mistakes or sins. The Jews certainly needed help in that way. I smiled, thinking that things were not any better for them, even today. The story became even more interesting. After Isa was born in Beyt Lahem, followers of Mazdaism arrived and asked Horoodus, the political ruler, to see the baby to who was to be the King of the Jews. Horoodus was troubled about hearing of a new king, and he asked where this Savior or Liberator was to be born. Horoodus certainly understood what was happening.
I could easily imagine what would happen if this group of mystics from Iran came to our President Saddam and said that they wanted to worship the new baby that would become king. Saddam would also do a quick killing of all babies, except maybe protecting a son or two of his own. Actually, Saddam might do exactly as it was written in the Book -- send the mystics to find the child, but have them accompanied by a guide or a watcher loyal to him. The watcher would report on the family and that family would soon be guests of the internal police. But, King Horoodus' spies must have lost track, because the baby was not found, and the family escaped to Egypt. Horoodus was angry and killed all the young boys in the town anyway. After some years, Yusif was warned, again and moved his family to a safer place.
Angels gave advice, warnings, and directions in dreams. This comforted me. God must have cared very much about this young child to protect him so many times.
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End at page 11, Baghdad Believer by J Nealson. 2007.
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Jay Nealson
http://www.BagBeliever.com
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