Happy Birthday Jesus!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Anna was a righteous woman married to Imran, a great man from the children of Israel. Almighty Allah has blessed and chosen the House of Imran as He did for Adam, Noah and the House of Abraham above all people.

Anna was barren and she wished so much to have children of her own. So one time she vowed that if she ever got pregnant, she would put the child in the service of the Temple of Jerusalem. Soon after her prayer, Allah listened to her and miraculously allowed her to conceive. When she first felt that, she turned to Allah and prayed:

“Oh my Lord! I have dedicated to you what is in my womb for your special service. So accept this from me! For you hear and know all things.”

A few months later she delivered her child and to her surprise it was a girl. She turned to Allah and said:

“Oh my Lord! Behold! I have delivered a girl (and Allah knew very well what she had delivered). And the male is not like the female. As it is I have named her Mary and I commend her and her offspring to Your protection from Satan the rejected.”

Anna wanted a boy to put him to the service of the Temple. It was hard work that was customarily done by men. But she ended up having a girl. Of course she did not know then that this same girl was going to be the mother of a great messenger of Allah, one of the five most important messengers of all times.

Mary grew up healthy and strong. Then after the death of her father, Mary was placed in the care of her relative, Zachariah, an important priest in the Temple in Jerusalem and a prophet of Allah himself.

Mary withdrew from her family and her people to a private place in the Temple and she screened herself from them for prayer and devotion. It is in this state of purity and devotion that, one day, God sent her Angel Gabriel in the shape of a man. She was terrified and cried, “I seek refuge from you to Allah Most Gracious. Don’t come near if you fear Allah”.

Gabriel, comforting her, said, “No, I am only a messenger from your Lord to announce to you the gift of a pure son.” Then he added “Oh Mary! Allah has chosen you and purified you. He has chosen you above the women of all nations”. Gabriel then explained to her what kind of a son she was going to have. “Oh Mary! Allah gives you good news of a word from Him. His name will be Messiah Isa (Christ Jesus), the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and in the Hereafter and in the company of those nearest to Allah.”

Mary, in disbelieve, wondered “How will I have a son, seeing that no man has ever touched me?” Gabriel replied “So it will be, your Lord says, ‘It is easy for me and We wish to appoint him a sign for men and a mercy from Us’. It is a matter so decreed.”

She miraculously conceived him and tried to hide the pregnancy from her family. Later she decided to run away. She went to Bethlehem, 6 miles south of Jerusalem. The pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree.

Virgin Mary was alone, scared, anguished.  She gave birth to a remarkable baby, Jesus. Realizing what had happened to her she cried, “I wish I had died before this and been a thing forgotten.”

Virgin Mary was certain of her innocence and was assured by Gabriel that she would be giving birth to a great man, one of the greatest of all times. She should have been very happy and excited, so why did she wish she was dead and forgotten? She was certainly weak to face her people and she must have thought that she will be accused of adultery by some; others, if they believed her story, might end up worshipping her and or her son. 

We should remember too, the difficulty for a woman to give birth alone, her first experience with labor.  A story from hadith gives us some perspective on the difficulty of labor.  A man carried his old mother around the Ka’ba for hajj and thought that he paid her back for all that she’s done for him and that he did not owe her anything. He came and proudly told Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, what he did for his mother and asked him if he paid her back. The prophet looked at him and said not even for one of the labor pains.

So Mary had just been through a very difficult ordeal of labor alone and fearful of her future.  Baby Jesus cried to his mom “Don’t grieve, your Lord had provided a stream near you. And shake the trunk of the palm-tree; it will let fall fresh ripe dates for you. So eat and drink and cool your eyes.”

Obviously Mary was very tired after her first experience with labor and yet she was asked to shake the palm-tree to get the dates! Isn’t this shaking almost impossible to cause dates to fall?  After all of these miracles that happened to Mary, Allah could’ve made an extra small miracle to cause the dates to fall for her without her efforts! In fact Allah wants to teach us an important lesson in life. It is as if Allah is saying to you ‘My servant, you start the work and I will help you finish it.’

Shortly after birth, baby Jesus and Virgin Mary headed back home. On the way home, Baby Jesus instructed his mom, “If you see anyone, just say I have vowed a fast to Allah, Most Gracious and this day I will not talk to anybody”.

At length, she brought the baby to her people. Not surprisingly, they accused her, “Oh Mary! This is a horrible sin that you have committed. Shame on you, you are a descendent of Aaron; neither your father was a man of evil nor your mother an immoral woman”. As instructed, she pointed to the baby, as if to say talk to him. They angrily said, “How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?”

Baby Jesus then spoke in defense of his mom, saying,

“I’m indeed a servant of God.

 He has given me a revelation and made me a prophet.

 He has made me blessed wherever I may be.

 He has enjoined on me prayer and the giving of charity as long as I live.

And He has made me kind to my mother, Mary, and not arrogant or miserable”.

Then he concluded with these beautiful words:

              “So peace is on me the day I was born,

                      the day that I will die and

                        the day that I shall be raised up to life again”.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

[Quotes in this story are from the Quran, Surahs House of Imran and Mariam.]