On a day when people in the West and other depraved cultures, including many misled elements amongst those who claim to be Muslims, are committing the oldest sins in the newest possible ways on the pretext of ushering in the New Year of the Gregorian Calendar (2012) that has nothing to do with Christianity, let alone the monotheistic teachings of Prophet Jesus (AS), we the adherents of the path blazed out by Prophet Muhammad’s (SAWA) Immaculate Ahl al-Bayt, feel grateful to God to be proud possessors of the untainted legacy of the Virgin-born Messiah.
The occurrence of the 7th of Safar this day, which happens to be the birthday of the 7th Infallible Imam, affords us the opportunity to unravel so many facts and realities that might have remained buried, if not for the blessings of the Prophet’s Household on humanity.
Although we don’t celebrate Imam Musa al-Kazem’s (AS) birth anniversary with rejoicings out of respect for the annual mourning season for his illustrious ancestor, the Chief of Martyrs, Imam Husain (AS), the day enables us to renew our allegiance to his ideals for the preservation of which he endured more hardships than Prophet Jesus (AS), including intermittent bouts of imprisonment, lasting a total of 14 years, at the hands of the Arab Herods of the usurper Abbasid regime.
This is not to belittle the mission of one of the great prophets of God, but as an Infallible Successor of the Last and Greatest of God’s Messengers, the 35-year Imamate of Imam Musa Kazem (AS) was two years more than the entire 33-year life span of Jesus (AS) on earth, before the son of Mary was lifted to the heavens, while it was his Israelite betrayer, Judas Iscariot, who was seized by the Jews and crucified by the Romans.
As a matter of fact, Jesus (AS), who as the Gospels of Barnabas and John, and the holy Qur’an say, prophesied the advent of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) by calling him Ahmad (Hmda in Hebrew), was certainly informed by God of the 12 Infallible Heirs of the Seal of Prophethood, including the 7th one, Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), because the Messiah, as confirmed by several Hadith, is to reappear in the end times to serve as lieutenant to the Last of them, Imam Mahdi (AS) and his government of global peace and justice.
Jesus (AS) will discard many of the pagan customs that have been falsely attributed to him by the Europeans, including Christmas and New Year.
It would be tedious here to detail the fixing of January 1 as the New Year way back in 45 BC by the pagan ruler, Julius Caesar, who ordered the change of the Roman calendar from the spring of March to the gloom of winter, not on the basis of any prophecy of the birth of Jesus, but in order to celebrate one of his bloody military victories in a part of central Europe that had resulted in human misery such as massacre of men, rape and enslavement of women, orphaning of children and destruction of homes and hearths.
More than a millennium-and-a-half later in 1582, several centuries after the Christianizing of the Roman Empire – not on the basis of the monotheistic message of the Messiah who still remains unfamiliar to those who worship him at Church altars, but as per the weird concept of Trinity coined by the Hellenized Jew, Paul –Pope Gregory, following some revisions of Caesar’s pagan Julian calendar, launched a new calendar in his name on February 24, calling it ‘Gregorian'. He, however, reverted to the pagan practice of January 1 as start of the New Year.
It took several more centuries for January 1 to be accepted as the start of the New Year. For instance, the Netherlands adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1698; Britain and its colonies including what is now the US in 1752; Russia in 1918, after the atheist Bolshevik Revolution, and Greece as late as in 1923. It was only in the 20th century between the Two World Wars that the Gregorian calendar along with January 1 as New Year Day was forced upon the rest of the world, including the Muslim World, so that the globe would be held in ransom to the policies of the neo-Roman imperialists in London and Washington, who, while paying lip service to Christianity, hate from the depth of their hearts the Virgin-born Messiah and his monotheistic message of peace, virtue, and social justice.
It is worth noting that none of the Orthodox Churches – Greece, Cyprus, Constantinople (Istanbul), Alexandria (Egypt), Antioch (Syria), Cyprus, Russia, Armenia, Georgia etc – have accepted the Vatican's imposition of the Gregorian calendar and January 1 as New Year Day.
Now coming to Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the famous Iranian scholar, Shaikh Sadouq has written in his book (at-Tawhid) over a thousand years ago, how a prominent Christian monk named "Burayha" accepted the truth of Islam after a 50-year quest for the forgotten prophecies of Prophet Jesus (AS) that he had read in the unaltered version of the Evangel with him. He debated with scholars of several denominations of Islam and refuted as irrational the hadith they attribute to Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
When he heard about Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS) and his famous academy of scholars in Medina, Burayha decided to travel there to find out the truth. On being granted permission to enter the house, he came across a child in the corridor, who to his utter astonishment questioned him on the purpose of his visit and then provided him irrefutably satisfactory answers by fluently quoting passages from both the Qur’an and the Evangel regarding Islam.
The boy was none other than Imam Musa Kazem (AS), whose wisdom beyond years made Burayah wornder as if the boy Jesus (AS) has come down to earth to guide him to the ultimate truth.
