Tuesday 25 December 2007

A Christmas Greeting

We are happy as we have the Christmas' eve and the Christmas day in peace. There was a bomb threat, but we did have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas.(see also the article in the daily Jakarta Post "Churches still cautious during Christmas")

There are more happy news as I read a blog (in bahasa Indonesia) and an article in the daily Jakarta Post.

Muhammad Nafik, the writer of the article clearly shown the root of religions according to Islam. It reminded me of a blog post where I put a comment recently. The blog owner was talking in the topic about the Malaysian Catholic should not use the term "Allah" to refer to God.

While searching back where did I put that comment I came across the article by AFP in iht.com, the title is "Malaysian Catholic weekly told to drop use of "Allah" in order to renew publishing permit".

I could not even track back where I've posted my comment. It should be in someone's blog!

In these recent years some friends in Indonesia were reluctant to say Christmas greeting, because they do not want to be considered as rejoicing the born of Jesus Christ. Perhaps they were afraid of being considered His disciples. Personally it hurts, as I am sincerely celebrating Idul Fitri (Eid ul-Fitr) with them.

In my comment I did write that we should see for the root of the religion and the root of the languages and dialects. The Catholic's belief of Trinity will be in our (The Catholic) personal relation to God. But if they really understand the meaning of only One God, then why should they forbid non Muslim in using the word "Allah"?

In Makassarese dialects we called Him "Karaeng Ngata'alla". In Javanese dialect we call Him "Gusti Allah". So forbidding non Muslim using it is a bit ridiculous. Although it is meant only for Malaysian, but there would be time when non Malaysian visit the country or live there as a migrant worker. How would we be prevented from using our mother tongue?

Long time ago my friend in the university told me about the prophets in Islam. It was just like the story I read in the Jakarta Post today (I've just read the yesterday's printed edition, the one I link above). And it was just like the story that my little student told me. "Miss, Muhammad is the last prophet. If you choose Islam as your religion you won't have to change your religion anymore!". So, there is only One God. He, Who sent all the prophets! Why should we differentiate Catholic's God and Islam's God?

In the way we learn our religious life is different. The concept of Trinity is the most difficult aspect of the Christianity. Debates on the term or definition of Trinity has a very long history. Yet, we do believe in One God, the One Almighty God!

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