Jewish, Christian and Islamic calendars, and Ghadir and Aushura (‘Aashoora)!

Part 2

And as for those who -after the time of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) on earth- have called themselves Christians, they -in spite the emphasis on a lunar calendar by all Prophets including Jesus (PBUT)- were misguided by different phenomena specially by Paul, the usurper, who taught that upholding of the Law, including observation of a new moon, was not necessary! Let us not forget that Paul was he who, after claiming that he had a so called vision, declared himself an apostle (book of Acts 22:3-6) and thus usurped the God and Jesus commanded Successorship position of Sham’oon Safa (Simon Peter), the closest disciple of the Prophet Jesus (gospel of Matt. 16:18-19, gospel of John 1:42, 10:11&14, 21:15-17, …).

This is part of what the Prophet Jesus (PBUH) had said regarding the Law, the Shari’at of the Prophet Moses (PBUH):

Gospel of Matt. 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Matt. 5:18 For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled.

Matt. 5:19 Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

Matt. 23:23 Woe unto you, … hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these [the Law] ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other [faith and …] undone.

And here is a part of what Paul the usurper taught:

Col. 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

Col. 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances …

So as a direct result of people’s almost complete forsaking of the teachings of Jesus, the Prophet of Allah, and Sham’oon Safa (Simon Peter, his Allah appointed Successor) the followers of the Prophet Jesus (PBUH) too gradually lost the original Path and instead followed pagan philosophies, myths, mysticism, gnosticism and …; one example of this inauspicious influence of the pagan culture was that the Church adopted the Roman pagan calendar. Such heart-breaking facts have been no secret to many christians:

Here are a few statements of the renowned historian Will Durant from his book: Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon. 1944. Vol. 3 of The Story of Civilization. 11 vols. 1935-75:

“Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it: (Caesar 595)

Durant ties in pagan philosophy with Christianity when he states that the second century Alexandrian Church, from which both Clement and Origen came, “wedded Christianity to Greek philosophy” (Caesar 613)

Durant writes of the famed pagan philosopher, Plotinus, that “Christianity accepted nearly every line of him...” (Caesar 611)

Durant adds that ‘with [Origen] Christianity ceased to be only a comforting faith; it became a full-fledged philosophy … (Caesar 615)

Durant summarizes early Christianity: “In Christ and Peter, Christianity was Jewish; in Paul it became half Greek; in Catholicism it became half Roman” (Caesar 579)

Notice, Durant states that at the beginning Christianity with the teachings of Jesus and Peter, the Prophet and his God Chosen Successor, was in line with the teachings of previous Prophets (before distortions of course), and then Durant states that with Paul, i.e. the usurper, teachings of Jesus and Peter were changed and they became half Greek, and later with the Church, they were distorted further and became half Roman. It is also very important to mention that while for instance the Catholic Church regards Peter very highly, but it too has actually been following the distorted teachings of Paul, philosophy and ,… . Therefore we all must realize that claiming to love Allah, His Prophets and their Successors is sincere when their genuine and pure teachings are followed.

As cited in the English Wikipedia:

“At its core, Gnosticism formed a speculative interest in the relationship of the oneness of God to the ‘triplicity’ of his manifestations. It seems to have taken Neoplatonic metaphysics of substance and hypostases (“being”) in its attempt to define a new theology. (Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Vol. 1, the Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1971.)

 “Although, Athanasius [the renowned bishop of Alexandria, 4^th century C.E.] took his monotheism seriously, he later taught that the only way to save mankind from moral and physical extinction was for God to do the unthinkable, descend into human flesh.” Athanasius, “On the Incarnation of the World”, in Phillip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, vol. 4, Athanasius: Select Works and Letters (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994)

And so on …

This is basically how the teachings of Hadrat ‘Eesa -Eisa, Jesus- and Sham’oon Safa -Simon Peter- (PBUT) were eventually distorted, a process which has been ongoing; and the calendar issue has been no exception.

“… The Church adopted the calendar of the Roman Empire, the civil calendar, as Its own. That happened to be the Julian Calendar. It was not a religious or Christian calendar in any sense, but the system used by the secular (pagan) government to mark the passing of time. The Roman Empire, even after it was Christianized, did not change the name of the months - the names of all of them from January to August remain as reminders of the calendar's pagan ancestry … After all, the latter [lunar calendar] was the calendar that the Lord Jesus Christ observed, by which He lived and accomplished His work …” (Part of a larger work reprinted from the October 1982 issue of the Dawn, published by the OCA Diocese of the South. The Orthodox Church, January, 1983)

“January: Janus (Roman god of gates, doorways, beginnings and endings); February: Februus (Etruscan god of death); March: Mars (Roman god of war); April: "Modern scholars associate the name with an ancient root meaning 'other', i.e. the second month of a year beginning in March."; May: Maia Maiestas (Roman goddess); June: Juno (Roman goddess, wife of Jupiter); July: Julius Caesar (Roman dictator); August: Augustus (first Roman emperor) …” (B. Blackburn & L. Holford-Strevens, (2003), The Oxford Companion to the Year: An exploration of calendar customs and time-reckoning, Oxford University Press, p. 140; Intercambios: Quarterly Newsletter of the Spanish Language Division of the American Translators, 9(1) (March 2005) 14-15, ISSN 1550-2945 (in Spanish))

“In the year 46 BC, the Greek Sosigenes [astronomer and mathematician] (Eric Weisstein's World of Biography) convinced Julius Caesar to reform the Roman calendar to a more manageable form. At this time, Julius also changed the number of days in the months to achieve a 365 day year. In order to "catch up" with the seasons, Julius Caesar also added 90 days to the year 46 BC between November and February.” (Vardi 1991, p. 238) “The Julian calendar consisted of cycles of three 365-day years followed by a 366-day leap year. Around 9 BC, it was found that the priests in charge of computing the calendar had been adding leap years every three years instead of the four decreed by Caesar.” (Vardi 1991, p. 239) (Vardi, I. "The Julian Calendar." §3.5.1 in Computational Recreations in Mathematica. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, pp. 44 and 238-240, 1991.)

Later the Julian calendar was reformed to the Gregorian calendar which is The current internationally accepted civil calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or christian calendar. It was invented in 1582 by Italian astronomer and doctor Alosyius Lilius. Pope Gregory XIII approved it. It was based on this confirmation that this calendar has been called the Gregorian calendar. According to the Webster: “Gregorian : the reformed Julian calendar now in use, according to which the ordinary year consists of 365 days, and a leap year of 366 days occurs in every year whose number is exactly divisible by 4 except centenary years whose numbers are not exactly divisible by 400, as 1700, 1800, and 1900.”

The Gregorian calendar reform contained two parts, a reform of the Julian calendar as used up to Pope Gregory's time, together with a reform of the lunar cycle used by the Church along with the Julian calendar for calculating dates of certain events. Thus a so called Solilunar calendar was invented, i.e. a solar calendar with certain lunar observations such as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox.

Here are a few statements from the renowned book: Islam in the Bible, by Dr. Thomas McElwain:

"The Christian calendar has so far departed from the Bible that there is no need to examine it. It is a solar calendar with artificial months having more to do with the Roman emperors than with the phases of the moon. The Jewish calendar is more problematical. … That the rabbinical calendar is post-biblical is clear even without a detailed examination of its history, going back to Hillel II. The fact that two thousand years ago there were several competing calendar systems within Judaism speaks for itself. All of them claimed to be Biblical, and none of them are precisely the same as the Jewish calendar presently in use. The Islamic calendar consists of twelve lunar months in one year, established by the sighting of the moon. The Jewish calendar adds a thirteenth month on certain years and does not rely absolutely on the sighting of the moon for the beginning of each month … The Bible mentions only twelve months, and the months are established by the sighting of the moon.  The Islamic calendar can be defended on the basis of the fact that out of the scores of dates mentioned in the Bible, including all twelve months of the year, there is no date for any event during a thirteenth month. The thirteenth month is completely unknown to the Biblical record of dates. so we are justified in assuming a year of twelve months for the Biblical year. There are a few texts in the Bible mentioning the new moon, but Psalm 81:3 is most important for establishing the process of sighting and broadcasting the arrival of the new moon. 'Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.' The necessity for giving the signal shows that the new moon was established not by any calculation, but by sight."

THEREFORE THE DATES OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS AS STATED BY THE PEOPLE WHO AFTER JESUS (PBUH) HAVE CALLED THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS, ARE NO LONGER ACCORDING TO THE ORIGINAL GOD-COMMANDED TWELVE MONTH LUNAR YEARS AND THUS CAN NOT BE CONSIDERED ACCURATE AND VALID.

To be continued …