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MAWLID: BID’AH OR NOT?   Celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (SAW), as authoritative Muslim scholars have explained

Hearing a good voice celebrating the Prophet's birthday (SAW) or celebrating any of the holy days in our history gives the heart calm, and gives the Prophet's listener light (SAW) to his heart, and he will drink more from the Muham-madan spring.

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MAWLID: BID’AH OR NOT?   Celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (SAW), as authoritative Muslim scholars have explainedProphet Muhammad (SAW) commanded his Companions to begin fasting on Ashura Day. (Muslim, Book 6, Ch. 19 Hadith no. 2518 & 2520).

This Hadith indicates that celebrating a blessing from Allah is appropriate even though it is celebrating an event that took place on a specific day. When the Prophet (SAW) heard the Jews answer, he didn’t say that celebrating such a day was inadmissible. Instead, on this day he encouraged the Muslims to fast too. From this Hadith one can see that Ashura’s day was blessed because of Prophet Musa (a.s) then surely we should also celebrate the day that the Best of Creation was made rahmatulil alimeen.

Imam Al-Suyuti wrote a chapter in which he said, entitled ‘The Good Intention to Commemorate the Mawlid”

“To commemorate the Mawlid, who is essentially gathering people together, reciting parts of the Qu’ran, telling stories about the birth of the Prophet and the signs that accompanied it, then serving food, and then departing, is one of the good innovations; and whoever practices it is rewarded, because it involves venerating the Prophet ‘s status and expressing joy for his honorable person.”

Allama Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyyah, a renowned Imam Ibn Taymiyya student, writes in Madarij as-Salikin:     ”Hearing a good voice celebrating the Prophet’s birthday (SAW) or celebrating any of the holy days in our history gives the heart calm, and gives the Prophet’s listener light (SAW) to his heart, and he will drink more from the Muham-madan spring

In Al Bidayah, Ibn Kathir, expressing his appreciation for celebrating the Mawl-id, mentions Islamic ruler Malik al-Muzzafar Nihayah. He writes, ‘He used to celebrate Mawlid with great celebration during Rabi ul Awwal, and he was moreover benevolent, brave, wise, a scholar, and a just man. Shaykh Abul Khattab wrote for him a book about Mawlid a Nabi and named it At-Tanwir fi Mawlid al Bashir al Nazeer, for which he had given him 1000 dinars. His rule remained until the Salahiya Rule, capturing Aka and remaining a man worthy of re-espect. Al-Sabt mentions that a person attending the Mawlid gathering held by Muzzafar said: he used to fill the table with 5000 well-cooked goats, 10,000 chickens, 100,000 bowls (of milk) and 30,000 trays of sweets: this clearly indicates that those who were authorities in Islam commemorated Mawlid ‘s practice.

Conclusion

From the Muslim point of view the Prophet (SAW) is both the man and society’s symbol of perfection. When you think of the Prophet (SAW) who is to be emulated during the Mawlid, it is the image of one who is merciful to those who surround him (SAW) and severe with the false and the unjust. He (SAW) is endowed, on the one hand, with virtues of strength and solemnity and, on the other, charity and generosity and, ultimately, mercy to all creation.

All Muslims are entrusted with the love of the Prophet (SAW) and the celebration of the Mawlid, especially those who aspire to his (SAW) way of life. The Prophet (SAW) is loved because he symbolizes all that is beautiful in the creation of God. His virtues are universal and the celebration of his birth is indeed a celebration of mankind as such.

 

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