The Origin of
Celebrating the Prophet's Birthday
المورد في عمل المولد
By
الإمام أبو حفص تاج الدين الفاكهاني
Imaam Aboo Hafs Taaj ad-Deen al-Faakihaanee
[d. 734 AH]
[May Allaah have Mercy on him]
All Praise is due to Allaah, who Guided us to follow the
Leader of the Prophets, He Helped us with His Guidance to be steadfast on His
Religion and He made it easy for us to be upon the path of the righteous
Salaf until our hearts were filled with light, the knowledge of the Shariah
and the evidence promoting the clear truth. He purified us from being unclean
and being polluted with innovations in the religion.
I Praise Him for favouring us with the certain truth. I
thank Him for aiding us to hold onto the firm rope. I bear witness that there
is no God worthy of worship except Allaah, with no partner and that Muhammad is
His Slave and Messenger, the leader of the earlier ones and the latter ones,
May the Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him, his family, his companions,
his pure wives and the believers. Peace and Blessings upon him until the Last
Day.
To Begin:
I am constantly asked in our blessed gatherings about some
people who take the month of Rabee al-Awwal as a special month and they do this
on a particular day calling it Mawlid, some of these questions are as follows;
Is there precedence or a foundation in our Shariah
for this?
Or is it an innovation that has been introduced into the
religion?
We are hoping for a clear answer on this subject.
So I Say, with the strength from Allaah:
I don’t know any precedence or foundation in Mawlid from the
Kitaab and the Sunnah. It has not been narrated from any of the
scholars of Islaam either, those who have a status in this religion. These are
the scholars who stuck to the narrations of those who came before them, thus
this action is an innovation. It has been introduced by those who are upon
falsehood. They follow their desires, eat and drink and waste their time.
The proof to refute them is that we are bound by the Ahkam
al-Khams [These are the five rulings within our Shariah, Fard, Sunnah,
Mubaah, Makrooh and Haraam], so we say;
Either this act is Fard [obligatory] or Sunnah [recommended]
or Mubaah [permissible] or Makrooh [disliked] or Haraam [prohibited].
This act is not Waajib and the scholars have consensus on
this and it is not Sunnan either. This is because in reality an act that is
Sunnah for us to follow within the Shariah, is something that we won't
get punished if we leave it and something we will be rewarded for if we perform
it. Therefore regarding this act, we have no permission from the Shariah
to do this, nor from the Companions [May Allaah be Pleased with them all] nor
Tabieen [May Allaah have Mercy on them all] nor from the firmly grounded scholars,
as we know, thus this is my answer regarding this issue in front of Allaah, the
Most High, if I am asked about this issue.
It is still not permissible even if we say it is Mubaah
because it is innovated into the religion, thus it can't be something Mubaah
for us to do, with the consensus of the Muslims [as it is connected to matters
of religious affairs not our worldly affairs].
Therefore, all that remains is for us to say that it is
either Makrooh or Haraam. This needs a further detailed discussion. We can
split this discussion into two parts which are based on two topics;
Firstly, if a person acts upon Mawlid, with his efforts, his
wealth, his family and his companions we say this is not permissible. For
example, if one calls people to gather on this day to eat together, even if he
doesn’t condone any acts of disobedience to Allaah (such as singing or dancing
etc.) then we will still describe this as being an innovation, a disliked and
disgusting one. A person who obeys Allaah will never do such a thing, those who
have knowledge of Islaam, its favoured scholars, those who preserve their time
and benefit wherever they are.
Secondly, celebrating the Mawlid forces people to contribute
in
this crime as he takes special care in partaking, until one gives from the best
of his wealth and he goes out of his way to help. However, he is being harmed
and his heart will be pained once he realises that he has been wronged and
oppressed (as he is seeking to please the people and is cooperating in doing
this sin). The scholars [May Allaah have Mercy on them all] have a saying; ‘If
you take the wealth of someone using modesty then it is like you have taken his
wealth with a sword.’ This is especially the case if this taking of wealth is
added by the fact that stomachs will be full of desires based upon falsehood.
This includes beating of drums by young girls. Men gather with beardless youths
or young girls dancing and women gather to sing on this occasion. These
gatherings at times can be mixed between the genders and at times they can be conducted
with a large audience. These gatherings sometimes have people dancing in groups
and all of this are the various types of idle forgetfulness of the Feared Day.
Likewise, when
women gather on this day, they raise their voices in rhythm and they sing
choruses of Nasheeds. This all contradicts and displays absentmindedness
of the rulings of recitation of the Quraan or Dhikr and it also goes
against what is customary for our gatherings. They are ignorant of the
statement of Allaah, the Most High;
"Verily, your Lord is Ever Watchful (over
them)." [Surah al-Fajr 89: 14]
The ruling of it being forbidden doesn’t change for
different people, so if a person is rich and is pious it will still be
prohibited for him, as these are cause for ones heart to die and it doesn’t
free a person from sinning or disobeying Allaah. However, some increase in
these activities because they think they are doing acts of worship, they don’t
think they are doing anything disliked not forbidden
To Allaah we belong and to him we shall return. Islam
began as something strange and it shall return how it began. And by Allah, how
good a man our Shaykh is, Shaykh
al-Qushayree
[better known as Ibn Daqeeq al-'Eid (d.702)], May Allaah have
Mercy on him, who said (in poetry);
To know the Munkar
and to do good in our days is difficult,
All of the people
of knowledge are suppressed,
The people of
ignorance are raised,
They misguide the
people from the truth,
They deviate from
the truth and they have became dominant,
They prevail over
the truth in large numbers,
So I said to the
pious, those who have Taqwa and knowledge,
When they are
felling suppressed and full of sorrow,
Do not disregard
your state as you have been given status and honour in times of strangeness.
And Imaam Aboo ‘Amr ibn Alaa
[d. 154 AH], May Allaah have mercy on him, did well when he said;
The people will not cease to be upon good as long
as they are surprised by the things that surprise.
And Allaah Knows Best
