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Thanks to another listener who wrote in asking, why don’t all Muslims celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)?
A small group of Muslims generally celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad on the twelfth day of Rabi’ al-awaal, the third month of the Islamic calendar. They usually call that day Mawlid al-Nabi, the Prophet’s birthday, and some Call that day Eid ul-Mawlid.
For this celebration, scholars divided into two different views, for and against. Let’s start by talking about the supporting views. These supporting scholars agree that no one really knows the actual birthday of the Prophet. But agree that when Muslims live in those countries with different religions, keeping this holiday can be used as an excuse to gather many followers to study the life of the prophets and remind them of the oneness of the Lord.
But two conditions must be met: One is that apart from studying the Quran and the life of the prophets, no addition of any unknown religious rituals, such as singing, dancing, or excessive praise of the prophets, should be added. The second condition is that all activities must emphasize oneness of the Lord, no shirk involved and reminding the true purpose of the gathering.
The oppose opinion is explained as follows:
According to the hadith records, Allah has granted two Muslim festivals, one for Eid ul-Fitra, which is to celebrate the completion of the month of Ramadan. Another day, Eid ul-Adha, is a day to commemorate the life of the prophet Ibrahim and is one of the last parts of ritual during Hajj.
In addition to the Eid of these two days, there is a hadith record that every Jumah Friday is like a mini Eid.
After that, there were no hadiths recorded about other festivals that were celebrated in Islam.
At the same time, there is no hadith or historical record which day the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born. In ancient times, there was a high rate of infant mortality, and not many children could grow into an adult. In addition, there was no concept of birthdays and birthdays to be celebrated before, so most people would not know that their own birthday, unless something major event happened when the time they were born, then there may get some idea when were their birthday.
For example, Quran 105 – the Elephant had mentioned about the story of “Abrahah” who was from “Yemen”. He built a mega church that wanted to attract all Arabs to pilgrimage there and wanted to completely replace the Kaaba in Mecca. So he brought an army led by a group of elephants to Mecca, hoping to destroy the Kaaba. Therefore, with the wills of Allah, a large group of birds carried His order and destroyed the entire army, and made them flee Mecca with great loss.
This event was well known in the city of Mecca, and the grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad, “Abdul-Muttalib”, was also involved in it. Because of the occurrence of this major event, according to many historians, it is estimated that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born around this year, but there is no solid evidence of the Prophet’s actual birth date, especially since his mother was a widow and gave birth away from the Prophet’s grandfather’s home.
In addition, there is no record of any early Muslim leaders or scholars celebrating the Prophet’s birthday during his lifetime or in the hundreds of years after his death. Just like Christmas in Christianity, it has only begun to celebrate in the last hundred years.
It is recorded in a hadith that the Prophet (pbuh) said that Muslims will imitate previous people (people of the Books) step by step, inch by inch, even if they know that they are going into the lizard hole, they will still follow accordingly.
Another hadith recorded that the Prophet (pbuh) said, “The best of mankind are my generation (or my century), then those who come after them, then those who come after them. Then there will come a people who will not care if their testimony comes before their oath or vice versa (i.e., they will not take such a matter seriously).”
This hadith means that the generation of the Prophet and the generations that follow are the best who follow the teachings of Allah and His Messenger. As each generation passes, in short, one generation is worse than the next, until some people start not taking testimony, oaths, etc. seriously anymore, i.e. keeping promises, keeping the faith becomes a rarity.
For the best three centuries after the Prophet’s death, there was no record of celebration of the Prophet’s birthday. One might ask, were the best and the earliest scholars unaware of birthday celebrations? Of course not, as these celebrations are relatively recent. When many of the true elements and characteristics of religion are slowly being lost, bid’ah in religious ideas or rituals have become widespread.
Another hadith records that the Prophet (pbuh) reminded and warned Muslims not to exaggerate the Prophet’s status as Christians did to their Prophet, that he would be elevated to a position equal with Allah.
Therefore, there were also many hadiths warning against inventing any new things or new practices in religious affairs, because any innovation is equal to changing the guidelines ~ the Qur’an, that Allah has sent down. In Qur’an, there are many clear rules and teachings, that is similar to knowing the boundary line in Islam. The words and deeds of the Prophet were here helping Muslims to strengthen the understanding of this boundary line. Therefore, people still can have many different spaces to develop, as long as they do not cross this boundary line.
No one knows for sure when these people started celebrating the Prophet’s birthday. Perhaps in the beginning, it was just to strengthen the memory of the Prophet’s life, then they chose a day to gather together to learn and remember the Prophet. But over time, people somehow turned this meeting day into a very important day, and started to have a birthday celebration, just wanting to thank his birth and so on.
Whatever the initial desires were to express gratitude, love or respect, to create and celebrate the birthday of the Prophet, these are just fancy excuses to disguise invented rituals.
If one want to truly express respect and love for the Prophet, instead one should study the Quran, the life of the Prophet and his Hadith, and integrate these teachings into their life and put into practice. Not just talking and do nothing, or just choosing to do what one like, or choosing to throw away those teachings one doesn’t like, or inventing new religious rituals to satisfy one’s own thoughts and desires, and so on.
(3:31-32) Say, [O Muhammad], “If you should love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” Say, “Obey Allah and the Messenger.” But if they turn away – then indeed, Allah does not like the disbelievers.
This verse begins with the love of Allah, and then to prove that love is to follow the teachings of the Prophet. The verse goes on to emphasize the importance and necessity of obedience to Allah and His Messenger, and then Allah ends these two verses with a very stern warning in which those who refuse to obey are described as disbelievers, and Allah clearly reaffirmed that He does not love disbelievers.
The Prophet (pbuh) told us about the dangers of disobeying him and Allah. As most scholars agree, the celebration of the prophet’s birthday is indeed a new so-called religious activity in recent history.
It is recorded in the Hadith that the Prophet (pbuh) said: “The best of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The most evil of things are those which are newly-invented (in religion), and every innovation is going astray.”
In the end, please decide for yourself whether you choose to support or oppose the views, what can be done, and what can’t be done. But no matter what, Muslims should not blame or fight each other. Let Allah judge what is right or wrong, because there is no compulsion in religion. And Allah knows everyone’s open speech and extremely deep inner thoughts and intentions. What one can do is just to remind each other with the Qur’an and the Hadith.
We ask Allah to protect us from Shaitan’s whisper and help us to follow what pleases you.
Continue to the next episode, thanks for listening.