Concerning Celebration Of The

The Mawlid Loving and Respecting the Prophet () Between the Ikhlāṣ (Sincerity) and Ittibāʿ (Following) of the Companions () and the Nifāq (Hypocrisy) and Ibtidāʿ (Innovation) of the Prepared by Abū ʿIyaaḍ Amjad Rafīq www This is a free electronic publication originally published on salafiebooks.com (www.salaf.com). If you did not download this ebook from salafiebooks.com it may not be original, genuine or safe and may have been modified without permission. To ensure authenticity and security download the original from salafiebooks.com and discard all other copies. You may print this ebook for your personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.

If you wish to spread this ebook you can publicize its unique URL at salafiebooks.com. Salafī Publications 472 Coventry Road Small Heath Birmingham B10 0UG United Kingdom t. 0121 773 0003 t. 0121 773 0033 f. 0121 773 4882 email: [email protected] web: www.spubs.com | www.bidah.com Contents r Foreword: The Companions and Their Enemies 2 1. The Evidence for One's Love of the Prophet () 7 2. Did the Companions, Successors or Imāms Celebrate the Mawlid? 13 3. The Religion is Perfected and Completed 15 4.

The Prophet Expressly Forbade Innovations in the Religion 18 5. The Prophet's Birth and Death 22 6. Who Invented the Mawlid Celebration? 25 7. All Disputes Must Be Referred Back to Allāh and His Messenger 37 Seven Points of Agreement 39 Doubts Used to Justify the Mawlid Celebration 41 The Two Contradictory Paths 42 The Quick, Definitive, Decisive, General Answer 45 Answers to Specific Doubts 47 The Claim of Bidʿah Ḥasanah 48 Classifying Bidʿah into Five Categories 60 Other Arguments 67 Closing Notes 98 Appendix 1: Fatawā of Medieval Mālikī Scholars on the Mawlid 99 Appendix 2: The "Bidʿah Ḥasanah" of Two Rakʿah Mawlid ʿĪd Prayer 106 Appendix 3: The Mawlid Tree to Rival the Christmas Tree 108 Appendix 4: The Milād Cake Versus the Christmas Cake 109 Appendix 5: Response to a Twitter Post 110 Bibliography 114 bidah.com  page 1 Foreword: The Companions and Their Enemies All praise is due to Allāh, the Lord of the Worlds, and may the ṣalāt and salām be upon His Final Messenger. To proceed: The Companions and Loving the Prophet No Muslim will dispute that those greatest in their love of the Prophet () were his Companions ().

They were the ones upon whom revelation came down and Allāh's praise of the Believers in the Qurʾān is primarily upon the Companions for their faith, support and aid of the Prophet through following his Sunnah (ittibāʿ) and referring judgement to him (taḥākum) is from the greatest of obligations of the religion without which a person's faith cannot be complete. The Companions were the greatest to exemplify these four qualities and after all the Prophets and Messengers, they are the best of the people of the Earth. The evidences for loving and respecting the Prophet are abundant in the Qurʾān and Sunnah. Allāh () said: The Prophet is more worthy of the believers than themselves (33:6). Loving the () is from the greatest obligations in the religion and is a foundation of the religion as stated by Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah1 This love is not merely a slogan but a true and real love that is demonstrated with the heart, tongue and limbs.

It is not permissible to fall short from the obligatory love due to the Prophet () and nor to exaggerate by departing from his Sunnah and doing things he has 1 bidah.com  page 2 prohibited or not commanded. The Prophet said (), "None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his own father, his son and all of mankind."2 Love of the Prophet () is a matter of the heart whose evidences are displayed outwardly in speech, actions and behaviour. From the greatest of signs of this love are the following: 1. Believing in Whatever He Informed About. To believe in the khabar (report, information) of the Prophet () in everything that he informed about of the unseen and seen, the past, present and future, the world, the barzakh and the hereafter.

This is because he is the truthful, and whatever he informed his ummah from His Lord is true and real. 2. To Follow Him (Ittibāʿ) and Obey His Command and Restrict Oneself To His Sunnah. This is from the greatest of signs of loving the Prophet () and is from the easiest of what distinguishes genuine, sincere love from a tainted and impure love. The texts in the Qurʾān and the Sunnah in this regard are plentiful and abundant, and the Prophet severely warned against opposing his Sunnah and from innovations in the religion and we shall mention some of that in this treatise. 3. Judging to His Sunnah and Sharīʿah in Disputes.

This is also from the greatest signs of genuine, pure love, that a Believer refers all disputes back to the Sharīʿah and authentic Sunnah of Allāh's Messenger. Many people will judge to the opinions of their school of thought or to fabricated and weak narrations or to isolated (shādh) opinions and they will rely heavily on the latecomers from the 7th century and beyond and abandon the earlier generations who were closer to the era of Prophethood and closer to right guidance and at the head of them are the Companions. Judging to the Sharīʿah and to the Sunnah is to make interpretations of the texts only through what the Companions knew and 2 Related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim. bidah.com  page 3 understood and departing from their understanding and implementation is a clear and open sign of deviation. 4. Respecting (Tawqīr) and Venerating (Taʿzīr) the Prophet. Ibn Taymiyyah said about Taʿzīr, "It is a comprehensive term comprising his support, aid and shielding him from every harm" and Tawqīr, "It is a comprehensive term comprising everything in which there is serenity (sakīnah) and repose (ṭumʾanīnah) of honoring and revering and that he should be treated with such honoring, ennoblement and veneration which keeps him from being removed from the limits of respect."3 From the signs of respecting the Prophet is not to raise one's voice over his and not to put oneself ahead of the Prophet, meaning his command, his Sunnah and his Sharīʿah and also to be abundant and frequent in sending ṣalāt upon him.

The Prophet () said, "The miser is the one who when I am mentioned does not send ṣalāt upon me."4 5. Defending his Sunnah. The Companions were the best and truest examples of defending the Sunnah and of sacricifing with their selves, wealth and children, in times of ease and hardship and their biographies are the greatest examples of this. When that which the Prophet () had informed of splitting and the appearance of the sects, it was the Companions who preserved the Sunnah and conveyed it to the Successor (Tābiʿīn) and from the Companions did those after them learn about standing in the face of Ahl al-Bidʿah such as the Khawārij, Rāfiḍah and Qadariyyah. The Companions rejected innovations in belief and in worship and they transmitted what they knew of the Sunnah.

The preservation of the religion was at their hands due to their transmission of the Sunnah and rejection of what opposed it from the innovations. A person's love of the Prophet () remains only a claim and cannot be genuine without following their way. 3 Al-Ṣārim al-Maslūl (p. 422). 4 Ghalīl. bidah.com  page 4 This is how the Companions loved and respected the Prophet () and there was no calamity greater upon them than the passing away of the Prophet. Despite that, they preserved and protected the religion by conveying it with care and precision to those who came after them. However, there appeared enemies of Islām, such as ʿAbdullāh bin Sabaʾ alYahūdī whose subservive activities led to splitting and innovations and from the manifestation of those activities were the appearance of the Khawārij and the Rawāfiḍ (commonly, the Shiʿah). The Shīʿite movements became a magnet and refuge for every external enemy of Islām who desired evil for it and its people.

The Enemies of the Companions Those greatest in their enmity to the Companions are the Rāfiḍāh Shīʿah. Their enmity towards the Companions is a veil for their enmity towards the Messenger of Allāh () himself and his message of Tawḥīd. Those from amongst the Persians, Magians, Jews and others who harboured enmity because their nations, cultures and civilizations had been dominated by Islām adopted the face of Shīʿism as a means to conceal their disbelief and their evil intentions. Their aim was to bring harm to Islām, its people and its lands by gaining the trust of the Muslims and working to acquire power in their lands. They strove to corrupt the affair of the Muslims in both the worldly and religious affairs.

These movements were known as the Bāṭiniyyah and they were responsible for much of the political turmoil in the Muslim lands during the ʿAbbāsid rule in the second to the sixth century hijrah. Nuṣayriyyah, ʿUbaydiyyah, Rāwandiyyah, Buwayhiyyah, Khurrāmiyyah - and all of them used the veil of Shīʿism to deceive the Muslims into thinking they were lovers of Ahl al-Bayt. They managed to set up their own states in North Africa, Bahrayn, Shām, norther Irān and elsewhere and spread their poison. Worship of saints, veneration of tombs and many major innovations especially amongst the Ṣūfīs have their origins bidah.com  page 5 Shiʿism. These people desired to undermine the Sharīʿah of Islām and replace it with heretical doctrines and practices which they invented as a means of taking the Muslims away from the Islām known to Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī () and the Companions () to what they fabricated and spread amongst the Muslims.

From those affairs which the Muslims have been put to trial with is the the celebration of birthdays which is not known in any Sharīʿah of any Prophet and nor to the Arabs in their Jāhiliyyah prior to Islām. This practice was introduced into Islām Christian Copts of Egypt and set up celebrations for the birthdays of ʿAlī, Fāṭimah, al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn () and added the celebration of the Prophet's () birthday as a means of deceiving the Sunnī Muslims whom they ruled over in fourth century hijrah Egypt. At the same time, they would curse and revile the Companions of Allāh's Messenger. These historical facts documented in the history books are unknown to most people who have been deceived into believing that celebrating the Prophet's birthday is virtuous and sanctioned by Islām, despite the fact that celebrating birthdays is not known in any revealed Book, in the sharīʿah of any Prophet and nor was it a known custom amongst the Pagan Arabs in the days of Jāhiliyyah. In this treatise, we will investigate this issue in detail so as to give the Muslim who is confused and desires the truth the means through which he can distinguish between what comprises genuine, true love of the Prophet () and its outward manifestation which is acceptable to Allāh () and an innovated expression of love which is rejected by Allāh () even if it is accompanied with the loftiest of intentions.

Abū ʿIyaaḍ Amjad Rafīq 9th Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1436H / 31st December 2014CE bidah.com  page 6 1. The Evidence for One's Love of the Prophet () Many of the people of the Earth from the various religions opposing Islām claim love of Allāh () and despite the feeling of love and sincerity in their hearts, the devotion and the apparent righteous deeds they perform, they have been judged to be disbelievers whose actions are vain and will be nullified in the hereafter, amounting to nothing but scattered dust. Allāh () said: And We shall turn to whatever deeds they did, and We shall make such deeds as scattered floating particles of dust. (25:23). This is because they do not follow the legislation of Allāh but follow their whims and desires and their claims of sincerity and love for Allāh are contradicted by their rejection of Tawḥīd and their failure to show compliance and submission to the command of the Prophet () the last and final messenger.

In a like manner, there are many who ascribe to the Prophet () and claim to love him and respect him, however they will be turned away by the Prophet () from the Ḥawḍ (drinking pool) on the Day of Judgement and their actions will not be accepted because they opposed the Prophet's Sunnah () and claimed to show respect and veneration for him through ways and means he prohibited and condemned. For an action to be valid it must be done with sincerity and it must be commanded in the Qurʾān or the Sunnah and these are the two conditions without which no act is acceptable to Allāh (): Sincerity (ikhlāṣ) and following the Sunnah of the Messenger (Ittibāʿ). Allāh () made clear the criterion for genuine, correct love of Him and His Messenger () and it is indicated by the statement of Allāh: bidah.com  page 7 Say if you do love Allāh, then follow me. Allāh will love you and forgive you your sins. (3:31).

The Tābiʿī, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110H) said, "A people claimed to love Allāh, then Allāh tested them with (the revelation of) this verse."5 The test in this verse is making ittibāʿ (following) the Prophet's Sunnah. Thus, everyone who followed and imitated the Sunnah of the Prophet () in his belief, speech, action, worship and dealings will have passed the test. And everyone who opposed the authentically reported Sunnah and followed opinions or tastes or what the intellect deems good or relied upon the fabricated ḥadīths to suit his tastes and desires, then he has not passed the test and is not one who truly loves Allāh and His Messenger. His claimed love is lacking to the extent of his distance from the Sunnah of the Prophet () even if he protests otherwise with his tongue. A person's love of the Messenger () is displayed by his conviction in the Tawḥīd of Allāh which is the core of the message of the Prophet (): That none has the right to be worshipped but Allāh alone.

Thereafter, performing the remaining four pillars, the prayer, fasting, obligatory charity and the pilgrimage. Then other obligations such as acquiring knowledge of the rulings required to worship Allāh correctly, righteousness to parents and good behaviour with one's neighbour and so on. Then one imitates the Prophet () in worship, behaviour and manners, restricting himself to his Sunnah. All of this is from the manifestation of the love of Allāh and His Messenger () which is legislated by Allāh and acceptable to Him. Once the above is clear, there are two ways towards the Prophets and Messengers: The ways of the Jews towards their Prophets, that of 5 Related by Ibn Kathīr in his tafsīr. bidah.com  page 8 opposition to them, differing with them, oppressing them and slaying them.

And the way of the Christians who display love for ʿĪsā () through whims, desires and innovations for which Allāh sent down no authority. The Muslim takes the middle path between these two. He aids, supports, loves the Messenger but only through what Allāh legislated of statements and actions. Allāh () said: So they who have believed in him, honored him, supported him and followed the light which was sent down with him - it is those who will be the successful. (7:157) The light mentioned in this verse is the light of revelation, the legislation of Allāh, it is the Book and the Wisdom, the Qurʾān and the Sunnah.

Thus, it is not possible to believe in, honour, support and follow the Messenger except through strict adherence to the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. Up to this point, most people will not disagree, since everyone will claim they are following the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. However, as we proceed to outline historical facts and to address the arguments, it will become clear that only one party is following the Qurʾān and the Sunnah and the other is pretending to follow the Messenger () whilst opposing the Messenger and then appealing to "good intentions" and weak evidences to justify this opposition. Allāh legislated affairs through which the Prophet is mentioned, remembered, loved and honoured, the greatest of which is the obligation the iqāmah, within the prayer itself where ṣalāt, salām, raḥmah, and barakah are invoked for him. Likewise, it is legislated to ask Allāh to is made, it is legislated for person to send ṣalāt upon him.

This mention bidah.com  page 9 and remembrance of the Prophet is daily and constant and through this Allāh () has raised his mention: And We have raised high your remembrance. (94:4). Al-Ṭabarī relates from Qatādah who said, "Allāh has raised high his remembrance in the world and the hereafter. There is no sermon-giver or one who bears witness in tashahhud or one who prayes except that he proclaims within it, 'I bear witness that none is worthy of worship but Allāh and I bear witness that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh'." And the likes of this is also related from Mujāhid. In addition, sending ṣalāt and the salām upon the Messenger is from the best of good deeds.

Allāh () said: Indeed, Allāh confers ṣalāt upon the Prophet, and His angels [ask Him to do so]. O you who have believed, ask [Allāh to confer] ṣalāt upon him and ask [Allāh to grant him] peace. (33:56). And the Messenger () said, "Whoever sent ṣalāt upon me once, Allāh will send ten upon him due to it."6 So these affairs are legislated and are part of the means through which the Messenger is loved and honoured, and they are legislated at all times and they are from the completion and perfection of the Sharīʿah and Allāh was not unmindful of legislating for his servants that by which the remembrance, honour and respect for His Messenger is preserved and maintained. 6 Reported by Muslim, Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah through Abū Hurayrah. bidah.com  page 10 Alongside this, the Prophet () also forbade from exaggeration in his status, "Do not exaggerate with respect to me as the Christians exaggerated with respect to ʿĪsā ibn Maryam. For I am a slave, so say, [about me] 'The slave of Allāh and His Messenger'."7 He also said, "Beware of exaggeration (ghuluww) in the religion, for those who came before you perished becauase of their exaggeration in religion."8 Exaggerating in the status of the Messenger as is done by the Ṣūfīs through innovated ways - until some of them even ascribe divine qualities to the Messenger - is evidence of deliberate opposition to the Messenger and lack of genuine love for him and it is the way of the Christians who profess love for ʿĪsā () but do not restrict themselves to what he commanded and forbade.

The Prophet () reprimanded a man who said, "Whatever Allāh willed and what you willed" by saying, "Have you made a rival for Allāh? Say, 'What Allāh willed alone'."9 And another said to him, "O our chief, the son of our chief and the best of us and the son of the best of us" and he said in return, "O people! Upon you is piety and let not Shayṭān misguide you. I am Muḥammad bin ʿAbdullāh, Allāh's slave and messenger. By Allāh, I do not love that you should raise me above my position which Allāh () has granted to me."10 And Anas bin Mālik () said, "No one was more beloved to them [the Companions] than Allāh's Messenger () and whenever they saw him they would not stand because they knew of his dislike of that."11 Further, the Prophet also prohibited exaggeration in worship.

Al-Bukhārī reports from Anas bin Mālik () that three men came to the homes of the wives of the Prophet () asking about his worship and upon being informed they said, "Where are we compared to the Prophet () for his past and future shortcomings have been forgiven." One of them said, "As for me I shall pray the whole night from now on." Another said, "I will fast continuously and not avoid any fast." And the 7 Reported by al-Bukhārī. 8 9 Related by Ibn Mājah and Aḥmad and al-Bayḥaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā. 10 Related by Aḥmad in al-Musnad (no. 12573). 11 Reported by al-Tirmidhī (no. 2754). bidah.com  page 11 third one said, "I shall avoid women and never get married." So the Messenger of Allāh () came to them and said, "Are you the ones who said such and such? By Allāh, I am the most fearful and pious of you with respect to Allāh but I fast [some days] and do not fast [on others], I pray and rest and I marry women. So whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not from me." In this ḥadīth it is clear that turning away from the Sunnah can also take place through exaggeration in worship and attempting to attain higher levels of piety and righteousness through ways and means which in themselves are correct (prayer and fasting) but in which there is excess, extremism, exaggeration. 1st Point of Agreement: It is obligatory to love Allāh and the Messenger of Allāh (). There is only one criterion for this love and it is to make ittibāʿ of the Messenger (). This means to strictly follow his Sunnah, not to abandon it and nor deviate from it to something else.

The misguidance of the one who claims that there is a way to love Allāh and His Messenger through other than what He revealed is plain and clear. Just as the misguidance of those who think exaggerating in the status of the Prophet () is part and parcel of loving him is plain and clear. And just as the misguidance and deviation from the Sunnah of the one who exaggerates in worship is also clear. Venerating the Prophet () is only by fulfilling his command and avoiding his prohibition and this is the criterion of true and genuine love. bidah.com  page 12 2. Did the Companions, Successors or Imāms Celebrate the Mawlid?

It is unanimously agreed upon by the entire ummah that the practice of the mawlid (birthday celebration) was not known to the Companions, the Successors, the Four Imāms or any of the Imāms from the Righteous Salaf of the first three centuries of Islām and that it is a bidʿah (innovation), something newly introduced into Islām. Imām Tāj al-Dīn al-Fākihānī al-Mālikī (d. 734H) said, "I do not know for this mawlid (celebration) any basis in the Book, nor the Sunnah and nor has its practice been narrated from any one of the Scholars of the Ummah who are the followed leaders in the religion holding fast to the ways of the predecessors."12 Imām ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin Bāz said, "The Messenger () did not do it [the mawlid celebration], nor his rightly-guided Caliphs, nor those besides them from the Companions - may Allāh's pleasure be upon them - nor the Successors who followed them in goodness in the virtuous generations. And they are the most knowledgeable of people of the Sunnah, and most perfect in their love for the Messenger of Allāh ()and following his legislation than those who came after them."13 Even those who support the mawlid acknowledge this fact. Al-Sakhāwī acknowledges, "The foundation for performing the noble mawlid has not been transmitted from the (Ṣūfī) said, "People gathering to hear the story of the noble Prophetic mawlid is an affair that was introduced after the era of Prophethood. Rather, it did not appear until the beginning of the seventh century."15 12 Al-Mawrid Fī ʿAmal al-Mawlid (Maktabah al-Maʿārif). 13 In Ḥukm al-Iḥtifāl bil-Mawlid al-Nabawī within Rasāʾil Fī Ḥukm al-Iḥtifāl biliMawlid (1/57). 14 Cited by Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī in al-Mawrid al-Rawī Fil-Mawlid al-Nabawī (p. 12). 15 Al-Radd al-Muḥkam al-Manīʿ (p. 153). bidah.com  page 13 Those who prohibit the celebration of the mawlid and those who enjoin it are all agreed on this matter, as is clear.

There is no dispute that the Messenger of Allāh () did not command the Companions with this practice. Had it been an obligatory (wājib), recommended (mustaḥabb) or permissible (mubāḥ) action it would have been reported widely from the Companions and it would have been mentioned in the speech and writings of the four Imāms and evidence for its legitimacy (as an act that is wājib, mustaḥabb or mubāḥ) would have been conveyed from them and would be abundantly mentioned in the books of tafsīr, fiqh and ḥadīth authored in the second and third centuries hijrah in a similar way that the prayer, zakāh, ḥajj and other major symbols of Islām have been related. 2nd Point of Agreement: It is not possible for the reader to deny this historical fact that celebration on 12th Rabīʿ al-Awwal was unknown to the Companions, Successors, Four Imāms and the Righteous Salaf as a whole who were the best and most virtuous of this ummah without dispute. bidah.com  page 14