3. The Religion is Perfected and Completed

Allāh () said: This day have I perfected your religion for you and have completed My favour upon you and have approved Islām as a religion for you. (5:3). Allāh () also said: O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message. (5:67). Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah, the followers of the ḥadīth and āthār, the followers of the Righteous Salaf have firm conviction that the religion was perfected and completed during the lifetime of the Messenger and that the Messenger () conveyed it entirely without leaving or omitting a single thing. This belief is founded upon their love and respect for the Messenger and their knowledge and conviction that he fully conveyed the message and fulfilled his trust. The Messenger () said, "Allāh did not send any Prophet except that it was a duty upon him to direct his ummah to every good he knew for them and to warn them from every evil he knew for them."16 And he () said, "By Him in whose hand is my soul. I have not left anything which brings you closer to Paradise and distances you from the Hellfire except that I have commanded you with it and I have not left anything which distances you from Paradise and brings you closer to Hellfire 16 Reported by Muslim from the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh bin ʿUmar. bidah.com  page 15 except that I have prohibited you from it."17 And Abū Dharr () said, "The Messenger of Allāh () died and he did not leave a bird flapping its wings in the sky except that he mentioned knowledge to us regarding it."18 And one of the pagans came to Salmān al-Farsī () and (mockingly) said, "Your Prophet teaches until even the toilet manners?" And Salmān said, "Yes. He has prohibited us from facing the qiblah when relieving ourselves, that we should clean ourselves with the right hand or that we should clean ourselves with less than three stones or that we should clean ourselves with bones or filth."19 In light of these texts, the celebrator of the mawlid is saying - through his action and not necessarily his tongue - that Allāh () and the Prophet () were not truthful when they made these statements and that something which the Muslims were in need of in their religion was not made clear to them and was not commanded by Allāh and His Messenger. Ibn al-Mājishūn relates that he heard Imām Mālik (d. 179H) say, "Whoever introduced an innovation into Islām, considering it something good, he has claimed that the Messenger was treacherous to his duty of messengership," then he recited, "This day have I perfected your religion for you" (5:3) and then said, "Whatever was not from the religion then cannot be considered from the religion today."20 Alongside Imām Mālik, neither Imām Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150H), Imām al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204H) nor Imām Aḥmad (d. 241H) knew anything about the celebration of the mawlid. Thus, it is clear that attempting to justify the celebration of the mawlid and ascribing it to the religion is tantamount to reviling the Messenger () and claiming that he did not explicitly and clearly direct his 17 Reported by al-Ṭabarānī, al-Bayḥaqī and Ibn Abī Shaybah and refer to Silsilah 18 Reported by Aḥmad in al-Musnad (5/153), al-Ṭabarī in his tafsīr (11/348), Ibn 19 Reported by Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī and others. 20 Imām al-Shāṭibī in al-Iʿtiṣām (taḥqīq, M. Salmān, Maktabah al-Tawḥīd, 1/62). bidah.com  page 16 ummah to celebrating the mawlid with clear unambiguous words - as he left his ummah in confusion over the issue, leading them to fight and argue. Further, it is a revilement of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī () and all of the Companions who failed to see the alleged evidence for the mawlid in the Qurʾān and the Sunnah and failed to bring it out for the ummah to practice by leading them with example. 3rd Point of Agreement: Whoever claims that Allāh did not complete and perfect the religion of Islām and left it deficient such that it required improvements to enable people to respect and love the Messenger () and get closer to Paradise has uttered disbelief (kufr) because he has reviled Allāh and has denied an explicit verse in the Qurʾān. Likewise, whoever claims that the Messenger did not convey everything which the Muslims needed to get closer to Paradise has reviled the Messenger () because he has made takdhīb (rejection) of the Messenger in what he informed us that he did not leave us anything which brings us closer to Paradise except that he informed us of it. bidah.com  page 17