12. So Much Has Been Authored on the Mawlid

Another line of evidence is that so many authors wrote on the subject of the mawlid. Untrue claims are often found in this line of evidence. From such claims is that the author of Kashf al-Ẓunūn Fī Asāmī al-Kutub walFunūn stated that Ibn Kathīr wrote on the topic of the mawlid in numerous works such as Jāmiʿ al-Āthār Fī Mawlid al-Nabiyy al-Mukhtār and al-Lafẓ al-Rāʾiq Fī Mawlid Khayr al-Khalāʾiq and that others mentioned Anṣārī responds to this by saying all of this is baseless and incorrect. 132 After checking Kashf al-Ẓunūn under the letter jīm for first book no such work exists for Ibn Kathīr but there is a work for Ibn Nāṣir al-Dimashqī (d. 842H). And as for the second book, under the letter lām, that book is also of Ibn Nāṣir al-Dimashqī and the third book also belongs to the same author. As for the actual writings of Ibn Kathīr, then in al-Bidāyah one can find a lengthy seerah of the Prophet () and also in his work alFuṣūl fī Ikhtiṣār seerah al-Rasūl as well as other writings and the issue of the mawlid celebration is not addressed in them. So all of these are mere claims made in order to give support to this bidʿah which is no basis in the dīn of Allāh. A similar claim is made about al-Sakhāwī who is alleged to have written a work on the mawlid but it turns out that the book in question al-Tabr al-Masbūq Fī Dhayl al-Sulūk is simply a book of history to augment an earlier work of Aḥmad bin ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī called al-Sulūk bi Maʿrifah Duwal al-Mulūk and its subject matter is not on the mawlid itself, it is a book of historical events, even if some matters pertaining to the mawlid are mentioned therein. So in all of this we see attempts to inflate the matter by making it appear as if so many books were written, and so many rulers celebrated it and so many scholars praised this practice and 132 Refer to Rasāʾil Fī Ḥukm al-Iḥtifāl bil-Mawlid al-Nabawiyy (p. 527). bidah.com  page 94 all of this is a sign of bankruptcy in evidence. The abundance of books being written on a subject does not make it from the religion. We already agreed at the beginning that something from the religion is only established through the Qurʾān, Sunnah and Ijmāʾ.