Mawlid : A war of words ? (Edited)

On By Sana KhanIn reflection, Social Issues

As the day of Mawlid is coming closer the war of words between Islamic scholars is getting heated up, my Facebook newsfeed is flooded with only two types of Posts, One saying celebrating the birth of Prophet is wrong and others justifying it. There are arguments and reasoning from both sides but they are going up to the level of calling each other sinner and many more things and it all breaks my heart to see our Leaders fighting over the birth of their Beloved Prophet. I think the people who chose their sides are still happy in their minds and calling each other with due names but people like me who are weighing arguments from both sides are just left confused and still without a side.

Arguments put up against the celebration:

  • The day of birth is unknown and it is the day of his ‘wafaat’(death) so celebrating this day, doesn’t make any sense!
  • It is an innovation which is termed ‘bidaah’ and is not allowed in Islam.Anyone doing it is a sinner.
  • Celebrating birthdays is a pagan tradition, and is not allowed.
  • Prophet never celebrated his own birthday.

Arguments in favour of the celebration:

  • It is blessed day as our prophet set his foot on earth and he was sent as Mercy and blessing for entire mankind.
  • If being a Muslim you will not celebrate the birth of your prophet, what will you celebrate then?
  • Not happy on the day when your prophet was born on whose Ummah we all belong, which day you will choose to be happy then?
  • In light of Quran the news of arrival of every prophet was referred as good news to the people.

So what should I do, be happy or be sad? Or just let it go like any other day? I sat there juxtaposed. Will my Allah punish his people for celebrating the birth of his last and final messenger, without testifying on whose name along with Allah you cannot even be a Muslim? How can Muslims use such harsh words for their own brothers? The thoughts were becoming too much on my head.

I asked my husband, he was at peace, not disturbed with all these things, he said ‘There are always difference of opinion among people, I would do what my prophet was doing on his birthday”.

“So what was he doing” my quick question.

“He was fasting”, he replied.

To be clear on this, our prophet was fasting on Mondays and Thursdays because of Sunnah so even if  his birthday was falling on Monday or Thursday, he continued his fasts and since this time it is on Thursday my husband is planning to fast like he always do these two days.

Things started to become easy, I can do the same. What is fasting in general ? for me it is a state of purification and getting nearness to your Lord and the doors of mercy are opened upon you. I can fast on this day and pray for peace in our lives and for the peace in the world and thank Allah for sending our prophet ,Muhammad ( peace be upon him)  to us .

So that would be my celebration or non-celebration still finding words to express it. My post was to highlight the point that do we need such a big debate on this?  Muslims around the world can have difference in opinions regarding it, we can agree with or disagree with,  but at the end all our actions will be judged by Allah swt and He knows best,  let us not state judgement on our brothers and pray for the true guidance.

27 thoughts on “Mawlid : A war of words ? (Edited)”

  1. Yeah, I’d heard that hadith about the Rasul (SAW) fasting in his birthday, but when he was asked why, He said that it was because it was either a Monday or a Thursday, which are like the days for voluntary fasts and it also happened to be Hid birthday which added to the virtues of the day.
    So basically my teachers have been telling me that if it’s a monday or thursay on the day and you regularly fast on those days, it’s alright to fast. Otherwise, they said, would be impermissible…
    But Allahu A’lam.
    Our intentions should be clean and the Rasul (S.A.W.) always advised us not to raise his status more than it needs to be. Exaggerating the status of the Prophets is something that the “people of the book” used to do.
    But May Allah guide us. Honestly, I personally don’t think that Islam should be debated that much. It’s not the Rasul’s birthday which Allah emphasizes in His book.
    What matters is that we are kind to our neighbors and good to our parents and believe in Allah and His beloved Messenger. People wanna backbite and disgrace their friends and neighnors and at the same time they wanna debate about issues that Allah has kept ambiguous for a reason. How about we pay more attention to the things that ARE clear about Islam. Those that we like to ignore? Like the rights of neighbors? And the poor? And the daughters?
    May Allah guide us… Truly. May He help us put things into perspective and prioritize wisely.

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  2. Assalamu alaikum sis. I agree with you. Even my wats up groups are filled with these messages. Yesterday my hubby sat till 3 clock morning just to get hadees and answers in favor of celebrating Prophet arrival. I was shocked to know this. Could you feel the mental tension we are under going because of such fights? I believe every group has got good standing in favour and in against. Then why to fight. We should first check out the intentions. Is it not a good intention to thank Allah for our beloved prophet blessing. Is it not good to keep fast, to pray some extra nawfil. Will such fasts and nawfils make us sinner? Ohh so confusing. I don’t know where these fights will lead us. May Allah accept our intentions. Ameen.And seriously we should really stop humiliating, bullying each other. Thats not Islam.
    I will also keep fast In sha Allah 🙂

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    1. Walekum salaam my Sister , Thanks for your message ,I think we can relate to it very well ,I had the same stress building up. I would do the same fast and pray extra nafl.May Allah accept our prayers and guide us all to the right path. The point is why to fight with each other that too on birth of your prophet?? it is disheartening.Good luck for your fasting, here the days are shorter now 4.30 pm maghrib 🙂

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  3. It’s so sad if some people of this ummah still debate thing like that. Same here, sis. In my opinion this ummah should think about unity n how to make Islam n Muslim strong. The Muslim countries become developed countries. We can give positive change to this world.

    I’d say it’s true that our prophet had never celebrated his birthday. But we shouldn’t say that other people who have different argument are wrong.
    If we love our prophet, so we should follow him base on Qur’an n his hadith.
    Nice topic, sis! 😊

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  4. Serpico

    You know why the sahaba kiraam (r.a) never celebrated this day? Because they celebrated every day of the year in a best and only acceptable way. By following The Sunnah Of Prophet (pbuh) every hour of every day. Best celebration imo.

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  6. One thing I thought before I became a Muslim was that there are less divisions than in Christianity. I now know that isn’t true and there are many sources of debate and conflict in Islam as well. It can be confusing when trying to understand what it means to be a Muslim and how to live your life accordingly. But I can say that I do not have any right to judge people for what they believe is right or wrong, likewise they should judge me. We are all brothers and sisters and we should build each other up instead of tearing each other down. Anyways that’s just my opinion 🙂

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  9. Here I remember a very beautiful Hadees.
    ‘Amir b. Sa’d reported on the authority of his father that one day Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) came from a high, land. He passed by the mosque of Banu Mu’awiya, went in and observed two rak’ahs there and we also observed prayer along with him and he made a long supplication to his Lord. He then came to us and said,”I asked my Lord three things and He has granted me two but has withheld one. I begged my Lord that my Ummah should not be destroyed because of famine and He granted me this. And I begged my Lord that my Ummah should not be destroyed by drowning (by deluge) and He granted me this. And I begged my Lord that there should be no bloodshed among the people of my Ummah, but He did not grant it.”
    [Sahih Muslim Book 41, Hadith 6906]

    Also another Hadees is there,

    Thauban reported that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said:Allah drew the ends of the world near one another for my sake. And I have seen its eastern and western ends. And the dominion of my Ummah would reach those ends which have been drawn near me and I have been granted the red and the white treasure and I begged my Lord for my Ummah that it should not be destroyed because of famine, nor be dominated by an enemy who is not amongst them to take their lives and destroy them root and branch, and my Lord said: Muhammad, whenever I make a decision, there is none to change it. I grant you for your Ummah that it would not be destroyed by famine and it would not be dominated by an enemy who would not be amongst it and would take their lives and destroy them root and branch even if all the people from the different parts of the world join hands together (for this purpose), but it would be from amongst them, viz. your Ummah, that some people would kill the others or imprison the others.
    [Sahih Muslim Book 41, Hadith 6904]

    So this Ummah Will Destroy One Another.Isn’tthat happening in all Muslim countries? Muslims fighting Muslims.

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  10. A writer from the East

    Very lovely post and also very interesting because Mawlid is celebrated across south asian Muslims for a long time, with people fasting and quran recitations, add in some haleem and halwa at least in Pakistan. Now thanks to Saudia Arabia’s dose of wahabism hardliner clerics started to say it is bidah and wrong.
    Like you all over here, I do think Muslim world has larger at life problems like honor killings, rape victim women stoned by so called Sharia JUSTICE instead of the rapist, Muslims committing crimes against Muslims, all those Taliban, ISIS, famine, poverty and millions of orphaned Muslim children that have fallen into wrong hands.

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    1. Truely said. It is same in India as well what I have seen since my childhood for Mawlid but things are changing faster now with spread of different school of thoughts like Deobandis,etc.Indeed we have wider problems to tackle in muslim world that you have mentioned all but I see muslims only busy in criticizing fellow muslims about shirk and bidaa acts ! I truly appreciate your blog for raising voice for unsaid and hushed issues. Keep up the good work my sister 🙂

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  11. A writer from the East

    It is very sad that non Arab Muslims are feeling the brunt of such groups whereas Islam is all about diversity 🙂 I can relate to what you said about your childhood in India because my family has Indian origins and I was always taught that nani or daadi jan did this in U.P before partition!
    I also feel that with such groups the tolerance within muslims is diminishing, now one sect wants to kill another sect, Wajib ul Qatl fatwas type of things whereas ISLAM is all about the fact that Africa, or Asia, EU or Alaska we Muslim Ummah are all one regardless of differences and it teaches respect and brotherhood among us all.
    Thanks for your continuous support for my blog, very appreciated 🙂

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