The Resource Regarding Mawlid | Al-Mawrid fī al-Mawlid

[In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful]

Praise be to Allah, who guided us to follow the master of the messengers, strengthened us through guidance to the pillars of the religion, and made it easy for us to follow in the footsteps of the righteous predecessors (اﻟـﺴــــﻠـﻒ اﻟــــﺼـﺎﻟــــﺢ), until our hearts became filled with the lights of knowledge of the Shariah and the decisive proofs of manifest truth, and purified our innermost selves from the defilement of newly introduced matters and innovation in the religion.

I praise Him for the lights of certainty that He has graciously bestowed, and I thank Him for granting adherence to the firm rope [i.e., Islam]. And I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship but Allah alone, with no partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, the master of the first [of creation] and the last. May Allah’s blessings be upon him, his family, his Companions, and his pure wives, the Mothers of the Believers—a blessing enduring until the Day of Judgment.

To proceed: A group of blessed people repeatedly asked me about the gathering that some people hold during the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal and call the Mawlid (اﻟــﻤﻮﻟــﺪ): Does it have a basis in the Shariah, or is it an innovation (ﺑـﺪﻋـﺔ) and a newly introduced matter in the religion?

They requested a clear answer and a helpful explanation.

So I said, and success is only by Allah: I know of no basis for this Mawlid (اﻟــــﻤﻮﻟــــﺪ) in the Book or the Sunnah, nor has its observance been transmitted from any of the scholars of the Muslim community, who are the role models in the religion and who hold fast to the traditions of the earlier generations. Rather, it is an innovation (ﺑــــــﺪﻋــــــﺔ) introduced by idlers and a craving of the lower self by which gluttons have enriched themselves.

The evidence is that if we apply the five legal rulings to it, we must say that it is either obligatory, recommended, permissible, disliked, or forbidden.

It is not obligatory, by consensus, nor is it recommended, because the true meaning of the recommended is that which the Shariah requests without condemning its omission. The Shariah did not authorize this, nor was it practiced by the Companions, the Followers, or the devout scholars, as far as I know. This is my answer concerning it before Allah, Exalted be He, should I be questioned about it.

Nor can it be permissible (mubāḥ), because introducing innovations into the religion is not permissible, by the consensus of the Muslims.

Thus, only two possibilities remain: that it is disliked or forbidden. The discussion therefore divides into two cases:

The first is that a man holds it, using his own wealth, for his family, companions, and dependents, and they do no more in that gathering than eat food and commit no sins. This is what we have described as a disliked innovation [ﺑــﺪﻋــﺔ] and an objectionable practice, since no one among the earlier people of obedience ever practiced it—those who were the jurists of Islam and the scholars of mankind, the lamps of the ages and the adornment of places.

The second case is that wrongdoing enters into it and the pressure surrounding it grows so strong that a person gives something while his soul remains attached to it and his heart aches and hurts because of the pain of surrounding social pressure. The scholars—may God Most High have mercy on them—have said: “Taking wealth through another’s embarrassment is like taking it by the sword.” This is especially so if there is added to it some singing, performed before full bellies with instruments of false amusement such as duffs and reed pipes, together with men gathering with beardless youths and beautiful women, whether the women mingle with them or look down upon them from above; and with dancing through swaying and bending, complete absorption in amusement, and forgetfulness of the Day of Fear.

Likewise, if women gather separately, raising their voices with affected vocalization and melodious chanting in recitation [nasheed], and departing in their recitation and remembrance from what is prescribed and customary, heedless of His saying, Most High: {إن رﺑـﻚ ﻟـﺒﺎﻟـﻤﺮﺻـﺎد} “Indeed, your Lord is ever watchful.”

This is something whose prohibition no two people dispute and which honorable young men do not deem good. It is considered acceptable only by those whose hearts are dead and who do not regard sins and misdeeds as grave. I would add that they view it as an act of worship, rather than as one of the objectionable and forbidden matters.

Indeed, to God we belong and to Him we return. “Islam began as something strange, and it will return as it began.”

How excellent are the words of our shaykh al-Qushayrī—may God Most High have mercy on him —when he says in what he authorized us to transmit:

Wrong has come to be recognized, while right … is deemed strange in these hard days of ours.

The people of knowledge have sunk into a lowly pit …while the people of ignorance have risen to high rank.

They have turned aside from the truth, and what they now prevail through … bears no relation to that by which they prevailed in the past.

So I said to the righteous, the people of reverent piety … and religion, when the affliction grew severe:

Do not regard your circumstances as strange— your turn has come ... in a time of estrangement.

Imam Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—expressed it well when he said: “People will continue to fare well so long as they marvel at what is strange.”

Moreover, Rabīʿ al-Awwal—the very month in which the Prophet ﷺ was born—is also the month in which he passed away. Therefore, rejoicing in this month is no more appropriate than grieving in it. This is what we have to say, and from Allah Most High we hope for favorable acceptance.