#456: Clarification on Celebrating the Birth of the Rasūl -Salallāhu Alayhi Wa Sallam – 02
So, O brothers and sisters, if this is the general ruling and default statement on the yearly festivities in Islām, what can we call this so-called celebration: Mawlid?
Imām Hāfidh As-Sakhaawi – rahimahullāh – said: “The affair of celebrating Al-Mawlud Ash-Sharif was not reported from any of the As-Salafu As-Sālih among the Virtuous best three generation (Al-Qurun Ath-Thalāthah Al-Fādilah). Rather it was innovated thereafter” Subulu Al-Hudah Wa Ar-Rashād 1/439
Put in mind, Hāfidh As-Sakhāwi was the top-most student of Al-Hāfidh Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalāni and was the one that inherited his majlis.
If this is what As-Sakhāwi has to say about the al-Mawlud, who then invented it?
As-Sandawayh in his book ‘Ta’rikh Al-Ihtifaal Bi Al-Mawlid’ page 62 mentioned that the first person in history to innovate and begin celebrating and marking it the day of Id was the Ubaydiyyin Fātimids during their treacherous reign over Egypt. And that was in the year 363AH.
Who are the Ubaydiyyun?
They are a treacherous Shi’ite sect that believed in the god-head of Fātimah bnt Muhammad – radiyallāhu anha. And they are a kāfir shi’ite sect by the consensus of the Ulamā. Aside that, Imām Adh-Dhahabi (died 8th sentury hijri) – friend and student of Ibn Taymiyyah – in his ‘Siyar Min A’lām An-Nubalā’ mentioned their slaughtering and killing of the Ulamā and students of Knowledge of the Ahlus Sunnah and Sufis in North Africa.
For those that know, this is the reason that led to Ibn Abi Zayd Al-Qayrawāni’s writing of the ‘Ar-Risāla’
See also for the source of this bid’a as coming from the Ubaydiyyin Imām Al-Maqrizi’s (Al-Khutat 1/490, It’haadh Al-Hunafā 2/48) Ibn At-Turkumaan’s ‘Al-Lam’ Fi Al-Huduthi Wa Al-Bida’ (1/293) and Al-Qalqashandi’s Subhu Al-A’ashā 3/498-499
At this juncture, it is important to state that Imām As-Suyiti – rahimahullāh – whose thesis ‘Husnu Al-Maqsad’ is the most articulated on the permissibility of celebrating the Mawlid erred in his attribution of the origin of the Mawlid for he claimed the first to celebrate the Mawlid is the Sultān Kawkaburi Al-Ayyūbi 630AH. He is clearly wrong as we have stated. Al-Imām Al-Maqrizi the historian through unbroken chains of narration have proven it to be launched by the Ubaydiyyin.
On As-Suyuti’s thesis, we shall return later insha Allāh.
In the era of the Napoleon invasion of the Muslim lands – especially Egypt – the Muslim Ummah, been in disarray was not celebrating the Id Al-Mawlud any longer because of the dire situation. It was Napoleon Bonaparte – the French Emperor – that revived the practice. Subhānallāh!
A festivity that a French emperor finds necessary to revive must be negative to Islam.
Why did he want it revived?
Al-Allāmah Al-Jabarti the Egyptian Imām and Historian answers us in his book ‘Ajā’ibu Al-Āthār’: “The French Emperor and his entourage gave a dispensation on it for people and financed it due to what they saw in it of going out of the Shari’a and the gathering of women and the following of desires and entertainment and the doing of things that are Harām” (See Ajaa’ibu Al-Aathār 2/306; 2/201,249; Madh’haru At-Taqdis Bizawāli Dawlati Al-Fransis pg47)
Now, for the people who celebrate the date, how are they sure that the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – was born on that day?
The Ulamā of Hadith have checked into the chains of transmissions of that narration and they have found it to be weak.
Al-Hāfidh Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalāni – rahimahullāh – who some people here claim is a full support of the Mawlud said: “And some of them – the Companions – have tried to explain the dates with which the Hijra (calendar) began by saying: the matters about which there is consensus and with which we can definitively have a date are four: His (the Rasūl’s) birth, His messengership (i.e. Year of his been sent as messenger), His Hijrah and His passing away. So, it became apparent to them to make it the Date of the Hijrah because his birth and the date of his been sent are not free of disagreements and inability to say definitively. As for the day of passing away they left it out due to the grief attached to it…” Fat’hu Al-Bāri on the Commentary on the Hadith #3641.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.
By: Abū ‘Āsim
📚 IslamNode
