DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT MAWLID

There are three types of bid'ah - obligatory, forbidden and desired.

Al-Hafiz Abu al-Khair as-Sakhawi, may God have mercy upon him, stated in his book of Fatwas: “None of the pious predecessors, who lived in the first three centuries of Islam, used to celebrate Mawlid [the way it is celebrated today]. People started commemorating it later.

“Muslims started coming together in different countries and big cities and celebrating the month of the Prophet’s ﷺ birth. Meanwhile they plied each other with absolutely delicious food and joy and delight reigned over everything. They did each other favours, increased the number of their good deeds and diligently read special prayers for the sake of the Prophet ﷺ - Mawlids. Thus they found the grace of the God’s Messenger ﷺ”.

Ibn Hajar al-Haytham wrote in Al-Fath al-Mubin fi sharhi al-Arbain (p. 224): “Imam Abu Shamat, who is the sheikh of imam an-Nawawi, said, “The finest bid’ah nowadays is what people perform every year in honour of the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ. This includes giving alms (sadaqa), showing kindness, beauty and joy. Truly, all of the above and paying attention to the poor open people’s hearts for love and respect for the Prophet ﷺ. This also shows thanks (shukr) to God for creating the Prophet ﷺ by His grace and as a mercy to the worlds”.

Imam an-Nawawi states in his book “Takhsib al-Asma’ wa al-Lugat” (pp. 994-996): “Bid’ah (innovation in Sharia) is doing something that was not performed in the times of God’s Messenger ﷺ. It can be classified both as good and bad.

Sheikh imam Abu Muhammad Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdusalam wrote in a book named al-Qawaid that bid’ah can be obligatory, forbidden, desired, hateful or permissible. “To make clear which group bid’ah belongs to, it should be compared to Sharia laws. If it corresponds to the principles of the obligatory, then performing this bid’ah is also obligatory. But if it corresponds to the principles of the forbidden (haram), then this bid’ah is forbidden (haram) as well. The principles of desired deeds are desirable. The principles of hateful deeds are condemned. The principles of permissible (mubah) deeds are permissible. You can give examples of all kinds of bid’ah”.

Learning grammar as a separate discipline can be an example of an obligatory bid’ah. It is essential for understanding God’s and His Prophet’s ﷺ speech but it was not studied in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. However, an understanding of their speech is obligatory for preserving the Sharia, because it is impossible to understand the Holy Quran and the Sunna unless you know Arabic grammar. And everything you need to perform the obligatory becomes obligatory.

The second example is learning unknown words you meet in the Quran and Sunna.

The third is to write books explaining the bases of Islamic religion and Islamic law (Fiqh).

The fourth is writing books proving or disproving the veracity of hadiths of God’s Messenger ﷺ and the authority of narrators of hadith. This includes also identifying whether a hadith is reliable or not. Islamic law makes clear the necessity of preserving the Sharia. And this is impossible unless all means available are used.

The emergence of creeds like those of the Kadarits’, Dzhabarits’, Murdzhiits’ and Mudzhasimits’ can be given as an example of forbidden innovation. Exposing such beliefs is an obligatory innovation as is exposing their delusions.

The establishing of inns and madrasas can be given as an example of desired innovation as well as everything that benefits mankind, but they did not yet exist in the first century of Hijra. Performing the Tarawih-prayer collectively in mosques, talking over the fine points of Tasawwuf, debating, calling meetings for reasoning and proving also belong in this category if done for the Almighty’s sake.

Decorating mosques and ornamenting Qurans can be qualified as a hateful innovation.

Examples of permissible innovations are handshaking after morning and afternoon prayers, the consumption of various foods and drinks, dressing up in the best clothes, building large houses and the wearing of satin or wide-sleeved clothes. There are some differences in the ulama’s opinions on these points. Some of the ulama consider part of them hateful innovations. But others find them desirable innovations which were not, however, performed in the times of and immediately after God’s Messenger ﷺ - like saying “Bismillyahi Rahmani Rahim” or “A’uzu billahi mina shaytani rajeem” in salah”. (See “Takhdibu al-Asma’”, p. 995)

Al-Bayhaki (referring to a chain of narrators) mentions that Manaqibu al-Shafii states: “Imam al-Shafii mentioned two categories of innovations. Innovations contradicting the Quran, Sunna, Asar and Ijma are the first category. They are called al-Bid’ah al-Zalzala, which means innovation leading to delusion”.

In the second category are all the good and beneficial innovations and about which there are no contradicting opinions of the ulama. In this case the innovations are not hateful. For the pious caliph Umar, may God be pleased with him, said regarding the matter of people gathering in mosques for collective Tarawih-prayers: “This is a nice innovation!” It means this was an innovation that had not been practiced before.

These statements about good innovations do not contradict the sayings of Prophet ﷺ: “Beware of introducing something new, truly every innovation is a delusion”, and “He who does an act which our matter is not (in agreement) with, will have it rejected.” (Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood, Ibn Majah). These statements have an overarching character.

In the book “Al-Fatawa al-Hadisiya” (p. 265) Ibn Hajar al-Haytami wrote: “Mawlids and adhkars performed nowadays generally do good. Among these are giving alms, remembrance of God (dhikr), blessing and praising (reciting salawat) God’s Messenger ﷺ.” Here is another quote from this book: “Someone asked Ibn Hajar if it was allowed for people to gather together to perform a permissible innovation. And he answered: “Yes, it is allowed.”

The hadith “Every innovation is a misguidance and every misguidance goes to hellfire” refers to forbidden innovations.

But if anything forbidden is performed at a place where people have gathered for remembrance of God (dhikr) or collective Tarawih-prayer, etc., everyone should warn people against doing this. And others should stay away (from where the haram takes place). Otherwise they become accomplices.” (“al-Fatawa al-Hadisiya”, p. 265-268)

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami said: “The main point is that there is no debating by the ulama regarding good innovations. Ala’ Bid’ah al-Hasana (good innovations) are something that people should urge each other to do”. And celebrating Mawlid and gathering people for this purpose are actions considered good innovations.

Someone asked imam as-Suyuti what is the Sharia decision on celebrating Mawlid of the Prophet ﷺ in the month of Rabi ul-Awwal, is it a praiseworthy or hateful action and what response would one get who performs it. Imam as-Suyuti answered this in the book “al-Havi fil-Fatawa” (vol. 1, p. 181-182): “I like people celebrating Mawlid, when they gather together to read Quran, tell early prophecy stories and retell the miracles related to the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. It is so nice thereafter to set the table. So this is a good innovation, namely, bid’ah al-hasana. The one who arranges this meeting is rewarded, because in this way he glorifies and shows respect to the Prophet ﷺ and confesses great joy at his birth. The sovereign of Irbil, al-Muzafar Abu Said Kavkabary, was the first person to perform Mawlid this way. And he was one of the noble and generous rulers.”

To be continued...

DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT MAWLID