DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT MAWLID
DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT MAWLID
There are three types of bid'ah - obligatory, forbidden and desired.
Al-Hafiz Abu al-Khair as-Sakhawi, may Allah 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 birth (PBUH). 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 (PBUH) - Mawlids. Thus they found the grace of the Allah’s Messenger (PBUH)”.
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 (PBUH). 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 (PBUH). This also shows thanks (shukr) to Allah for creating the Prophet (PBUH) 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 Allah’s Messenger (PBUH). 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 (PBUH) speech but it was not studied in the time of the Prophet (PBUH). 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 Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) 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 orna-menting Qurans can be qualified as a hateful innovation.
To be continued…
Muhammad Magomedov
Theologian
