Question:
Asselemu ve aleykum Mevlana
What should we respond when one compares the Wahabi Mawlid with Christmas for Christians what then should we respond to those who are wrong about it, as modern groups who say the Mawlid is a bida reprehensible? Moreover, because some of my questions are not answered? Thank you.
Allah Razi Olsun
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
We wrote:
We encourage every Muslim who has questions about this topic not to be intimidated by assertions such as: “Mawlid is like Christmas” but to inform themselves of the views of the authorities in the Four Schools and to know that even Ibn Taymiyya, who wrote against the Mawlid, admitted that it may be good to celebrate Mawlid and gave as his precedent for this concession the fact that Imam Ahmad accepted that a certain man spent a large sum of money decorating a copy of the Qur’an, although Ahmad considered it an innovation.
In Shari`a, nothing is declared haram except if the scholars are unanimous that the Qur’an and Sunna declare it so, whether explicitly or allusively. In the case of Mawlid, not only does such a unanimity not exist, but there is a majority declaring that it is an excellent action which merits reward, and even a supporter of the opposite view admitting that it can be praiseworthy! It is fair to say that someone who persists in rejecting the permissibility of Mawlid after all the above evidence, which is based on Qur’an, Sunna, and the derivations of ahkam (rulings) from the relevant dala’il (proof-texts), can only be a blind-follower of his own ignorant and stubborn opinion. “They will pass through the religion the way the arrow passes clean through its quarry” (Bukhari and Muslim). Allah knows best, and Allah guides whomever He will.
You may read our book on this subject, “The Prophet : Commemorations, Visitation and His Knowledge of the Unseen: Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine, Vol. 3” or see our extensive discussion of this topic at sunnah.org.
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
