Regarding The Celebration Of The Prophet's Birthday - The Mawlid

Prepared by: Sheikh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq

Birthday celebrations were first practiced by the greatest disbelievers, polytheists and tyrants upon the Earth such as Pharoah and Ptolemy among the ancient rulers of Egypt. These celebrations had their origins in magic, astrology and the casting of horoscopes. They were unknown to the Prophets of Bani Isra'il and unknown within any legislation that Allah ever revealed to any Prophet. Likewise, the early Christian Church, for the first three hundred years at least, never celebrated birthdays until the era of Constantine the Pagan Roman Emperor in the fourth century CE who merged what was already, by that time, a gross distortion of the clear message of Jesus (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ) with Paganism, its symbols and customs. It was the Ismā’īlī Bātinī Shī’ite hypocrites and disbelievers who entered this practice among the Muslims three centuries after the era of the Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) in order to deceive Sunni Muslims and draw them to Shī’ism.

In this treatise, we investigate the issue of the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet (ﷺ), its origins and history in detail. Its contents will give the confused Muslim a firm understanding by which he can distinguish between what comprises genuine love of the Prophet (ﷺ) and the methods of its outward manifestation that are acceptable to Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) and what amounts to an innovated expression of love which is rejected by Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) even if it is accompanied with the loftiest of intentions, claims and slogans.