Mirza Yawar Baig – Bidaat and Mawlid
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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين
والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين محمد ورسول
الله صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم تسليماً
كثيراً كثيراً فما بعده My brothers and sisters,
I get asked this question every year and
I answer it every year and I don't
know why I'm asked this question every time,
every year.
Anyway, and that question is about celebrating the
birthday of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم Eid
Mawlood, Eid Milad, Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi
by whichever name Celebrating the birthday of Rasulullah
صلى الله عليه وسلم I want you to
listen carefully at all the words Now, in
one line, celebrating the birth and celebrating the
birthday are two separate issues Celebrating the birth
of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم الحمد لله
Allah سبحانه وتعالى Himself said لقد من الله
على المؤمنين إذ بعث فيهم رسولاً من أنفوسهم
يتلو عليهم آياته ويزكيهم ويعلمهم الكتاب والحكوى وإن
كانوا من قبل لفي ضلال مبين Allah سبحانه
وتعالى said Verily Allah سبحانه وتعالى has blessed
من الله على المؤمنين Allah has sent His
نعمة His blessing, His gift on the believers,
on the مؤمنين and may Allah count us
among them that He sent a messenger to
them from among them to recite His كلام
to recite the آيات which He receives to
purify them internal and external purification to teach
them the Book of Allah which is the
same آيات and to teach them wisdom which
is how to apply these آيات in their
lives so obviously when Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala called the بِعْسَة the raising, the coming
of Rasool Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم as
His blessing obviously it's a no brainer that
this is a matter of great rejoicing this
is a matter of great happiness this is
something for us to celebrate الحمد لله Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ
يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا
عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
said verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent
His blessings on His نبي محمد صلى الله
عليه وسلم and so do the ملائكة the
angels make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to send His blessing on the messenger
Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and then Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded us and said
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ
وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا and when you meet him say
السلام عليكم so here we have a blessing
of Allah and obviously we are supposed to
rejoice and celebrate and thank Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for all blessings whether we do
it or not is a different issue we
should do it we should thank Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala for our faculties which work
for our bodies which work for our health
and our wealth and our parents and our
children and our friends and families and the
places we live in and the fact that
we live in peace and comfort where we
live in peace and comfort the fact that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us the
strength to resist and fight against and deal
with and cope with difficulties and tragedies and
so on and so forth all of these
and more all that I have mentioned and
all that I cannot possibly mention are all
the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
jalla jalaluhu without any cause for doubt in
that fact and every single one of them
must be thanked must be gratitude must be
expressed for that Allah must be thanked for
that and every single one of them must
be celebrated and we should be happy about
that and we should be thankful about that
and we should feel grateful about that and
we should express our gratitude to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala about that one of the
biggest of those blessings is Islam itself which
is without which we would have been in
Jahannam so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave
us Islam the biggest blessing of among the
biggest blessings is the door of Tawbah and
Istighfar which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala left
open for us until the last moment of
our life may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
grant us the Tawfiq to make Tawbah and
Istighfar right now not wait until the last
moment because we don't know when that will
come so make Istighfar and Tawbah right now
as we sit here and as we listen
to this but remember even though Allah granted
us all of these blessings Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala did not mention any of them
specifically and did not draw our attention to
any of them specifically and called it a
blessing except Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi salam he sallallahu alayhi wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi salam is the only one
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala called specifically
mannallahu alayhi Allah has blessed you with this
and who is this?
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
salam so therefore if somebody says should we
celebrate the birth the coming the raising the
presence of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa
sallam that's a dumb question that's a no
brainer of course you should if you do
not do that if somebody says do not
celebrate that you would say well you know
you must really examine your Iman because what
you are saying goes completely against the principle
of Iman second question if somebody says should
we celebrate the birthday of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wa alayhi wa sallam then two other questions
must be answered before that first question that
must be answered before that is do you
know when Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was
born birthday do we know when Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam was born the answer to
that is very simple and the answer is
that we don't know the exact date we
don't know the exact date when Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam was born now for example
if you say if I tell you my
date of birth it is 20th of October
which corresponded in the year that I was
born to 4th of Rabiul Awwal but do
we have an exact date like that for
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the answer is
no we didn't have we don't have that
and the reason we don't have that is
very simple which is that among the Arabs
they had no tradition of noting down dates
of birth the calendar itself was very sketchy
they used some parts of the Roman calendar
they used they used to name years based
on significant events that occurred in that year
for example we know for certainty that Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was born in the
Aam ul Fil the year of the elephant
this we know because this was recorded that
he was born in the in the year
of the elephant and that refers to the
incident where the Yemeni king Abraha came to
Mecca with the intention of demolishing the Kaaba
and of course he was foiled in his
attempt by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala later on revealed Surat
al-Fil and he narrated what happened in
that but obviously it was a huge event
because it had never happened before nobody had
come with an army to demolish the Kaaba
and on top of that this army had
elephants it had one or more elephants and
for many or most or all of the
people of Mecca this was the first time
they had actually even seen this animal the
elephant so for them it was a huge
event and so they named the year after
that similarly for example when we read the
Sira we have the mention of the Aam
ul-Huzur which is the year of sadness
the year of grief and this refers to
the year in which Rasulullah s.a.w.
lost both Abu Talib and Umra Khadija tul
Kubra his two greatest supporters in his family
he lost them both in that same year
and this caused him immense grief and this
year therefore is called Aam ul-Huzur the
year of sadness and we know this but
if you say well Aam ul-Huzur the
year of the elephant or Aam ul-Huzur
which year was that in the calendar so
the first question is which calendar how would
you how would you date that you know
so this was the this was the situation
at the time and people didn't record exactly
the day of a person's birth number one
number two Rasulullah s.a.w. was born
like every other child in that particular year
in the city of Mecca in the town
of Mecca and more than likely none of
the dates of their births were recorded either
if you say for example what was the
date of birth of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq
what was the date of birth and you
can just sort of randomly name almost anybody
and say what was the date of birth
of these people we don't have those we
don't have those dates we do not have
those dates of the births of any of
those people and so also when Rasulullah s
.a.w. was born this was a child
he was born in a in an honourable
home he was born in a in an
honourable family but it was not a royal
family he was not the son of a
king or something because the reason I'm saying
that is because this was a tradition of
the time and even I guess even till
today continues that the children of royalty and
nobility especially their dates of birth are recorded
in the in the in the Christian system
they would have a family bible in which
they would in the front or the back
they would record the dates of birth of
those of those people in other cases you
know they would record the dates of birth
in other places but this was generally done
for nobility and royalty and so on it
was not done as a common practice in
society Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was was not
a son of a king because there was
no royalty and nobility among the Arabs of
the time it was one of the most
democratic egalitarian society that you would imagine and
so his date of birth was never recorded
later on people tried to count backwards and
then they said maybe it was this maybe
it was that and that's the reason why
we have so many different dates which are
quoted as the dates of birth of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam 12th of Rabiul Awwal and
somebody said he was born in Ramadan and
somebody said he was born in Muharram and
somebody said he was born in this month
and that month all of these are conjectures
all of these are hypothetical even people who
say the most valuable the most reliable opinion
I mean this is that the statement the
most reliable opinion itself is conjecture so this
is there so the first and foremost question
should we celebrate the date as I said
this brings two questions one is when is
that date because if I tell you yes
you should celebrate it then obviously you will
ask me so which date is that and
if I tell you 12th of Rabiul Awwal
what is my what is my dalil what
is my proof and I have no proof
and nobody on the face of the planet
has any proof nobody ever had any proof
every statement that you hear about 12th of
Rabiul Awwal or this date in Ramadan or
that date in Muharram or that date here
that date there all of these are conjectures
Alhamdulillah those who made the conjectures may Allah
reward them if they were right and if
they were wrong may Allah SWT forgive them
but that is a conjecture it's not a
definitive fact number one number two the question
of saying well which brings us to a
more complex or complicated issue which is when
you are doing any action connected with the
Rasul Alayhi Salatu Wassalam this would come under
the description of Sunnah right if you are
doing anything that you are connecting with him
it becomes Sunnah and Sunnah by definition by
default Alhamdulillah is rewardable by Allah SWT it
is Ibadah it is an act of worship
somebody who is doing an act of Sunnah
somebody and Sunnah means you are doing it
the way Rasul Alayhi Salatu Wassalam used to
do it and you are doing it for
the reason he did it these are two
conditions of the Sunnah and you are obviously
doing it for the pleasure of Allah SWT
so when you are doing these actions any
action of the Sunnah right so for example
for growing a beard for example if somebody
is growing a beard to look nice this
is not Sunnah so therefore there is no
reward in that he might still look nice
any man would look nice with a beard
but that's immaterial but if he is growing
his beard because Rasul Alayhi Salatu Wassalam used
to have a beard and he ordered and
commanded us to grow a beard so therefore
the person says I am growing a beard
because Rasul Alayhi Salatu Wassalam commanded us to
do that because he used to do that
for the reason he did it because he
said my Rab likes this appearance the Hadith
of the beard I don't want to go
off track now by quoting that Hadith but
there is a Hadith where Rasul Alayhi Salatu
spoke to the two people who came from
the Iranian Empire to meet him and to
take him with them he said to them
they had big mustaches and they had no
beard and he said Rasul Alayhi didn't like
that appearance he asked them who asked you
to have this appearance they said our Rab
our Lord Rasul Alayhi Salatu Wassalam said my
Rab likes this appearance and he passed his
blessed hand over his blessed face and his
beard and then he commanded the Sahaba he
said trim your mustaches and grow your beard
he didn't say shave your mustache he said
trim your mustaches and grow your beard so
somebody who is growing his beard it's not
a matter of facial hair it's not a
matter of fashion if he is growing his
beard because he wants to please Allah Jalla
Jalaluhu in the way that Rasul Alayhi Salatu
Wassalam did for the reason that he did
then this is a Sunnah and this person
InshaAllah will be rewarded by Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will
reward him and may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala reward him every single second for every
hair of that beard as it grows InshaAllah
similarly for everything else if somebody eats his
food or her food in the way that
Rasul Alayhi Salatu Wassalam used to eat they
will be rewarded InshaAllah for eating their food
as a Sunnah as a matter of worship
so anything that is done with the intention
of pleasing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in
the way that Muhammad Rasul Allah Subhanahu did
it becomes a Sunnah so now we come
to the issue of the celebrating of the
birthday so first of all we don't have
a day secondly the issue of celebrating it
how would you celebrate it the way to
celebrate the birth as I told you celebrating
the birth Alhamdulillah this is Sunnah this we
should do this makes sense this is what
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala told us to
do celebrate his birth question is how do
we celebrate the birth
of Rasul Allah Subhanahu the way to celebrate
the birth of Rasul Allah Subhanahu the way
to celebrate the birth of Rasul Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala the way to celebrate the
it celebrate his presence the way to celebrate
his birth the way to celebrate his being
with us is to follow him is to
make his He
didn't say, as Allah did not reveal Quran
about this.
He said, I was born on a Monday
and he was to fast on Mondays because
he said, I want Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la my deeds to go up
to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
when I'm in a state of fasting.
So the way to celebrate the birthday, which
we know, which is a Monday, the day,
not the date, the day, we know it's
a Monday.
The way to celebrate that is to fast
every single Monday of your life.
That is 52 fasts per year, right?
So please go ahead and do that.
Please go ahead and do that fast every
single Monday of your life from this day
onwards, if you are sincere about celebrating the
birthday of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
If on the other hand, instead of that,
you celebrate his birthday, first of all, by
nominating a particular day of the year on
the calendar without any authority and without any
evidence as the date of his birth.
And then by having some kind of a
celebration, whether it's a function, whether it is
lectures, whether it is nasheeds, whether it is,
you know, cooking special food, whether it is
wearing special clothes, whether it is calling it
Mawlud or Mawlid or Eid-e-Milad-un
-Nabi or Milad-un-Nabi or whatever name
you give it, specifying that particular day.
And may Allah have mercy on us.
We have incidents where now there are some
masajids and imams who are actually doing a
two rakat, they are doing a khutbah for
Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi and they are
praying two rakat of Salat-ul-Eid.
Now, if you do that, then number one,
you have zero evidence for any of these
actions.
First problem, there's no evidence.
Number two, none of these actions were done
by Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself, nor did
he command anyone to do that, nor did
any of the Khulafa-e-Rashideen do it,
nor did any of the Sahaba do it,
nor was any of this stuff done until
it was started and invented in Egypt by
the Fatimid dynasty.
This was the Shia Fatimid dynasty in Egypt
and one of those Fatimid kings, more than
300 years after Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam passed
away, invented this tradition of Mawlid or Maulud
or Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi as part
of a series of celebrations which included his
own birthday and it included the birthday of
Sayyidina Ali bin Abi Talib radiyallahu anhu, Sayyidina
Fatima Dhul-Zahra radiyallahu anha, Sayyidina Hussain and
Sayyidina Hassan radiyallahu anhuwa, and Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
He is, this king is the one who
invented this practice.
This practice did not exist on the face
of the earth until it was invented by
this person.
So the point is now, therefore if you
are doing any of this stuff, who are
you following?
Are you following Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam?
Are you following the Khulafa Rashidin Mahdiin?
Are you following the Sahaba Ridwanullah Ali Ibn
Jumein?
Or are you following this Fatimid king?
So decide for yourself, go read the history
and make sure that you are following the
one who, following whom Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la ordered to follow, whom Allah
ordered you to do and following whom will
lead to Jannah.
And that is only one.
Who is that one?
Muhammad Mustafa Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la said, laqad kana lakum
fee rasoolillahi uswatun hasana.
fee rasoolillahi uswatun hasana.
Allah did not say somebody else other than
the Rasul.
laqad kana lakum fee rasoolillahi uswatun hasana.
liman kana yarjullaha wal yawal akhira wal zakarallaha
kathira.
For the one who looks forward to the
meeting with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la and who looks forward to the day
of judgment and who makes a lot of
dhikr of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentioned
this very, very, very clearly for anyone who
is interested in getting hidayah, anyone who's interested
in being guided.
Then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
said to those who follow the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam out of his love for him.
Allah said, qulin kuntum tuhibboon Allaha fattabi'ooni
yubibkoon Allah wa yaffir lakum zunubakum wallahu wafuroor
raheem.
Allah said, say O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
to these people who claim to love Allah,
make my ittiba, follow me, imitate me, emulate
me and Allah will love you and Allah
will forgive all your sins and Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is the most
forgiving and the most merciful.
The guarantee of having our sins forgiven, the
guarantee of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la loving us, the guarantee of success in
this dunya wal akhira is to follow Muhammad
Mustafa Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Allah is my
witness when I say this, ya Allah you
are listening, ya Allah you are making me
say it, ya Allah make this true.
Not following anybody else, nobody.
Nobody.
And least of all, somebody who was neither
a Khalifa Rashid nor was he a Sahabi
nor was he anything.
Now, he might say well okay, so got
this and therefore I would say, ask a
simple question and we are talking now about
this Miladun Nabi business but ask this question
about anything at all.
Did Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam do it?
Did the Khalifa Rashid do it?
Did the Sahabi do it?
And if your answer is that none of
them did it, then don't do it.
Do not do it, do not participate in
it.
If there is any gathering which is happening
with that Anwan, with that title, with that
purpose, do not participate in that gathering.
As I mentioned to you right at the
beginning, celebrating the birth, meaning if there is
a gathering which is not specific to a
particular day, which is not talking about it,
this is a gathering of Miladun Nabi, this
is a gathering of Mawlid and Mawlud, this
is a gathering of Eid-e-Miladun Nabi
if none of these titles is there.
If there is just a gathering to talk
about Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, to talk about
his Seerah, Alayhi Salatu Wasallam, with the intention
of pleasing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, with
the intention of trying to follow the Seerah
in our lives, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Mubarak, Mubarak,
Mubarak.
Please go and participate in that gathering, support
it and hold more and more such gatherings
in your own places, no problem.
But if the same thing is happening or
something similar is happening with the title of
any of this stuff, celebrating the birthday, so
on, so on, stay away because this is
not from the Sunnah and this therefore is
a big problem.
Now, we come to the next part, which
is, what is the problem?
The problem is that this becomes a bid
'ah.
What is a bid'ah?
This is very important to understand this.
A bid'ah, the basic word, bada bid
'ah means an innovation, something new, right?
The famous hadith of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
which he mentioned, where he said, bada Islama
ghariban, bada Islama ghariban.
Islam started as something strange.
Islam started as something strange.
Bada Islama ghariban, sayyaudhu kava bada.
And it will turn and it will return
to being the way it was when it
started.
Fatuba alil quraba, and he said, give the
glad tidings of Jannah to the people who
will be called the strangers.
So, bada, strangers, strange, new, right?
Ghariban, ghariban is strange, not bada.
Bada is, ghariban is strange, in Urdu we
say ajib o gharib, that's from Arabic.
And bada, it means the beginning, something new.
So, bid'ah is something which is new.
Now, we have the famous hadith of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam which we hear practically in
every jubaa, in every masjid on the face
of the earth, where we say Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, he mentioned, inna ahsara al hadithi,
inna azdaqul hadithi kitabullah, verily the most truthful
statement is the kitabullah, is the book of
Allah.
wa ahsara al hadithi Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
and the best of guidance is the guidance
of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
wa sharrul umuri muhdathatuha, wa kulla muhdathatin bid
'a, wa kulla bid'atin dalala, wa kulla
dalalatin finnar.
The last part, wa kulla dalalatin finnar, is
in one of the narrations, and in the
other one it is not there, but, wa
kulla bid'atin dalala, is there in both.
Now, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, therefore, as
I mentioned, the best of guidance is the
kitab, the best of, the most truthful of
speech is the kitab of Allah, is the
speech of Allah, is the book of Allah,
the best of guidance is the guidance of
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And he says, wa sharrul umuri muhdathatuha, he
says, of all matters, the worst are innovations,
and everything new is an innovation, kullu bid
'atin, kullu muhdathatin bid'a, everything new is
an innovation, and every innovation is a deviation,
kullu bid'atin dalala, wa kullu dalalatin finnar,
and every deviation leads to the hellfire.
Now, it is very, very important to remember
that Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not say
that there are exceptions to this, he said,
kullu bid'atin dalala.
Now, I know there are differences of opinion
from different scholars, somebody says it applies to
this and applies to that and so on,
but I am explaining to you that first
and foremost, the dominant opinion is that when
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says something, it means
the way he said it.
To give it another interpretation, which in some
cases, like in this one, seems to be
the opposite.
Those who are doing it, they have whatever
reason they have to do it, but safety
lies in staying within the boundaries and the
boundaries is, just take his word literally as
he said it and if he said kullu
bid'atin dalala, that's what it means.
All innovation is misguidance and kullu dalalatin finnar,
all misguidance is in the fire, number one.
Number two, some people ask this question, well,
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not use a
cell phone and he didn't sit or drive
in a car or a plane, so is
that a bid'at?
Now, this is again, the problem is that
most of us don't take trouble to learn
the deen systematically, so we don't know the
definitions of meanings of things and meanings.
Now, obviously, the language is one, whichever language,
and the language has, no matter how many
words it has, it doesn't have enough words
to describe every nuance.
So, for example, the meaning of the word
salah is dua, right?
As we said in the ayat itself, inna
allaha wa malaikatahu yusallum al nabi, Allah and
his malaika send salah on the Nabi, and
Allah is saying, sallu alaih, yaayu allatina amanu
sallu alaih, O people, O believers, send your
salah on the Nabi.
So, what does it mean?
It means dua, make dua for the Nabi,
send salah for the Nabi, ask Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, ask Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to bless the Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
The word is the same word, salah.
You are saying, salatul janazah, you're praying janazah
salah, so salah is, means you're making dua
of maghfirah, you're making dua to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to forgive the person who
passed away, salatul janazah.
So, then if somebody says, well, then why
must I pray salatul fajr, salatul zuhr, salatul
asr, salatul maghrib, salatul isha, if I just
make dua, this is sufficient because salatul janazah
is dua, sending salat and salam on Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is dua, the same
word salah, therefore I will use this as
my understanding, you will say, sorry, you are
wrong.
That is not the meaning, every word has
a linguistic meaning and it has a technical
meaning, right?
It has a technical meaning and the reason
why this is because the words, we don't
have different words, so it's the same word,
which has a linguistic meaning, which is dua,
which has a technical meaning, where Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala said, inna salata kaanat alal
mu'mineena kitaban mawquta, Allah did not say that
making dua has been prescribed on the people
at specific times, Allah said salah has been,
now what is this salah?
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam taught us
what salah is and he said, sallu kama
ra'aytuni usalli, pray as you have seen
me pray, he didn't say make dua as
you saw me making dua, he said, he
showed people what to do, this is salah,
you stand facing the Qibla, you stand in
a state of tahara, you stand in a
place which is clean, you're wearing proper clothes,
you raise your hands to your ears, as
takbir tahareeba, to begin the salah and then
you do this and this and this and
you make ruku and you make sujood and
you recite this and you recite that, you
recite this before that and so on and
so forth and you make salah when your
salah is over, this entire process is called
salah also.
So, so what must you do?
Simply say, well you know what, salah means
this, therefore I will do it, meaning I
will just make dua, alas, forget the masjid,
I don't need masjid, I don't need jamaa,
I don't need imam, I don't need anything,
I just make dua and alhamdulillah, you people
are praying five times a day, I will
pray 25 times a day.
Does it make sense?
It makes no sense because you are using
the word out of context.
So similarly, in this case, when we are
saying, bidaa, the word itself means innovation, it
means something new, but it doesn't mean something
new by itself.
The technical meaning of bidaa is something new
in the practice of the religion.
It doesn't mean wearing different kinds of clothes
or it doesn't mean driving in a car
and not driving in a car or riding
a horse or riding a camel or not
riding a camel, it has nothing, because riding
a horse or riding in a car has
nothing to do with religion.
It is a worldly matter, which alhamdulillah, we
are free to do whatever we like, as
long as it doesn't conflict with any religious
injunction.
But as far as the religion is concerned,
every matter which is part of faith and
especially part of ibadah, part of worship.
So if somebody is giving a khutbah for
Eid, Eid-e-Milad-ul-Nabi, right?
And praying two rakat of salah as salah
of the Eid-e-Milad-ul-Nabi, then
this person must show evidence for that from
the Quran and the Sunnah.
If he does not do that, then this
action becomes an action of bidaa because this
person is inventing an act of worship, which
was not done by Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
or the Khulafa or the Sahaba or anybody.
A new action has been invented, which was
not done by any of them.
If they have the evidence that Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam did it, please show it.
We have the Hadith, famous Hadith in Sunan
Nasai and Sunan Abi Dawood, narrated by Malik
R.A, who said that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, when Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came to
Madinah, they said, Ya Rasulullah, these people have
two days of Eid, two days of celebration.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Allah has given
you two better days of celebration.
Two, not three.
Two better days of celebration, he said, Eid
-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha, in which
you pray to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la and Eid-ul-Adha, you sacrifice
in the name of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la.
He did not say, we have three Eids,
Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha and my
birthday.
He didn't say that.
He said, you have two Eids, Eid-ul
-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha, and this is
the nature of people.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, in another Hadith, he
said that people have days of celebration, our
days of celebration are two, not three, not
four, two Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul
-Adha.
So Alhamdulillah, we have this.
Now if somebody wants to innovate something new,
then this becomes Eid-ul-Adha.
Now, the biggest problem with Eid-ul-Adha,
the biggest problem with innovation is, first of
all, as I mentioned to you, Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam said specifically, all Eid-ul-Adha
is misguidance and all misguidance is in the
fire.
So fear Allah and fear the fire.
Please do not enter into Eid-ul-Adha,
do not start them, do not participate in
them.
Number two, or the reason why bid'ah
is such a big deal, is because Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentioned very
clearly, the famous ayat in Surah Al-Ma
'idah, which was revealed when Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam was in Mina during his Hajj, and
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la said,
Al-yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum wa atmamtu alaykum
ni'mati wa radi'tu lakum wal-islam ad-deena.
Allah said, today Allah has completed your religion.
Completed.
Allah has not left anything incomplete.
The religion does not need anything at all.
The religion is total and complete and final.
Akmaltu lakum deenakum.
Allah has completed for you your deen.
Wa atmamtu alaykum ni'mati.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
has completed for you his ni'ma, his blessing
on you, Ya Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Wa radi'tu lakum wal-islam ad-deena.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
is pleased with Islam as a deen for
you.
Islam as a way of life for you.
Right?
So this ayah came completely unequivocal, complete.
There's absolutely no room for doubt.
There's no room for any speculation.
There is no question.
Islam is complete.
There is no room for doubt about this.
This is the Quran.
The one who believes in it is a
Muslim.
The one who denies it is not a
Muslim.
Simple as that.
Then Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam on the same
day, in the same place, we have the
famous narrations of his Hajj.
Among the things he said was, he said
to the people, have I completed my job?
Have I conveyed everything to you without leaving
anything out?
And they said, we are, yes, ya Rasulullah,
you've done that.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam raised his index finger
of his right hand to the sky.
He looked to the sky and he said,
oh Allah, you are witness.
You are witness.
You are witness.
So Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam completed his job,
completed his responsibility and he conveyed the religion
completely, fully, totally, without leaving anything out.
And we are witness to that.
This is part of our Aqidah.
Anybody who believes that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
left something out, has himself or herself left
the religion because they are making a bohtan,
they are making slander on the Nabi Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
Therefore, they cannot be in Islam.
They are out of Islam.
Anyone who's starting a bid'ah, anyone who
starts anything new in the religion is saying
both these things.
He's saying that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la did not speak the truth when
he said that the religion is complete and
that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not speak
the truth when he said he has conveyed
everything.
There was a piece left and that piece
I am completing today by starting this new
practice.
Whether it is giving a khutbah for Eid
-e-Milad-ul-Nabi and praying to rakat
of salah or whatever the nature of the
bid'ah, this bid'ah which is an
innovation, which is an introduction, which is a
new thing in the practice of the religion,
starting especially with the ibadah, starting especially with
the formal acts of worship but can extend
to anything which is part of religion.
It's not wearing a sherwani or wearing a
turban or wearing this kind of shoe or
driving in a car or a plane or
whatnot.
Sorry for repeating myself but this is a
question which goes again and again.
So please don't ask these questions.
I hope I'm making it clear.
Anyone who introduces anything into the religion of
any nature, this person has introduced something into
the religion and by his or her action
and by his or her speech, they are
claiming that Allah did not speak the truth
and the Nabi alaihi salam did not speak
the truth, na'udhu billah, and that they
are now completing the religion and until this
time, this religion was not complete.
Anyone who's saying that, obviously they have denied
the Quran and they have denied the speech
of Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and you
know the meaning of that.
So my brothers and sisters, please, whether it
is, I'm saying all of this in the
context of Mauludh and Milad and whatnot, but
any action in the deen, please judge it
on this very simple format.
Don't worry about difference of opinion and this
scholar said that and that scholar said that.
We don't follow any scholar, we follow the
Nabi alaihi salam and we follow all the
scholars who followed the Nabi alaihi salam period.
Ask yourself a very simple question.
Did Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam do it?
Do you have conclusive evidence to show that?
Did the Khulafa Rashidin do it?
Did the Sahaba do it?
And if the answer is that the Rasul
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did not do it
and neither did the Khulafa or the Sahabi,
please don't do it.
Stay safe.
Stay safe.
Don't play games with the deen of Allah
because it's a matter of you are my
akhira which is forever and ever and anyone
who is encouraging you to go against this
rule will not be standing with you when
we face Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
when we face the Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam and when Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said very clearly, he said on my house,
I will be there at my house and
I will see my followers coming to me
and I will recognize them by the shining
of their faces and their hands and their
feet because of wudu.
So he's talking about practicing Muslims and he
said, but the angels will come in between
and they will drive them away.
They will drive them away and I will
protest.
I will say, don't drive them away.
They are my followers.
They will say, Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
they are not your followers.
You don't know what they did after you
left them and this refers specifically to bidat.
These are the people who introduced things into
the religion when you had gone and the
Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that I
will turn my face away.
We don't want to be among those who
will be driven to the Jahannam after living
a life, practicing Islam, thinking we are practicing
Islam because we introduced bidat, we introduced things
into the deed which didn't belong there.
We ask Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to
save us from all bidat.
We ask Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to
keep us safe.
As I mentioned to you, don't worry about
this, the differences of opinion of the scholars.
No problem.
Let them have differences of opinion.
You're not a scholar.
I'm definitely not a scholar.
Let this go on record.
But I am somebody who plays safe.
I do what the Nabi alaihi sallam did.
Nobody, Allah is not going to question me
why I did not follow Imam Ghazali or
Imam this or Imam that.
Allah will question me why I did not
follow Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And I make sure that I follow Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And this is what I'm asking you to
do.
Nothing more.
I'm asking you to follow Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam and nobody who said anything different
from that.
As simple as that.