Suhaib Webb – Mawlid & A Functional Ummah

			To mawlid or not to mawlid, that is
		

			the question people ask every year, subhanAllah, and
		

			every year it seems like we recycle the
		

			same debates and fights online.
		

			First and foremost, this is an issue of
		

			tremendous difference amongst the jurists, although the majority
		

			of jurists say that celebrating the mawlid is
		

			something commendable because it is a way of
		

			expressing love for the Prophet ﷺ, expression of,
		

			you know, respecting the sacred.
		

			Like whoever honors the sacred things, this is
		

			a sign of taqwa, although they all agree
		

			that it is not a sunnah, an explicit
		

			sunnah, established by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ
		

			or the sahaba.
		

			And Imam al-Shafi'i said the one
		

			that thinks that anything not done by the
		

			Prophet ﷺ or anything not done by his
		

			sahaba is misguidance, is off, is someone who
		

			doesn't really understand the contours of sharia.
		

			We have a great axiom that says, just
		

			because the Prophet ﷺ didn't do something and
		

			the sahaba didn't do something, it doesn't mean
		

			that that thing is, that that's a proof
		

			that they didn't do it.
		

			The second area is related to mustarahat, terminology,
		

			and we find people rightfully saying, well bid
		

			'ah in acts of worship is forbidden.
		

			Bid'ah in acts of worship is forbidden.
		

			Yes and no, because ibadah is defined by
		

			the majority of jurists of anything that's done
		

			in wajh al-qurba, of something that falls
		

			under needing a niyyah, needing intentionality, there's being
		

			pillars, conditions, shurut like wudu, ghusl, you name
		

			it.
		

			Celebrations don't fall under ibadah, right?
		

			Celebrations don't fall under ibadah, and that's why
		

			the sahaba radiAllahu anhum, they continue to observe
		

			itriyya, a celebration that happened before the time
		

			of the Prophet ﷺ and continued well into
		

			the early Abbasid period as far as I
		

			know.
		

			And you find this mentioned in hadith and
		

			there's a difference of opinion about its permissibility
		

			amongst the jurists, the malikis, and the hanabila
		

			allowing it.
		

			So therefore the mawlid falls under celebration, not
		

			ibadah, so it doesn't really get under the
		

			purview of ibadah, although there may be acts
		

			within the mawlid that are innovations, that are
		

			ibadah that we should avoid.
		

			What should we be doing if we celebrate
		

			the mawlid?
		

			Reading the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, singing
		

			na'atar songs in celebration of the Prophet's
		

			life ﷺ, and drawing near to our understanding
		

			of his greater mission to heal a fractured
		

			world.
		

			Both schools have very strong positions.
		

			Both schools have their evidences to support either
		

			explicitly or implicitly why they do it or
		

			why they don't do it.
		

			We should avoid fighting over this issue, divisions
		

			over this issue, and focus on what we
		

			agree upon and forgive each other and where
		

			we differ.
		

			If we say to the disbelievers, you is
		

			your religion, to ours our religion.
		

			Should we say to scholars and great scholars
		

			and Muslims who follow great scholars and Muslims
		

			who follow scholars and other great scholars, some
		

			say yes, some say no,