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,