Maulid Nabiyy:- A Do Or Do Not By Aishah Elusogbon

Around the world, most especially Nigeria, thousands of people are preparing for or already celebrating the birth of our noble Prophet Muhammad (Salallahu alayhi wa salam). Some cows have been bought, along with drinks and food. Everything is set.

It's Rasulullah's birthday.

Of course, it's a significant day; one that the world would never forget. On this day, several centuries ago, the Mercy upon Mankind was born. It was the day the world received what would be the best gift its Creator could ever give it.

Guidance in human form.

He was born on Monday, the 12th of Rabil-Awwal, 570 AD in the home of his uncle Abu Talib. His birth, like that of every other normal family, brought intense joy to his household. Having lost his father some months before he was born, his birth brought about a great relief from the tragedy.

Even Abu Lahab, his uncle, was so excited that he freed a slave of his, Thuwaybah. This one action he did is the reason why he is spared every Monday, as reported in the following narration:- When Abu Lahab died, one of his relatives [his brother al-’Abbas (ra)] saw him in a dream in a very bad state and asked him, “What have you encountered?” Abu Lahab said, “I have not found any rest since I left you, except that I have been given water to drink in this (the space between his thumb and other fingers) and that is because of my freeing Thuwaibah (ra) (out of joy as she informed him of the birth of the Prophet (saw))“’. [Bukhari]

So one can see how significant this day is. However, it should be noted that it was not reported that after this incident, the day of birth of our beloved Rasul was marked with celebration.

That's right, it wasn't.

Now, let's all be honest here before we go into facts as we most definitely will eventually. 

It's not only the level of piety that The Sahaba of Rasulullah used to be above us; their love for him surpasses ours as well!

They usually fought for the water with which he did wudhu. They prayed for him, they felt honoured by his presence, they referred to him with the words "May my mother and father be sacrificed for you." Can you imagine that? They loved him that much!

And yet. Just yet, they never ever celebrated the anniversary of his birth, not after his lifetime and certainly not during it.

Perhaps we should narrow it down from the whole Sahaba to his closest friends: The four rightly guided Caliphs. We are all aware of how much they loved him, and how much he loved them too, particularly Abu Bakr (Radiyallhu-Anhu) who was his friend, confidant, father-in-law and eventually successor.

None of these great men celebrated the prophet's birth.

This is where we move to facts, where The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The best people are those of my generation, and then those who will come after them (the next generation), and then those who will come after them (i.e. the next generation), and then after them, there will come people whose witness will precede their oaths, and whose oaths will precede their witness."

He said that the best of his people are those of his generation, the generation after his (the Sahaba) and the generation after that (those who met the Sahaba). 

None of these generations celebrated Rasulullah's birth.

Hadith No. 5 of An-Nawawi's collection, where Rasulullah straightforwardly forbade implementing new things into Islam, speaks to those who have gone as far as turning the celebration of the Prophet's birth into a religious ritual.

My dear brothers and sisters, we need to be very careful of what we practice as Muslims. Rasulullah never authorised this ceremony. And to be on the safe side, Neither should we.

So one might ask, what then should we do on this particularly momentous day. It's very simple. Rasulullah was said to have fasted on Mondays because it was on that day he was born. So, it should be safe use that day to send peace and blessings to him, to pray for him, and to do other rewarding acts of Ibādah, and Allah knows best.