The ruling on celebrating the Prophet's birthday or other birthdays
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Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
O esteemed Shaykh! What is the ruling in Islam regarding holding birthday celebrations, whether for the birthdays of scholars or the birthday of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?
I say: And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings; but I warn you that there is no greeting from one who is already seated to ask a question; the greeting is for the one who arrives. As for if one is seated and greets, what is the reason?! The Companions would ask the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) questions, and one of them would not greet him.And the Messenger does not say to him: Why did you not greet? So the greeting is for the one who arrives, my brother.
As for your saying: What is the ruling in Islam? So I want you to correct this phrase as well,So do not direct a question to a person who errs and hits the mark, and you say: What is the ruling in Islam? Because if one makes a mistake, the mistake becomes attributed to Islam;But say: What do you see in such-and-such? Or what is the ruling in Islam in your view regarding such-and-such?So I say: I see that holding birthday celebrations as a form of honoring the person born is among the religious innovations that did not come from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), whether they relate to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) or to other scholars or worshippers.
And there is a very easy proof indicating that holding a celebration for the birthday of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is: that we ask: Are you, O holders of the celebration, more loving of the Messenger of Allah than the Companions of the Messenger of Allah?! If they say: Yes.
We said: You are lying! And if they say: No.
The Companions are more loving.
We asked first: Did you hold this out of love for the Messenger or not?! If they say: Out of love for the Messenger,We said: Why did not the one who is more loving of the Messenger than you hold it?! Are they unaware of this, or are they negligent, or are they ignorant?Answer: None of this was the case.
If they say: We hold it in remembrance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family),We said: Glory be to Allah! Are you correcting Islam?! If they say: Yes.
So the matter is serious and great,And the meaning of that is: that the saying of the Exalted: [Al-Ma'idah: 3] is not correct; because by this they have corrected Islam.
And if they say: We have not corrected Islam,We said: So in the remembrance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), what Islam has prescribed is sufficient.
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is mentioned in every act of worship, either by the language of the state or by the language of speech, so you mention the Messenger by the language of the state or by the language of speech.
The first: By the language of the state: every one who worships Allah worships Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with sincerity to Him and following of His Messenger,Therefore: I feel when I perform the act of worship that I am following the Messenger, is this a remembrance or not a remembrance?Answer: A commemoration.
The second: Or by the language of speech: we look at the ablution: when a person finishes his ablution, what does he say?Answer: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
And in the prayer: It is obligatory upon us to say: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
Where is this obligation?Answer: In the tashahhud.
And in the call to prayer: It is obligatory upon us to say: I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Therefore: What Allah and His Messenger have prescribed, in which there is a remembrance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), is better than what these people have innovated, and by this we know that celebrating the birthday of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, especially since this celebration is not free from evils;When it is said to us: It involves gathering and free mixing between men and women.
This is one thing, and it is a trial.
And it is also said: They bring poems that contain exaggeration and overstatement, and the best of their poems is the most exaggerated, for example, the Burdah poem by al-Busiri is the best of what they sing, and in it is explicit disbelief that is apparent,Al-Busiri says in this poem:
O most noble of creation, I have no one to take refuge in but You when the general calamity befalls
Meaning: If a general calamity occurs, such as an earthquake and lightning and the like, I have no one to take refuge in but You, what do you say about this verse?Answer: Shirk.
Who is taken refuge to when general calamities befall? The Lord (Mighty and Majestic),So the specific calamity, perhaps I take refuge in a person and I say to him: Come, so-and-so, save me from drowning, or pull out this one whose car overturned from under the car; but in general calamities, only Allah is hoped for.
Then he also said, among what he said in this poem:
For from Your generosity is the world and its harm..
..
.
What is the harm of the world? The Hereafter.
(min) indicates partiality,Meaning: that there is other generosity besides the world and the Hereafter.
For from Your generosity is the world and its harm, and from Your knowledge is the knowledge of the Tablet and the Pen
Also from his knowledges: The knowledge of the Tablet and the Pen, and there are other knowledges as well above what is in the Tablet and the Pen that the Messenger knows.
What do you say about this?Answer: Denial of the ownership of Allah, -Meaning: If the world and the Hereafter are from the generosity of the Messenger, what remains for Allah? Nothing remains.
So this is what happens in the birthday celebrations.
Therefore, it is obligatory for the students of knowledge to warn the people of their lands about these celebrations, and that in them there is only physical and financial exhaustion, and misguidance, for every religious innovation is misguidance.
As for celebrating the birthday of an ordinary person, this is not a religious celebration, but rather an ordinary celebration, and yet we see that it should not be done; because it may be taken as a means to the devotional celebration, which is the celebration of the birthday of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him),So he says: If I celebrate the birthday of my son, who he is in relation to the Messenger, then my celebration of the birthday of the Messenger is all the more so.
For this reason, we see that abstaining from celebrating birthdays is absolutely necessary, whether that is for worship or for other than worship.
O esteemed Shaykh! What is the ruling in Islam regarding holding birthday celebrations, whether for the birthdays of scholars or the birthday of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?
I say: And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings; but I warn you that there is no greeting from one who is already seated to ask a question; the greeting is for the one who arrives. As for if one is seated and greets, what is the reason?! The Companions would ask the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) questions, and one of them would not greet him.And the Messenger does not say to him: Why did you not greet? So the greeting is for the one who arrives, my brother.
As for your saying: What is the ruling in Islam? So I want you to correct this phrase as well,So do not direct a question to a person who errs and hits the mark, and you say: What is the ruling in Islam? Because if one makes a mistake, the mistake becomes attributed to Islam;But say: What do you see in such-and-such? Or what is the ruling in Islam in your view regarding such-and-such?So I say: I see that holding birthday celebrations as a form of honoring the person born is among the religious innovations that did not come from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), whether they relate to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) or to other scholars or worshippers.
And there is a very easy proof indicating that holding a celebration for the birthday of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is: that we ask: Are you, O holders of the celebration, more loving of the Messenger of Allah than the Companions of the Messenger of Allah?! If they say: Yes.
We said: You are lying! And if they say: No.
The Companions are more loving.
We asked first: Did you hold this out of love for the Messenger or not?! If they say: Out of love for the Messenger,We said: Why did not the one who is more loving of the Messenger than you hold it?! Are they unaware of this, or are they negligent, or are they ignorant?Answer: None of this was the case.
If they say: We hold it in remembrance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family),We said: Glory be to Allah! Are you correcting Islam?! If they say: Yes.
So the matter is serious and great,And the meaning of that is: that the saying of the Exalted:
This day I have perfected for you your religion
الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْAnd if they say: We have not corrected Islam,We said: So in the remembrance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), what Islam has prescribed is sufficient.
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is mentioned in every act of worship, either by the language of the state or by the language of speech, so you mention the Messenger by the language of the state or by the language of speech.
The first: By the language of the state: every one who worships Allah worships Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with sincerity to Him and following of His Messenger,Therefore: I feel when I perform the act of worship that I am following the Messenger, is this a remembrance or not a remembrance?Answer: A commemoration.
The second: Or by the language of speech: we look at the ablution: when a person finishes his ablution, what does he say?Answer: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
And in the prayer: It is obligatory upon us to say: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
Where is this obligation?Answer: In the tashahhud.
And in the call to prayer: It is obligatory upon us to say: I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Therefore: What Allah and His Messenger have prescribed, in which there is a remembrance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), is better than what these people have innovated, and by this we know that celebrating the birthday of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, especially since this celebration is not free from evils;When it is said to us: It involves gathering and free mixing between men and women.
This is one thing, and it is a trial.
And it is also said: They bring poems that contain exaggeration and overstatement, and the best of their poems is the most exaggerated, for example, the Burdah poem by al-Busiri is the best of what they sing, and in it is explicit disbelief that is apparent,Al-Busiri says in this poem:
O most noble of creation, I have no one to take refuge in but You when the general calamity befalls
Meaning: If a general calamity occurs, such as an earthquake and lightning and the like, I have no one to take refuge in but You, what do you say about this verse?Answer: Shirk.
Who is taken refuge to when general calamities befall? The Lord (Mighty and Majestic),So the specific calamity, perhaps I take refuge in a person and I say to him: Come, so-and-so, save me from drowning, or pull out this one whose car overturned from under the car; but in general calamities, only Allah is hoped for.
Then he also said, among what he said in this poem:
For from Your generosity is the world and its harm..
..
.
What is the harm of the world? The Hereafter.
(min) indicates partiality,Meaning: that there is other generosity besides the world and the Hereafter.
For from Your generosity is the world and its harm, and from Your knowledge is the knowledge of the Tablet and the Pen
Also from his knowledges: The knowledge of the Tablet and the Pen, and there are other knowledges as well above what is in the Tablet and the Pen that the Messenger knows.
What do you say about this?Answer: Denial of the ownership of Allah, -Meaning: If the world and the Hereafter are from the generosity of the Messenger, what remains for Allah? Nothing remains.
So this is what happens in the birthday celebrations.
Therefore, it is obligatory for the students of knowledge to warn the people of their lands about these celebrations, and that in them there is only physical and financial exhaustion, and misguidance, for every religious innovation is misguidance.
As for celebrating the birthday of an ordinary person, this is not a religious celebration, but rather an ordinary celebration, and yet we see that it should not be done; because it may be taken as a means to the devotional celebration, which is the celebration of the birthday of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him),So he says: If I celebrate the birthday of my son, who he is in relation to the Messenger, then my celebration of the birthday of the Messenger is all the more so.
For this reason, we see that abstaining from celebrating birthdays is absolutely necessary, whether that is for worship or for other than worship.