A Doubt Regarding the Celebration of the Mawlid and the Response to It

Question:
Some of those who hold mawlid celebrations and celebrate the night of the Isra and Mi'raj say: "We intend dhikr (remembrance of Allah) and sending blessings upon the Messenger." They also say: "The scholars did not disapprove of celebrating the National Day or other things of this kind, so how can we object to the mawlid?"

Answer:
They are told: The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions were more eager than you, more desirous of good, and more deserving of every virtue. So if celebrating the Mawlid, or the Isra and Mi'raj, had been a prescribed matter and a means of drawing near to Allah , they would have been the quickest to it, the first to it, and the most deserving of it. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And he said: It is not for people to invent acts of worship based on their own opinions.
If they make this claim, it becomes possible for others to say as well: "We will invent a sixth prayer; we only intended good and dhikr. We will invent a sixth prayer, making the Duha prayer obligatory, calling people to it, to be prayed in four rak'ahs or two, as a congregation, as a sixth prayer, as an addition to good and virtue."
Or another might say: "We can also invent another act of worship, which is to perform Hajj twice a year; one Hajj is not enough, so we will perform Hajj twice a year. This is an addition of virtue, dhikr, and obedience to Allah, including tawaf (circumambulation) and the like." And another might say: "We will invent two adhan (calls to prayer) for every obligatory prayer; one adhan is not enough because it is dhikr and obedience to Allah, so the adhan will be called twice in every mosque, because this is an increase in dhikr. Or the iqamah (second call) will be made twice, or three times, or the adhan will be called four times, or ten times, because this is an increase in dhikr and obedience to Allah."
The meaning of this is that religion would be based on desires, and on playing with people's opinions, their innovations, and their misguided and stagnant ideas. This is something without limit, and this is what happened to the Jews and the Christians until they played with their religion and preferred what Allah had not prescribed for them.
As for what concerns the National Day, this is not from the acts of worship; rather, they invented it for other political matters. It is not from the category of worship, but it may be prohibited from the aspect that it is imitating the Jews and the Christians in the national days and the like that they invented, and their festivals. This is from the category of politics and from the category of imitating the polytheists in the national festivals they invented. It is not from the category of worship, but from the category of political matters that some people invented, imitating others and resembling the disbelievers who did it. Therefore, it is prohibited and must be prohibited because of the resemblance to the enemies of Allah.