Even while we practice the matters that Islam ordered as Sunnah or permissible certain social rules and norms will come to being.  As far as it will not contradict with Islam we may have to obey them.  For instance, in Islam marriage is Sunnah in general.  It may be on any day. Taking our convenience we predetermine a day. Likewise, the prophet-birth-celebration and Mawlid are being established basically, like anything else they may also be conducted conveniently in regular order as common. Marriage is going to be held on June 2010.  It is a Sunnah.  Therefore the marriage which is decided to conduct on 2010 June 6th is also a Sunnah.  Can we say this marriage is not Sunnah, saying that the prophet did not married or indented to marry or did not give silent permission to that day?

    We got freedom at the sunset of Thursday in August 14 that is at the midnight of 15th of the month in 1947. Then the attainment of freedom is said to be at midnight; we can say it was on Thursday or may be said to be on 15th or in August.  All these are true.  But we don’t celebrate independence at the midnight on the name of the attainment of freedom being at midnight.  So also all Thursdays or all 15s are not being celebrated. We do celebrate our independence day on August 15th, the memorable day included, being year the biggest arrangement of time and it being an impracticable or unwise to celebrate in all occasions.  In certain cases some changes might be made in the time and the day.  Meelad celebration is also not different from it.  Is there any evidence in the Holy Qur’an or in the Hadîth against the celebrating Meelad on Rabi al-Awwal 12, if confirmed the expression of happiness in the name of attainment of the blessing? 

To celebrate Holy days

    To celebrate the holy days is common among all kinds of people irrespective of their cast or religion.  Nations celebrate their independence days.  Parties observe their leaders days.  Govt. gives holy days for institutions and offices on the memory of multifaceted personalities; conducts nation wide processions; organizes cultural works.  But are these celebrations legitimate in the view of Islam? Have these things been encouraged in Islam?  

    Allah the Almighty says: “O! Mankind, there hath come unto you an exhortation from your lord, a balm for that which is the breasts, a guidance and a mercy for believers.  Say, in the bounty of Allah and in His mercy: therein let them rejoice” (Yunus).  Through this verse Allah instructs us to express happiness with His blessing.  If not blessing, what else the birth of the prophet and the great souls, the presentation of the Holy Qur’an etc, can be?  Can a Muslim say that the prophet of whom the Qur’an says: “we sent thee not save as a mercy for the people” is not blessing?  Likewise Allah gave us great scholars and saints in order to complete His all time mission. They are indeed the blessing got to the world.  Hence their birth days deserve special characteristics.  Therefore in the basis of the above verse, we are obliged to celebrate the holy days of the great souls including them.  If so, though celebration can be had at any time and to see each one with the inclusion of their fragrance and warm; to see differentiated from others, the actual time and day are to take into consideration.  Those who tent to think can understand it.  There are evidences for it in Islam. 

    Esa, son of Mariyam, said: O Allah, lord of us! Send down for us a table spread with food from heaven, that it may be a feast for us, for the first of us and for the last of us” (Ma’ida).  In regard of the prayer, when Allah granted a table spread, Esa (Peace of Allah be upon him) and his followers celebrated that.  That was Sunday.  Even today Sunday is a special day for Christians.  And so, we can see in the Holy Qur’an that Esa (Peace of Allah be upon him) interested to celebrate the holy day and that celebration can be understood from the history.   

A moment!

    Are the rules and directions of Esa (Peace of Allah be upon him) applicable to us?  This is an invalid question.  All rituals and observances that do not contradict with our peculiar rules and brought in by the earlier prophets are applicable to us, Qur’an says:  “Allah made them all into the right path.  So follow their path.”  It is because we followed their path the act of circumcision which the prophet Ibrahim (Peace of Allah be upon him) brought into force became applicable to us.  If so, not only the followers of Esa (Peace of Allah be upon him) celebrated the holy days but Allah directed also to, we can deduct this from the above verse from Yunus and others. 

    Again, we can go through the Hadîth.  Imam Bukhari (May Allah Mercy upon him) quotes from Umer bin Kathab (May Allah please with him) that a Jew asked Umer (May Allah please with him) “O! Ameer al Mu’mineen, in your scripture (Qur’an) a verse which you recite is presented to our society, we would celebrate that day.”  Umer (May Allah Please with him) asked which verse that was.  The Jew responded that was the verse beginning with “al yauma…” (ma’ida 3).  Umer (May Allah Please with him) said: indeed that day and the place are specially marked. The presentation of this verse was on Friday when the Prophet (Peace and Blessing of Allah be upon him) was at Arafa.  The Question of the Jew was: “why not you celebrate the completion of the Islam even if that was great blessing?” and he added: “if it were us, we would make it a day of celebration.”  Umer (May Allah Please with him) responded that the day was the day of Arafa and Friday. Both are indeed our days of celebrations. Imam bn Hajar Askalani (May Allah Mercy upon him) writes “as per this report Umer (May Allah Please with him) had stopped the indication” (Fathul Bari 1:214). 

    The day of Arafa and Friday is also the days for celebration. Then, the indication of Umer (May Allah Please with him) was that we are celebrating the day on which the verse was presented. This is very clear from the other reports of Hadith.  Imam bin Hajar Askalani writes: “In short, in some reports both days are seen as Sunnah. All praises are to Allah”. 

    Imam Nawawi (May Allah Mercy with him) writes: “Umer (May Allah please with him) indented with this remark that we made this day a celebration in two ways.  Because, each Arafa day and Jumua day (Friday) are celebrations for Muslims” (Sharahu Muslim 18:153).
See another report.  It is reported from ibn Abbas (May Allah please with him), “when I recited the verse “today I have your religion completed ……”. A Jew adjacent to me said as follows: “if the verse was presented to us we would turn this day a celebration.”  I said the presentation of this day itself includes in two ways in the day of celebration – Arafa Day and Friday, (Thurmuthi). To sum up, what Ibn Abbas said is that we celebrate the presentation of the above said verse weekly and annually- Arafa day as annual and Friday as weekly. Even a verse gets prominence to such celebration why not the birthday of prophet who taught the Qur’an completely to the world get eligibility to be celebrated?

    Holy days can be celebrated in many ways.  To recite Mawlid, to distribute alms-giving, to distribute sweets to children are ideals of the Companions of the prophet (PBH). Rejoicing the embracement of Umer (May Allah please with him), the prophet and his companions conducted a procession from the house of Arqam to the holy Ka’ba with Umer (May Allah please with him).  From the above description it is clear that there are many celebrations in Islam other than these two. At the same time, some try to mistake the commoners by misinterpreting one Hadîth that there are only two celebration in Islam namely Eid.

    The above Hadîth never indicates that Muslims are allowed to celebrate only two Eids and no other celebrations are allowed. But Allah has replaced the two days called ‘Nairooz’ and ‘Mahrajan’ with the two Eid days. These two days are not our holy days. (‘Nairooz’ and ‘Mahrajan’ was the days of celebration for the people of Madeena who lived in the Dark Age) This is the meaning the prophet implied here.  By this Hadîth we will never get the meaning that there are only two Eid celebrations for you. To have celebrations for Muslims other than these two, never contradict this Hadîth.  Anyone who has got a little knowledge in Arabic language can understand this meaning.  We saw that the day of Arafa and Friday are celebrations of Muslims in light of the Holy Qur’an and the Hadîth.