The most remarkable day of Islamic History, shall be celebrated?

Amina Islami Wardak

Rabi-ul-Awwal the third month of Islamic year is the most significant and vital month in the Islamic history in which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala blessed us with the birth of our beloved Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) which emancipated us from the darkness of ignorance and Polytheism (Shirk) and brought us to the light of guidance and the truth of Monotheism (Tawheed).

So now we come to the main point whether celebrating birthday of prophet (PBUH) is prescribed or not?
First of all if we do research on the history of this festival, we will come to know that it was started around 8th century, none of our Salafs (Abu Bakar, Umar, Uthman, Ali “May Allah Be Pleased with them”) celebrated this.

Secondly, Islam is a complete religion as Allah Subhanahu Wa Tala says in Holy Quran: “This day I have perfected your religion and completed my favor onto you, and have chosen for you Islam (as your religion)”.

Thirdly, it’s not mentioned in Holy Quran nor celebrated by Prophet (PBUH) as prophet (PBUH) ordered all Ummah to follow Holy Quran and then his Sunnah and warned us from innovation this in Hadith “ The best of speech is embodied in the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is (given by Prophet Muhammad PBUH). And the most evil affairs are innovations and every innovation is error” (Sahih Muslim, 1885). So celebration of this festival is clearly an innovation (bidah) in Islam, as people celebrate it as an act of worship in order to gain reward.
Fourthly, there are a lot of controversies and disagreements about the exact birth date of prophet (S.A.W)

• Contradictions About the year:
Historians believe that birth of Prophet (S.A.W) took place in the “year of elephant” i.e. 570, Ibn Abbas claims that prophet (S.A.W) was born on the “day of elephant” other claims that he was born a few days, months, years after “the year of elephant”.

• Contradictions about the month:
Historians also disagreed about the month of prophet (S.A.W) birth, although most of them agree that it was Rabi-ul-Awwal. There is claim that he was born in Muharram, Safar, Rajab and Ramadan.

• Contradictions about the day:
Historians also disagreed even about the day of the month in which prophet (S.A.W) was born. Some of them believe that he was born on 3rd of Rabi-ul- Awwal, other claims that it took place on 9th of Rabi-ul-Awwal, others says it was on 10th and the others suppose that that it took place on 17th but the majority agree that it was on 12th of Rabi-ul-Awwal.

Such contradictions prove that birthdays were not vital for Arabs although they were very well known about the memorization; they were even memorizing hundreds of couplets of poems.

So if the birthday of Prophet (S.A.W) was important they might know the exact date thus if it was very important then there would be many hadith narrated from prophet (S.A.W) showing the exact date.

All the Muslims believe that this was the most happy and blessed day for mankind but Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) never celebrated his birthday nor did he tell his companions to do so, thus none of his companions celebrated this day although its proved that none of us love Prophet (PBUH) more than they did.

People disobey teachings of Prophet (PBUH) during the whole year but on 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal they celebrate this day and they conjecture that they performed their duty.

Fifthly, we know it’s authenticated that there is no room for celebration of birthdays or anniversaries in Islamic teachings, if there was any importance for them then celebration of prophet (PBUH) were more and more important than any other person.

In Islam there are two festivals which are Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha which are not attributed to any particular person or a particular event.

Eid-ul-fitr is for completion of second pillar of Islam (fast) and Eid-ul-Adha is gratitude for completion of Hajj which are the real means of happiness for Muslim Ummah.

Sixthly, birthdays are not celebrated in Islam nor prescribed by any divine religion. Birth of sayyedina Isa (Jesus) was not mentioned in the Bible or any early Christian writings; it was recognized as a regular Feast in the fourth or fifth century.

Christmas actually started as a pagan festival because no one knows the exact day or month in which Christ was born, many of biblical scholars claim that Christmas has its origin from pagan and satanic.

And it’s mentioned in book “An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World” written by historian

Jack Finegan. He writes:
“… But the worship of the sun-god continued widely throughout the empire, and under Aurelian (A.D. 270-275) the cult was restored to its former high estate.

In the year 274 Aurelian declared the god – now called Deus Sol Invictus – the official deity of the Roman Empire; he built a splendid temple of the sun in Rome… and set the sun’s birthday celebration (naturalis solis invicti) ON DECEMBER 25, the date then accepted for the winter solstice ( also in his solar character the BIRTHDAY OF MITHRAS).

In the time of Constantine the cult of Deus Sol Invictus was still at its height, and the portrait of the sun-god was on the coins of Constantine…

Likewise it must have been in this time and with the intent of transform the significance of AN EXISTING SACRED DATE that the birthday of Jesus, which had been celebrated in the East on January 6… was placed in Rome On DECEMBER 25, THE DATE OF THE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF SOL INVICTUS.

This date appears in a list of dates probably compiled in A.D. 336 and published in the Roman city calendar, edited by Filocalus, for the year 354” (Finegan, p.211-212, emphasis mine).

So the exact date of prophet Isa is unknown and Jesus Christ was not practiced in first three centuries. Thus it was started under influence of the pagans who were worshiping sun-god and the early Christian scholars were against this.

And finally we can conclude that celebrating Eid-Milad-un-Nabi is not mentioned in any Quranic Versus or any Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) nor celebrated by any of his companions who were sacrificing themselves and their wealth for the Love of Allah and his prophet so it’s innovation ( bidah) to celebrate it the way people do it these days, although we can observe fast every Monday, try to learn and follow his teachings in every aspect of our life that can be called the real love for our beloved Prophet (PBUH).