topic removed! note page 26 please check! (Page 29)

Quite a few sisters have recently asked me about the permissibility of
celebrating the Mawlid (birth of the prophet peace be upon him) thus I have
decided to write up some of the evidences presented by the ulemah (scholars) for
its permissibility. This e-mail has by no means been sent in order to create
argument amongst us; rather it is an attempt to help those who do recite the
Mawlid understand the legal rulings of it according to the scholars of Islam as
well help those who believe it to be a reprehensible act understand why it is
recited by so many people.

Ka'b bin Zuhair brother of Bujair bin Zuhair became so distressed about his
brothers conversion that be began to write offensive poetry about the prophet
'peace be upon him- his poems were so offensive that the sahabah swore that they
would seek him out and kill him. After years of being in hiding Ka'b bin Zuhair
sought out the prophet-peace be upon him- upon finding him he asked that if 
Ka'b bin Zuhair came to you asking for forgiveness would you forgive him, the
prophet 'peace be upon him- replied that he would. It is then that he revealed
to the prophet that he was indeed Ka'b and that he had come seeking his
forgiveness. A sahabi from the Ansar who was with the prophet at the time drew
his sword ready to kill him but upon the prophet's- peace be upon him- command
held back. Ka'b bin Zuhair then recited the famous lines:

Inna'r Rasula lasaifun yustadaau bihi
Muhannadun min Suyufillahi maslulu
Indeed the Messenger is a light, whence illumination is sought
An Indian blade (the finest of blades), a drawn sword of Allah's sword

The prophet 'peace be upon him- who was wearing a cloak at the time stood up and
removed it from himself and wrapped it around Ka'ab.
This incident is one of the earliest examples we have of poetry being recited
about the prophet-peace be upon him, it set into motion hundreds of years of
poetry being recited about his life, noble traits and characteristics.

This is not the only incident in which poetry was recited in front of the
prophet 'peace be upon him-

The sahabi (companion) Hassan bin Thabit recited so much poetry about the
messenger of Allah that he became known as the poet of the prophet 'peace be
upon him- his poetry can still be read today in his Diwan (compilation of
poetry). The prophet ' peace be upon him enjoyed listening to his poetry so much
that he asked the sahaba to build a pulpit in the mosque for Hassan bin Thabit
to recite poetry upon. From amongst his poems are the famous verses which are
often recited in Mawlids around the world;

Wa ahsanu minka lam tara qattu 'aini
Wa ajmalu minka lam talidin nisaau
Khuliqta mubarra-an min kulli 'aybin
Ka-annaka qad khuliqta kamaa tashaau

I have never seen anyone better than you
Nor did any woman give birth to anyone more beautiful than you
You have been created free from any faults
Just as you yourself wished to be created

And of course the famous song ' Tala' al Badru alayna' which the children of
Medina greeted the prophet with describing him as the full moon, praising and
thanking him for calling them to Allah.
All of this and much more was heard by the prophet 'peace be upon him-and he did
not restrain people nor reprimand them for praising him in such a manner.

In Sura Ahzab: verse 56 Allah says;
'Verily Allah and His angels send blessings upon the prophet; Oh you who believe
invoke blessings and peace upon him greatly'

This Qu'ranic verse clearly lays out a command to send peace and blessing upon
the prophet; in fact our five obligatory prayers are not valid unless
salutations are sent upon him (aslamu alaika ayuhan nabi- peace be upon you Oh
prophet...recited in the tashahud)

The prophet-peace be upon him- said in an authenticated Hadith:
'He who sends blessings on me once, Allah sends blessings upon him ten times'
Muslim, Abu Dawud, & Tirmidhi

In another hadith he ' peace be upon him- states:
Verily, your best day is Friday, so invoke blessings (salutations) upon me in
abundance on this day, for your invocation is shown to me.' They said (the
sahaba), 'O Messenger of Allah! How can our invocations be shown to you after
your bones have turned to dust? He replied 'Verily, Allah has forbidden the
earth from consuming the bodies of the Messengers.'

Al-Nawawi declared this to be a rigorously authenticated tradition (in his book
'Al-Adhkar' and elsewhere).

The Mawlid itself is a poem about the sira (life) of the prophet -peace be upon
him- beginning just before his birth and ending at his death. It includes
sending salutations upon him and is traditionally read on Thursday night (when
the jummah begins). The above hadith are all authenticated evidences that prove
that reciting poetry about the prophet 'peace be upon him-, sending salutations
upon him and doing so on Friday are all in fact sunnah. In cultures that were
traditionally oral (the vast majority of people not being able to read) the
Mawlid was an excellent way to learn about the prophet's blessed life -peace be
upon him- the ease of reciting and memorising poetry meant that the practice of
reading the Mawlid in gatherings spread quickly.

Some claim that the Mawlid encourages free mixing and dancing if any Mawlid was
to permit this then without doubt it has become an impermissible and
reprehensible gathering to be avoided.

Many argue that the Mawlid was not performed during the time of the
prophet-peace be upon him- and thus is a bida' (an innovation). This really is
the argument of simpletons; those that do not have knowledge of how our sharia
(law) is made up; for much of how we practice Islam today is not how the prophet
'peace be upon him- practiced it. From our large mosques with huge domes placed
on top, carpeted with thick carpets and rich decor, chandeliers and wall
hangings (far from the simple mud mosque of Medina that was carpeted by pebbles
and straw mats) to the Quran being played on i-pods and the internet... our
practice of Islam is without doubt filled with innovative acts (Bida).

The word bida (innovation) is one that unfortunately is not just overused within
our communities it is also misunderstood. The scholars agree that an innovation
is any affair introduced to religion that was not practiced by the prophet '
peace be upon him- himself, they go on to explain to us that there are two types
of innovation: A good innovation and a bad/evil innovation they categorise
innovations in such a way because many things have been introduced to how we
practice Islam today that actually enhance the way we practice this beautiful
religion. The scholars generally agree that any newly invented affair that is
in harmony with the principles of the Quran and Ahadith of the prophet ' peace
be upon him- is a good innovation.

After the death of the prophet ' peace be upon him- the Quran had not been
compiled into one book rather it was scatted in the houses of different sahaba
(mostly the scribes of the prophet) as many of the sahaba had memorised it in
its entirety there was no threat of it being altered or changed in any shape or
form. Abu Bakr the first Khalif decided (after much deliberation) to bring all
of what existed of the Qur'an together and compile it into one book, he did this
after the battle of Yamama in which approximately 700 sahaba who had memorised
the Qur'an were martyred .

The idea of gathering the Qur'an together was originally presented to Abu Bakr
by Umar ibn al-khattab, at first he refused to entertain the idea saying that
this was not something the prophet 'peace be upon him- had done (it was an
innovation) and thus something he could not sanction. But after the battle of
Yamama he was convinced by other sahaba that it was to the benefit of the ummah
(the greater community) to preserve the Qur'an whist they were still
alive...and thus the mushaf (the Quran in the form of a book) was brought
together.

Zaid bin Thabit one of the scribes of the prophet-peace be upon him was given
the duty of gathering it all together he later was noted to have said: '.By
Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered me to shift one of these mountains it would
not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me to do concerning the
collection of the Qur'an... So I started locating the Qur'anic material and
collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf stalks of date palms and from the
memories of men. (Narrated in sahih Bukhari).

May Allah reward them for taking us (later generations) into account.

Furthermore the original Arabic Qur'an was free from diacritical markings (the
Fat-ha, kasra, dhumma, sakun, shaddah etc) as well as from the dots we see above
and below some of the letters. The Arabs could read the original Qur'anic script
correctly because they spoke pure Arabic but as Islam began to spread into the
non Arab speaking world those reciting it began to make mistakes sometimes
changing the meaning of words altogether. Thus a methodology to help the non
Arab speaker recite the Quran free from mistakes was developed. The result of
this endeavour was the introduction of diacritical markings alongside dots that
were placed above and below various letters, the Quran could now be recited by
the Arab and non Arab free from error...another innovation that would clearly
benefit the religion on a whole.

Many years later the system of the Quran being placed into 30 portions (Juzz),
the rules of how to recite the Quran (Tajweed) as well as the printing press
which introduced printed Qur'ans as opposed to the traditional way of writing it
all out by hand in a state of wudu where all to change the way we read the
Qur'an today. Each generation of scholars that witnessed these changes all
agreed that although they were not practices of the prophet-peace be upon him-
they were indeed good innovations.

The word blessed innovation was in fact used by Umar ibn al-khattab the second
Khalif and great companion of the prophet-peace be upon him-Imam al-Bukhari
relates this in his Hadith collection:
'Abdur Rahman bin 'Abdul Qari said, "I went out in the company of 'Umar bin
Al-Khattab one night in Ramadan to the mosque and found the people praying in
different groups. A man praying alone or a man praying with a little group
behind him. So, 'Umar said, 'In my opinion It would be better to collect these
(people) under the leadership of one Reciter (i.e. let them pray in
congregation!)'. So, he made up his mind to congregate them behind Ubai bin
Ka'ab. Then on another night I went again in his company and the people were
praying behind their reciter. 'Umar remarked, 'What an excellent Bid'a
(innovation) this is'.

Other Good innovations include:

         Putting lights into the Mosque (First established in the Khalifite of
Umar ibn al-khattab)

         Giving out state pensions (First established in the Khalifite of Umar
ibn al-khattab)

         The development of the science of Hadith (A system that would
categorise the words, actions and silent approvals of the prophet ' peace be
upon him-into strong, sound, weak and fabricated traditions-developed
approximately 150 years after the death of the prophet- peace be upon him-)

         Bringing Toilets into houses (traditionally all filth 'najasa- was
kept outside the house)

         The Adhan being called for tahajud (the night vigil) prayer.

          The adding of 'prayer is better than sleep' in the Fajar Adhan (First
established during the Khalifite of Uthman)

         Building two story mosques

         Using Microphones in Mosques

         Placing the Qur'anic recitation onto tapes...later onto CD's and now
i-pods

Our computers, internet, T.V's, cars, mobile phones, soft couches, carpets,
refrigerators and microwaves are all innovative (bida) tools that are far from
the way of tradition. Unless one is willing to live -as many of my teachers
lived- free from all of the above truly living the life of the prophet 'peace be
upon him- one cannot claim to be free from innovation.

As one can see the word innovation is not altogether negative, it is misused in
a manner that causes many ordinary Muslims great distress making many feel
inadequate as well as over whelmed by a straight path that is slowly being
turned into an unreachable goal.

Imam Ibn Taimiyya mentions in his book 'iqtida as-sirat al-mustaqim' (Following
the straight path). 'Celebrating the Mawlid is done by some people and in it is
much reward because of the good intentions behind it as well as the holding in
esteem of the prophet 'peace be upon him'

Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyyah student of Ibn Taimiyya said regarding the Mawlid:
'Listening to a good voice celebrating the birthday of the Prophet- peace be
upon him- or celebrating any of the holy days in our history gives peace to the
heart, and gives the listener light from the Prophet 'peace be upon him- to his
heart, and he will drink more from the Muhammadan spring ('ayn al-Muhammadiyya).

The jurist Ibn Hajar al Haytimi says ' A good innovation (Bidda) is agreed upon
(by the scholars) as being a good action; the recitation of the Mawlid and
people gathering for it is one of these good innovations.

Imam Abu Shama (The sheikh of imam Nawawi) said: 'One of the best of innovations
of our time is that which is done each year on the day of the birth of the
prophet 'peace be upon him- giving out charity and extending good to the poor
and showing ones love for the prophet as well as holding him in esteem is a show
of gratitude to Allah for the blessing of sending him 'peace be upon him- as a
mercy to the worlds ('And We have sent you only as a mercy to the worlds'. Sura
al- anbiya: 107)

Many accuse those that recite the Mawlid of performing Shirk (associating
partners with Allah) -may we all be free from such a reprehensible act and may
we die upon the knowledge that there is no lord worthy of worship save Allah the
most high...Amin-

In a hadith the prophet-peace be upon him states:
'By Allah! I am not afraid that you will worship others along with Allah after
my death, but I am afraid that you will fight with one another for the worldly
things.'
Bukhari

As the word shirk is being called out from the pulpits of our mosques and
gatherings that which the prophet-peace be upon him- truly feared for his nation
is slowly but surely beginning to consume it, fast fancy cars, expensive clothes
and jewellery, tall gold plated minarets, buildings touching the clouds and 24
hour shopping malls; the love and attachment we have to worldly things is what
is destroying our nation but all this goes overlooked and unspoken of because of
our infatuation with shirk.

Any Muslim (including a child) knows that non has power or might save Allah the
Formidable, the all-Mighty including His prophets, His angels and all else in
existence. Those that recite the Mawlid do so in order to venerate the prophet
'peace be upon-and not to worship him, it is as Ibn Taymiyya suggests a show of
gratitude to an All giving and Merciful Lord for sending us not just a book but
the embodiment of this book in human form.

For those that have never been to a Mawlid its format is as follows:

         Recitation of Quran.

          Reading of the sira (life) of the prophet 'peace be upon him- in the
form of poetry.

         A reminder given by those who attend.

         Dua.

         All that is recited in the Mawlid from the Quran to the closing Dua are as
stated above sunnahs in of themselves.

Furthermore all over the Muslim world from Ghana, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Mali,
Gambia, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen, Bahrain, Somalia,
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, Turkey, Albania,
Chechnya, Oman, The Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Indonesia,
Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore...Muslims recite some form of the
Mawlid...without doubt those of us on this Barakah group list that were born
into Islam had parents who sang the Mawlid or some form and poetry about the
prophet-peace be upon him- our parents, grandparents and great grand-parents
were not ignorant of their religion and they were definitely not people of Shirk
(idol worshippers) rather they were those that followed the way of hundreds of
years of tradition.

The prophet peace be upon him said:
'Verily my Ummah will not agree upon error'
Tirmidhi

How can the majority of the Muslim world practice an act that is claimed to be
impermissible when the prophet-peace be upon him has already given us glad
tidings that this will never happen. Scholars have taught us that sticking to
the acts of the majority is a way in which one keeps his religion safe, the
majority here does not mean the majority in your local community rather it means
sticking to practices of the majority of the Muslim world.

Islam is vast and not constricted. This vastness is demonstrated in how the
prophet recited the Quran in different intonations; in how he spoke to the
desert Bedouin compared to those that lived in the city; in how the people of
Medina prayed with their hands by their sides based on the practice of the
prophet whilst others prayed with them on their chest also based upon his
practice.

All that i have written here is not to provoke argument within a community that
thrives on genuine brotherly (sisterly) love rather it is to demonstrate the
Mercy of our most Merciful Lord... for this way of life does not force upon us
one view, rather it gives us the choice to recite Quran in Warsh or Hafs, to
wear the Sharwar Qamis or the Jalbab and to recite poetry about our blessed
prophet-peace be upon him- or to refrain.

May Allah have mercy upon our community and increase us all in knowledge, love
and tolerance of one another.

And Allah knows best

http://marifah.net/articles/qiyamalasmari.pdf
brief expalnation of the Qiyam, standing at the mention of the Prophet saw)

QUESTION:

What do the Sufis intend when they stand at the mention of the Prophet's birth s during the night

of the Mawlid?

ANSWER:

They do it to honour him s.

The noble Sufis only stand at the specific moment when his mother Amina's delivering of him

is mentioned, and that is because all the goodness which followed his coming s was dependent on his birth; therefore, to stand at that point makes up for not doing so at the mention of all other

events.

It is established that the Companions stood for him s, one example being the ^adth of our

master Abu Hurayra g, who said: "The Prophet s would talk with us, and if he stood, we also

stood and remained standing until we saw that he had entered the house of one of his wives."

From: F Bux <alfsalaam@gmail.com>
Date: January 15, 2013 6:44:58 PM GMT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [al_minara] Welcoming Rabi' al-Awwal
Reply-To: al_minara@yahoogroups.co.uk

Welcoming Rabi' al-Awwal

By Seeking the Pleasure of Allah and His Messenger

Sayyidi al-Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah preserve him) said:

The new moon of Rabi' al-Awwal has appeared, the month in which Allah brought forth His best and perfect slave, His Chosen One, His Beloved, The Most Noble of the First and the Last in the sight of the Lord of the Worlds. His uncle 'Abbas addressed him at the end of his life, on their return from Tabuk, his last expedition, with the following verse:

When you were born the earth and the horizons were illuminated by your light

We remain bathed in that glow and it continues to light the path as we travel it 

Every mawlid composed later is merely echoing what the Companions said to the Chosen One. They were the first people to celebrate the mawlid. 

Our Master 'Isa will descend to the earth and you will see how he will be ennobled by following Muhammad. Any of you that are with him at that time will see how he mentions the Master of Creation. His heart and the hearts of those present will be filled with veneration when they mention his name. He knows our Master Muhammad better than us, for a Prophet knows a Prophet. No member of this nation knows him in the way that the Spirit of Allah.

They said this openly: "All that we knew of the Messenger of Allah was his shadow."

This is how the Master of the Followers, Uways al-Qarani, addressed the greatest of the Companions, our Masters 'Umar and 'Ali, who knew the Beloved better than anyone. He said: "All that you knew of the Messenger of Allah was his shadow."
They said: "True, all that we knew of the Messenger of Allah was his shadow.

Direct your hearts to attain His pleasure and a portion of His gifts. In every day and night there are gifts, and in every month, and in this month in particular. You attain these gifts according to your connection to the one who taught us, the unique one. Take a portion of his vast, noble, priceless teachings, with sincere desire, to attain the reality of: 

It is more fitting that they please Allah and His Messenger if they are truly believers [Al Tawbah 9:62]

Strive in this noble month to please the Chosen One, seeking to please Allah. Please him with your intentions, your ambitions, your words and deeds. Allah is pleased with those that praise his Prophet, those that venerate His Prophet, those that support His Prophet. He is pleased with that which pleases the Prophet.

It is more fitting that they please Allah and His Messenger if they are truly believers

You have spent so much of your time and thoughts seeking to please yourself, your family, your relatives and your friends. This may have caused you to travel from one country to another.

Have you sought the pleasure of the Beloved? How much do you think about this? How much do you worry about this? How far have you travelled seeking his pleasure? How much hardship have you borne? How much have you sacrificed? There is nothing on the earth or in this life whose pleasure is more worthy of seeking than Muhammad.

It is more fitting that they please Allah and His Messenger if they are truly believers
According to your faith you strive to please Allah's Beloved. Seek his pleasure! When the Companions saw that he was pleased, when his face shone with happiness, they said: "It was more beloved to us than red camels." Nothing was harder for them to bear than seeing him angry, seeing the vein between his blessed eyes swell up.

Look for the true meaning of seeking his pleasure in this month. You won't find it on the satellite channels. Seek it from its source, connect to the light of his message. This will show you how to seek his pleasure, in which is the pleasure of the Most High. If you have in your heart an attribute which does not please him, then strive to rid your heart of it. He is not pleased with arrogance, so do not be content to show arrogance, even to inanimate objects, let alone animals or humans, for the Lord of all things dislikes you doing this.

Seek it by giving life to the sunnah in your house in Rabi' al-Awwal! If your family are heedless of Allah between Maghrib and 'Isha, joking or watching TV then bring to life the sunnah of venerating this time. Teach them at home at this time. If they are young teach them the Arabic letters so that they are connected to the Qur'an. If they are older, go over with them the Qur'an they have memorised.

If the sunnah of seeking forgiveness before Fajr is absent, bring it to life in Rabi' al-Awwal. Let there be at least one person seeking forgiveness before Fajr in the house, one person saying to the Oft-Forgiving "forgive me!" at the time which Allah loves for people to seek His forgiveness, at the time when delegations came to the door of the Bestower.

If no-one in the house prays in congregation then teach your wife, your sister, your daughter to only pray in congregation. Bring life to these sunnahs. Remove anything that displeases your Lord from your house, anything that displeases your Prophet, audio or visual. Let the house be filled in Rabi' with the remembrance of the Beloved, with the mention of his attributes, his life, his birth. You will be enlightened and so will your family.

Allah bless the people of good who are striving in the East and West, the people who are remembering and reciting the mawlid, for they are the keys to removing tribulation. People raising their voices with the remembrance of Allah and His Messenger in their houses, in the mosques and in the streets causes hardships to be relieved. So many Muslim groups have lost the way. They do not know how to rectify themselves or those around them. They do not seek it from the door that Allah has opened:

Allah will not change what is in a people until they change what is in themselves.
[Al Ra'ad 13:11]

Let us change what is in our selves. Let us make our children feel that Rabi' al-Awwal has entered, and that it is connected to the Beloved. Make them feel that their lives are founded upon loving him, venerating him and following him. This is the foundation of the whole religion. May Allah grant you strong ambition and high intentions! May the end of the month not come before some of the rays of the Beloved's light bring some relief to the suffering of the Muslims.

O Lord, bless us in this month. Bless us in our remembrance of You and Your Messenger. Make us amongst those who are mentioned in Your presence, and amongst those who are mentioned in his presence. Bless our hearts with noble intentions that raise us to the ranks of those beloved to You, so that we on the Day of Judgement we are with those that you mentioned:

The Day on which Allah will not humiliate the Prophet and those who believe with him.

Make us with him, and our families, our children, our friends, our neighbours, our students.

Their light will run before them and by their right hands, while they say: "O Lord, perfect our light for us, and forgive us, for You have power over all things."
[Al Tahrim, 66:8]

If anyone has anything in their heart that prevents them from seeking Your pleasure and Your Messenger's pleasure then remove it so that they prefer You and Your Messenger over everyone else. So that when we sleep tonight nothing is more beloved to us than You and Your Messenger. Increase us in love tomorrow and in the coming days until we meet You, O Most Generous!

Translated by Ustadh Amin Buxton and shared by Shaykh AbdulKarim Yahya (May Allah preserve and increase them and their teachers) Ameen.

Source: www.abdulkarimyahya.com