It's the month of Rabbiul awwal again and people across Nigeria will be celebrating the Mawlid nabiyy (the birthday of the Prophet) - some will celebrate it till after Ramadan. Even FG declared a public holiday to mark it. In essence, they have turned this into a celebration of some sort. According to them, our Prophet is great, and his birth must be celebrated yearly.

To set the record straight, Our prophet when he was alive did not celebrate his day of birth nor was he celebrated by his Sahaba after his demise. So what's now our problem of doing what he and his companions did not do?

Below are some reasons why you should not join them in celebrating Mawlid nabiyy culled from Omar Faroouq's Islamic page.

1. "Milad" (birthday) is not in Islamic shariah, it was later introduced by the Shia Fatimd in Egypt.

2. Historians differed about the date of birth of Prophet Muhammod (s.a.w.s). Some said it's Ramadan, some in Shaban and some in Rabiul awwal.

3. Birthday celebrations have pagan roots, celebrating birthday is not allowed at all in Islam.

4. The celebration is neither from sunnah nor Qur'an. Anything that is not part of these two can not be part of islam.

5. Prophet s.a.w.s said, "stick to my sunnah and the sunnah of my rightly guided caliphs, beware of newly invented matters, for every new matter is a Bid'ah and every Bid'ah is misleading." (Trimidhi 2676).

6. Allah says in surah Al Maidah,ayah 3. "This day, I have perfected your religion for you." when Islam is perfect and complete, then who gave the authority to these people to introduce new concepts in Islam?

7. Celebrating 'Milaad' is the imitation of Christians and Jews. Jews celebrate the birthday of Uzair, while Christians celebrate the birthday of Isa (A.s).

8. Prophet Muhammod (s.a.w.s) said, " Whoever imitates a sect or people becomes one of them". (Abu Dawood).

9. Prophet Muhammod also said, "be different from Mushrikeen (the Unbelievers)." (Sahih muslim).

10. Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w.s) again said, "Do not exaggerate in praising me".
Wa Allahu Ahlam.

I Pray Allah increase our Eeman and guide us to the right path. Aameen

In addition, with respect to the above Hadith "The Prophet ( ﷺ ) said: "Whoever innovates into this affair of ours something that we have not commanded it is to be rejected"

The key concept here is innovation in acts of worship (bid'a — بدعة). One of the things that distinguish Islam from other religions is that we have the sources of Islam (the Qur'an and Sunnah) that tell us the best way to worship Allah.

We can't make up new ways to worship Allah. If we did, it would imply a few things that contradict some of the core beliefs of Islam:

1) That Islam is imperfect or incomplete. But the Qur'an says (part of Surat Al-Ma'idah [5:3]):

This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.

2) That we know better than the Prophet how to worship Allah or that the Prophet failed to teach Islam to us??

3) That the sahabah, tabi'een and tabi' tabi'een did not practice Islam as well as we do.
But the Prophet ( peace be upon him ) said: "The best generation is my generation, then those that follow them, then those that follow them."

Since all three propositions are clearly false, we must conclude that one should not make new ways to worship Allah.

Now that this is clear, let's take the example of the birthday of the Prophet.

Firstly, there is no evidence whatsoever that he celebrated his birthday. If it was good to celebrate his birthday, he would have done so himself.

Second, the generations after the Prophet did not celebrate it. If the Prophet muhammmad ( pbuh ) said that they are the best generation after his and they did not celebrate it, are we better than them?

Third, there's the practical issue: there is not consensus on the actual date — there is only scant evidence that it was actually on the 12th of Rabi' al Awwal — so we may actually be celebrating on the wrong day. We don't even have a range (like, say, laylatul qadr).

Anas ibn Maalik (ra) said: "The Prophet (saw) arrived in Madeenah while people were celebrating two particular festivals, so he asked: “What is (the significance of) these two days?” Some people replied: ‘They are days which we used to celebrate during the pre-Islamic era.’ So the Messenger replied: “Allaah has replaced them for you with two days which are better, the day of ‘Eed Al-Fitr and ‘Eed Al-Adh-haa”" [Abu Daawood].

This statement of Prophet Muhammad (saw) has made it clear that in Islam we only have two festivals, which are Eed Al-Fitr and Eed Al Adh-haa and there is no other festival apart from these two festivals for we Muslims to celebrate and NO MATTER what names we give to others festivals apart from Eed Al-Fitr and Eed Al Adhaa, it could be New Year of Gregorian calendar (1 January ) or New Year of Hijri calendar (1 Muharram ) or Christmas or maulud Nabi or Easter or Chinese New Year, etc all these festivals are forbidden for Muslims to celebrate.

Allah says ”If anyone contends with the Prophet (saw) even after guidance has been plainly conveyed to him and follows a path other than that of the believers, we shall leave him in the path he has chosen and land him in Hell, what an evil destination (Surah An-Nisa 115 ).

May Allah grant us the understanding of His religion

We the lover of prophet will continue to celebrate his birthday. PBUH