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First claim:  "The celebration of Al-Mawlid is a way of expressing joy, which is something beneficial. It would benefit anybody who celebrates it, as it even benefits Abu Lahab (a disbelieving uncle of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention )), due to the narration which states that a person saw Abu Lahab in his dream and asked him about his predicament. He (Abu Lahab) replied that his punishment in hell is reduced every Monday due to his rejoicing at the news of the birth of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) and also because he bought the freedom of the slave who brought him the good news."


Refutation:  This narrationhas an unconnected chain of narrators which renders it inauthentic; therefore, it cannot be used as evidence in an argument. Even if we were to assume, for the sake of argument, that it is not a weak narration, it is still rejected for many other reasons:

·        It was only a dream and dreams are never used as a basis to judge anything, let alone be used to establish a form of worship based on them.
·        This contradicts the Quran.Allaah Says (what means): {And we will approach [i.e., regard] what they [i.e., the disbelievers] have done of deeds and make them as dust dispersed.} [Quran 25: 23]. Therefore, nobody will get any reward for their deeds unless they intend to get closer to Allaah by doing so, and a disbeliever will never attempt to do anything to get closer to Allaah as he does not believe in Him in the first place.

·        History proves that this story was incorrect, and that Abu Lahab did not free any slave at that time. In fact, the slave in question was freed after the migration of the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) as mentioned in the books of Ibn 'Abdul Barr and Ibn Al-Jawzi, may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  them.

Second claim:  "The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) himself glorified his birthday, due to his reply when asked why he fasted on Mondays: "I was born on this day and started receiving the revelation on it." [Muslim]. Therefore, he glorified his birthday by fasting on it, and this is a form of celebration."

Refutation:  This doubt can be refuted from three different angles:

·        The Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) never regularly fasted on the twelfth of Rabee' Al-Awwal, which is the date that some claim is his birthday, rather, he fasted every Monday, and there are four Mondays in every month. Therefore, celebrating the twelfth of Rabee' Al-Awwal and designating certain acts of worship for it must be considered as an attempt to correct what is thought to be wrong or less than perfect on the part of the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ).
·        The Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) did not only fast on Mondays, but in addition, he would also fast on Thursdays, as he said: "The records of deeds are raised (to Allaah) every Monday and Thursday, therefore, I like to be fasting at this time.” [Tirmithi]. Moreover, the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) did not say that the reason for fasting on a Monday were due to his birth only, but also because of the fact that the records of everybody's deeds are raised to Allaah on these days. Therefore, celebrating Al-Mawlid with the excuse that the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) used to fast on a Monday is a misunderstanding and a gross exaggeration of the facts.
·        The Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) did not add any form of celebration to his fasting, as those who celebrate Al-Mawlid do. If people intend to express their gratitude to Allaah by observing Al-Mawlid and they justify it with the excuse that he used to fast on Mondays, then common sense dictates that they must completely imitate the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) in the way that he expressed gratitude to Allaah. Many people who celebrate Al-Mawlid do not fast regularly on Mondays and Thursdays as they deem it to be exhausting. On the contrary, they actually prepare and eat more food than usual as part of their celebration.

Third claim:  "Rejoicing at this event is something recommended and requested of all of us by Allaah in the verse were He says that which translates as: {Say: 'In the bounty of Allaah and in His mercy – in that let them rejoice, it is better than what they accumulate.'} [Quran 10:58]. Allaah commanded us to rejoice in His mercy, and the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) was the greatest of all His mercies, as Allaah says (what means): {And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds.} [Quran 21:107].

Refutation:  The mercy mentioned in the first verse means other than what the celebrators of Al-Mawlid claim. Commenting on this verse, Abu Sa'eed Al-Khudri  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him said: "'The Bounty' refers to the Quran and 'The Mercy' is if one is from the people who adhere to it.'" Hilaal Ibn Yasaaf  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said commenting on the verse: "'The Bounty' means Islam and 'The Mercy' means the Quran.'"

None of the Salaf interpreted this command of Allaah to mean rejoicing in the form of feasts and festivals. The mercy in the second verse is nothing other than the Quran and the Sunnah which the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) was sent with. Therefore, the true meaning of rejoicing due to Allaah sending us His Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) must be to follow him completely and adhere to all his commands verbally and practically.

There can be no doubt that attempting to use this verse as an evidence for the permissibility of celebrating Al-Mawlid is applying it in a way other than how the Salaf, or pious first three generations, of Muslims, applied it. Ash-Shaatibi  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said: "Any application from the later generations of a text which was not understood nor applied by our Salaf is unacceptable." Ibn 'Abdul Haadi,  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said: "It is prohibited to interpret a verse from the Quran or a Hadeeth in any way other than the way our Salaf interpreted, applied and clarified it to the Ummah, because this would imply that they were ignorant of the truth and strayed away from it while the latter generations were guided to it. It is even worse if the interpretation of the latter generations opposes and contradicts that of the Salaf."

Indeed the understanding and interpretation of the texts of those who celebrate Al-Mawlid is misguidance and an innovation in itself. Ash-Shaatibi  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him said: "It is commonplace that the innovators and people of misguidance manipulate the Quran and Sunnah and apply it in a way that suits their needs. Also, they propagate these false ideas to the common people in order to confuse them.”

Fourth claim:  Although we acknowledge that it is a Bid'ah to celebrate Al-Mawlid due to the fact that the different acts of worship performed during it were not collectively practiced at the time of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) we still hold that it is a good Bid'ah because these acts are mentioned in some general texts individually. So we accept that it is a Bid'ah in the sense that it is a new phenomenon, but not regarding all its details because these did exist individually at the time of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ).

Refutation:  The presence of the necessity of establishing a certain act of worship at the time of the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) plus the absence of any preventing factors, in addition to the fact that the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) did not do it, are all factors which determine that celebrating Al-Mawlid is a Bid'ah.
A Bid'ah can never be deemed as good, even if there are texts that generally recommend the innovative acts performed for other times and places. To illustrate this point, the remaining companions of the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) condemned and rejected Marwaan Ibn Al-Hakam  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him when he innovated of a new Adhaan, or call for prayer, for the 'Eed prayer. This was despite the fact that the Adhaan already existed for the five daily prayers and so was not something entirely new. Likewise, it would be an innovation if someone were to pray at a specific time of the day or the week, a certain number of optional prayers. This is because although praying is an act which is legislated and the Islamic texts recommend it, specifying a time and a set number of prayers with the intention of pleasing Allaah is an innovation if specific supportive evidences to prove the legitimacy of the specified time, day and number of prayers are not given.

Once an act is proven to be a Bid'ah, it can never be deemed of as good because the Prophet,  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) gave a comprehensive statement saying: "Every Bid'ah (innovation) is misguidance" [Ahmad, Tirmithi and others].

Shaykh Al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said: "If something is called a Bid'ah, yet was proven to be good according to evidences from the Sharee'ah, then it must be one of two things:

1) It is not a Bid'ah by the Islamic definition but rather linguistically (i.e. something abandoned and then newly revived) like the saying of 'Umar ibn Al-Khattaab  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him: "Good Bid'ah" when he observed that the people had gathered behind one Imaam to lead them in their Taraaweeh prayers in congregation during Ramadan".

2) It is a special case which is exempted from the general texts because it has a specific evidence, but the general text still applies to every other case other than the special one (i.e. nobody is permitted to use this special case as an excuse to oppose the general text and innovate new things due to it)." He  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him also said: "It is well known that any form of worship which was not established by either the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) or his companions, or shown by the trustworthy scholars to have a firm foundation, is rejected."

Ibn Rajab,  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said: "The description of some of the Salaf about some matters being 'good Bid'ahs' are always in the linguistic sense of the term and never the religious one, like for example, the saying of 'Umar ibn Al-Khattaab  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him: "Good Bid'ah" when he observed that the people had gathered behind one Imaam to lead them in their Taraaweeh prayers in congregation during Ramadan. Praying Taraaweeh in congregation was practiced by the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) and all that these people were doing was simply reviving an act which already existed, so the usage of the term here must have been purely linguistic."