In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. Prayers and salutations be upon the Master of the Messengers ﷺ, and upon his family and Companions. There is no power nor strength except through Allah, the Mighty, the Wise.
It is truly fitting for the rational person to rejoice in the day of his ﷺ birth [mawlid], and to feel joy and delight on that day upon which light, guidance, and knowledge flowed forth to the entire world; for on that day was born the Messenger of mercy ﷺ to all creation, the Prophet of guidance ﷺ and light for all mankind, and the leader of the Prophets and Messengers. How magnificent and noble a day it is; how blessed and joyous an occasion.
Gathering to recite the account of his ﷺ blessed birth is, in reality, a gathering upon many forms of mercy, blessing, goodness, and righteousness. This is because the Noble Mawlid narrative includes:
- The recitation of verses from the Noble Qurʾān.
- Mention of Allah’s honouring of His Messenger ﷺ and His special care for him.
- An account of how Allah took charge of him and preserved him ﷺ.
- Mention of the beautiful outward and inward qualities of our Master Muḥammad ﷺ.
- Invocations of blessings and peace upon the Prophet ﷺ.
- Prophetic poems and panegyrics beloved to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
- Supplications and humble entreaties to Allah, Exalted is He.
Each of these elements is, in itself, legally sanctioned and sought after (in the Sharīʿa), a beloved act of devotion by which one draws near to Allah. The Sacred Law encourages such acts and inspires longing for their reward and virtue. Upon this proceeded the practice of the practising scholars and the righteous, Allah-fearing servants.
Ḥāfiẓ al-Sakhāwī said:
The people of Islam, in all regions and major cities, have continued to celebrate during the month of his ﷺ birth by preparing splendid banquets comprising lofty and joyful acts. They give various forms of charity during its nights, manifest happiness, increase in acts of righteousness, devote attention to reciting his noble Mawlid, and the blessings of that occasion become manifest upon them in every form of abundant grace.
This is cited from ‘al-Sīra Nabawiyya’ of Imām Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Shāmī.
He also said—that is, al-Shāmī, the author of the ‘Sīra’—that Imām Abū al-Khayr Ibn al-Jazarī (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
Among its special qualities[1] is that it is a source of safety during that year and an immediate glad tiding of attaining one’s desire and objective.
Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr (Allah have mercy upon him) said in his ‘Tārīkh’:
King al-Muẓaffar Abū Saʿīd would hold the Noble Mawlid in Rabīʿ al-Awwal and would celebrate it with an immense celebration. He was noble-spirited, brave, heroic, intelligent, and just—Allah have mercy upon him. Shaykh Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Ibn Diḥya (Allah have mercy upon him) composed a book for him on the Mawlid entitled ‘al-Tanwīr fī Mawlid al-Bashīr al-Nadhīr’, for which the King awarded him one thousand dinars.
Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī (Allah have mercy upon him) related in ‘Mirʾāt al-Zamān’ from one who attended al-Muẓaffar’s banquet at one of the Mawlid celebrations, after enumerating a very extensive range of meats and varieties of sweets, that:
He would spend 300,000 dinars on the Mawlid.
Imām Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Shāmī transmitted in his ‘Sīra’ from Shaykh Abū ʿAbd-Allāh b. Abī Muḥammad al-Nuʿmān, who said: I heard Shaykh Abū Mūsā al-Zarhūnī say:
I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream, and I mentioned to him what is said concerning the preparation of banquets for the Mawlid. He ﷺ said to him: “Whoever rejoices in us, we rejoice in him.”
The authoritative shaykh of the Qurʾānic reciters, Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Khayr Ibn al-Jazarī (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
Abū Lahab was seen in a dream after his death, and it was said to him: “What is your state?” He replied: “I am in the Fire, except that the punishment is lightened for me every Monday night, and I suck water from between these two fingers of mine to this extent”—and he indicated the tips of his fingers—“because I freed Thuwayba when she gave me the glad tidings of the birth of Muḥammad ﷺ and because she suckled him.”
If Abū Lahab, the unbeliever concerning whom Qurʾānic condemnation was revealed, is recompensed in the Fire because of his joy on the night of the birth of Muḥammad ﷺ—that is, because of the Mawlid—then what of the Muslims from the Umma of Muḥammad ﷺ who rejoices at his birth and expends whatever he is able out of love for him? By my life, his recompense from the Generous Lord can only be that He admits him, by His grace, into the Gardens of Bliss.
The account of Abū Lahab freeing Thuwayba and what followed from it was narrated by al-Bukhārī, al-Ismāʿīlī, and ʿAbd al-Razzāq.
In ‘Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī’, ʿUrwa said:
Thuwayba was the freed bondwoman of Abū Lahab. Abū Lahab had freed her, and she suckled the Prophet ﷺ. When Abū Lahab died, one of his family members saw him in the worst condition and said to him: “What have you encountered?” Abū Lahab replied: “I have not found after you”—and in the narration of al-Ismāʿīlī: “I have not found after you”—“any comfort.”
In the narration of ʿAbd al-Razzāq > Maʿmar > al-Zuhrī: “I have not found after you any rest, except that I was given drink through this”—and he pointed to the depression beneath his thumb, as found in ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s narration; and in the narration of al-Ismāʿīlī, he pointed to the hollow between the thumb and the adjacent finger—“because of my freeing Thuwayba,” meaning: I was given drink because I had freed Thuwayba.
Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said in ‘Fatḥ al-Bārī’:
Al-Suhaylī mentioned that al-ʿAbbās (Allah be pleased with him) said: “When Abū Lahab died, I saw him in a dream after a year, in the worst condition. Abū Lahab said: ‘I have found no rest after you, except that the punishment is lightened for me every Monday.’”
He—meaning al-ʿAbbās—said: “That is because the Prophet ﷺ was born on a Monday, and Thuwayba had given Abū Lahab the glad tidings of his ﷺ birth, so he freed her.”