The Role Of Culture In Innovated Practices: Mawlid, Shab E Mi’rāj And Laylatul Bara’ah

Culture plays a huge role in the rise of and the practice of acts of bid’āh. Sometimes, it may so be that an act is influenced by the culture and the traditions of a particular place, which is influenced by the presence of another dominating religion, or other times its simply the passed on culture and tradition by the forefathers which has now became a religious practice. When we come to look at it, we find that so much of activities the lives of Muslims are actually influenced by the culture in which he or she is living in. Culture is not a bad thing in its entirety, as long as it doesn’t contradict in any way any part or ideology of the Sharī’āh, it’s absolutely okay to practice it. But when it starts interfering with the religion, with the Sharī’āh, that’s where a Muslim is supposed to draw the line. When the culture becomes like a religious practice or when it replaces a religious practice or when it calls for doing what is actually prohibited in Islām, that is when we are obligated to abandon that cultural practice and be safe from the bid’āh. We can take the example of marriage, we see that in the Indian sub-continent, the brides wear red coloured outfit on their weddings, which is actually a custom of the Hindus, but because of the cultural influence, we find that most Muslim brides in the sub-continent wear red and it also considered an auspicious colour for the bride. This has no religious basis whatsoever. Speaking of marriage, the influence of culture is so much that what is Sunnāh is neglected and other practices of other religions are accepted, like Mahr, which is a Sunnāh and a right of the bride, is given least importance and on the contrary, the groom side demands dowry from the bride. Hence, the dowry of the bride is replaced by the dowry of the groom. Also, in such celebrations, a number of rituals are practiced which have no roots in Islām, music is played, free mixing is carried out, which is actually prohibited.

All these practices because of the influence of other cultures. The prayer beads or the masbahah, is actually from the Christian culture, they use rosary and the Muslims adopted this practice. If we come down to listing all of the acts of innovations which are influenced by the culture, there would be one too many. Hence, it’s necessary for every Muslim to be able to distinguish between the culture and religion and must not let the culture overpower the religion ever.

1. Mawlid (Eid Milad Un Nabi) –

Mawlid is celebrated by a large number of Muslims worldwide especially in the Indian sub-continent. It is essentially the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ. No doubt that the Prophet ﷺ was sent as huge blessing and a mercy for the entire mankind, but some people think that it is essential that we celebrate the day of his arrival on earth. But it is more important to first check that whether the Sharī’āh that was brought by the same Prophet ﷺ gives the permission for such a celebration or not. Before going into the technically permissible or impermissible aspects, we first will do a fact check. The fact here is that the day on which these innovators carry out huge processions and celebrations considering it to be the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ, is actually not even proven to be the day he was born. All that is known to us about the day of his birth is that it was in the month of Rabi al Awwal and on a Monday, but the exact date is not known. The Prophet ﷺ told regarding fasting on a Monday;

So, we know that the day was a Monday, but we are not sure of the date of his birth. What we are sure of is the date of his ﷺ death, which was the 12th of Rabi al Awwal according to the prominent view. (Munajjid, 2014) The innovators celebrate Mawlid on 12th Rabi al Awwal considering that it was the day of Prophet’s ﷺ birth, but in reality, as mentioned earlier, there is no authentic evidence which points at the exact date of his birth. In conclusion, people are actually holding out a huge celebration on a day which is certain to be of the day of Prophet’s ﷺ death.

Now, coming to the permissibility or impermissibility of this act, there is no two way about the fact that it is not permissible to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ. We can list out a few reasons;

• First and foremost, it is not from the Sunnāh of the Prophet ﷺ nor from the practice of his companions and not even from the practice of the students of the Sahābah. No one from the first three generations of the Muslims have ever been reported of celebrating or even giving any special treatment to this day. The Prophet ﷺ himself had said,

When the best of the people of the Ummāh never celebrated it, how can we?

• Secondly, by celebrating Mawlid each year, what we do is innovate a new festival in the religion which was not prescribed by it originally. What is prescribed in Islām, is actually the celebration of the two ‘Īds: ‘Īd al Fitr and Īd al Adhā. Had this celebration been a valid one, then Allāh would have made it clear to us as He did about the other two festivals.
• Thirdly, Mawlid is basically the imitation of the Christians. They celebrate the birthday of ‘Īsā السلام عليه on 25th of December every year. The Prophet ﷺ warned against imitating the disbelievers.
• Fourthly, the Prophet forbade us from excessively praising him as the Christians did in case of ‘Īsā السلام عليه to the extent that they started doing shirk with God.
• Fifthly, the celebration of Mawlid itself involves a lot of prohibited and questionable acts. People tend to recite poems of excessive praise of the Prophet like Qasīdah al Burdāh., they play loud music and involve in group dhikr. In many places, they take out huge processions while playing loud music with songs of praise and honour which often involves many elements of shirk.

If one truly wants to honour the Prophet ﷺ and show one’s love and affection towards him, one should follow all his Sunnāhs and do all the good deeds that he recommended and abandon all the evils that he warned against. Singling out one day to show your love is certainly not the right way.

2. Shab e Mi’rāj-

This is another of the innovated acts of worship or rather the night of celebration that the ignorant Muslim masses came up with. Shab e Mi’rāj is actually the night of Al Isrā wal Mi’rāj, when the Prophet ﷺ was taken on a journey from Masjid al Haram to Masjid al Aqsa in Jerusalem and from there he was ascended up into the heavens and was shown the signs. Allāh mentions in the Qur’ān about this event,

There is no scholarly consensus regarding the exact date of this event. The ones who celebrate the night of Mi’rāj, claim that the event took place on the 27th night of the month of Rajab, but there exists no authentic evidence to prove the same. Moreover, the Prophet ﷺ did not ever celebrate the day in the following years, nor prescribe any special act of worships to be performed on that day. The Companions and their students, they didn’t do anything of that sorts either. If this day was to be made special and singled out as a day for special acts of worship, the Prophet ﷺ would have been the first one to do it and his companions would have followed the suit, but since none of them did it, it’s only fair that we don’t either. Because, by venerating a single day for worship which wasn’t prescribed by the Sharī’āh, means that we are innovating things in the religion, which is the exact thing that the Prophet warned us about.

3. Laylatul Bara’ah-

Laylatul Bara’ah is the night of 15th Sha’bān, which is another bid’āh widely prevalent in the Muslin world, considered to be a night full of blessings and should be spent fasting during the day and worshipping Allāh during the night. Now, one may say what is wrong in spending the day fasting and the night worshipping Allāh? Isn’t that actually a very good deed? It is, no doubt about that. But the issue here is not one of worshipping Allāh, but of the way in which he should. And that way is only one, the one shown to us by His Messenger. So, when we single out a day or a night to spend in worship and make it a monthly or an annual ritual, which was originally not prescribed by the Sharī’āh, we are making up our own way, apart from the way shown by the Prophet. And that is nothing but a bid’āh.

The celebration of Shab e Bara’ah is based on a weak ḥadīth which was narrated by Ibn Mājah, which goes like, the Prophet ﷺ said,

“When the night of ‘nisf Sha‘bān’ (mid-Sha‘bān) comes, spend the night in prayer and fast on that day” (Munajjid, 2011)

We know that we cannot use weak or fabricated aḥādīth in general and especially when it comes to acts of worship. There are no authentic reports of Prophet ﷺ or any of companions singling out the 15th of Sha’bān for celebrations or any special worship.

4. Grave Worship-

Another of the most widely prevalent and probably the gravest bid’āh that has made its way in the Muslim world is the bid’āh of visiting the shrines of saints, praying to and through them, commemorating their birthdays and holding these saints dangerously and erroneously so high that it reached the point and beyond of committing shirk.

When we talk about just visiting the graves, we must first clarify that there is a permissibly type of visit to the graves. This permissible kind was sanctioned by the Prophet ﷺ himself for the purpose of remembering death and for making du’ā for the forgiveness and mercy for the dead. Abu Hurairah (May Allāh be pleased with him) reported that,

The issue of concern is actually the other type of visit to the graves. This kind involves the undue and exaggerated veneration and honouring to the saints to the extent they people start calling upon them, the literally dead people, for their help and blessings and also an intercession between them and Allāh. They go to the extent of making sacrifices to them and even making oaths and vows with them on their names. This kind of practice is a clear cut bid’āh and downright rejected in Islām. It is not just a Bid’āh, but it is also indulging into the major sin of shirk.

These shrines or as commonly known in the subcontinent as dargah are considered so holy that people spend hours here just taking in the “tranquillity”, making du’ās, reciting Qur’ān or reading the fabricated and innovated books.

Most of these dargahs have Masājid in them, which again is a clearly prohibited act. The Prophet ﷺ forbade us from offering prayers or equating graves to the mosques. He ﷺ said,

With regards to making du’ā them or through them, it’s as clear as the day that it falls under the category of major shirk. About this, Allāh Himself warns us in the Qur’ān in Surah Al Ahqāf,

This is an extremely important thing to be wary of. Shirk is something that if one dies on it, there is no forgiveness.