Celebrating The Maulid 07
By
Dr. Abubakar Muhammad Sani Birnin Kudu (Hafizahullah)
(a) The part of the text containing the issue of freeing Thuwaibah is from the saying of Urwah without mentioning who told him that. This is what the scholars of hadith call ‘hadith mursal’, and it is part of the weak hadith which is not accepted. (See Fathul Bari vol.9 p.49).
(b) There is no mention that the reason for freeing Thuwaibah is that she brought Abu Lahab the good news of the birth of the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam).
(c) There is no mention of the word ‘every Monday’ as asserted by Ibnul Jazari and As-Suhaily (See Suhaili’s assertion in Fathil Bari vol.9 p.48).
(d) Moreover what is confirmed by the scholars of Sirah (Biography of the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) is that Thuwaibah was not freed until after the Hijrah of the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam). Ibn Sa’ad (d 230 h) says: “When the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) was at Makkah he used to send her (Thuwaibah) some gifts, and Khadijah also used to be generous to her. At that time, she was a slave to Abu Lahab. Khadijah made some efforts to buy her from the hands of Abu Lahab so as to free her, but Abu Lahab refused that. But when the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) migrated to Madina Abu Lahab freed her” At-Tabaqaatul Kubraa by Ibn Sa’ad vol.1 p.108.
This is confirmed by Ibn Abdil Barr in his Al-istee’aab vol.1 p.12, and Ibnul Jauzi in his Al-Wafaa Bi Ahwaalil Mustafaa vol.1 p.106-107, and Al-Muhibb At-Tabari in his Dhakhaairul ‘Uqbaa Fi Manaaqibi Dhawil Qurbaa p.259, and Ibn Hajar in Al-Isaabaah Fi Tamyeezis Sahaabah vol.4 p.250.
(e) One other thing is that a kafir will never benefit in the hereafter from any deed he performed in this world, for Allah Ta’aala says: ((And We shall turn to whatever deeds they did, and We shall make such deeds as scattered floating particles of dust)) Al-Furqaan:23. That is because the condition for accepting a deed is that it should be with a perfect intention, and this not found in the case of a kafir. So freeing Thuwaibah by Abu Lahab as shown in this mursal hadith is insignificant. This is not like the case of Abu Talib which is established by an authentic hadith. See Fathul Baari by Ibn Hajar vol.9 p.49.
(f) Moreover this case is based on a dream we do not know who saw it. And even if we know it is known that legal rulings such that prohibit or make something lawful are never based on dreams.
Four
The argument based on the verse of Suratu Yunus, is also out of place. That is because interpreting the ‘mercy’ mentioned in the verse to mean the prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) is something none of the scholars of the first generation of Muslims claimed. And we have mentioned from the saying of Shatibi, when discussing Ibn Hajar’s deduction of maulid from the Aashuuraa hadith, that any meaning not mentioned by the salaf in their interpretation of the Qur’an, is not accepted, especially when that interpretation is meant to buttress the validity of an innovated ‘ibadah’.
Al-Imam At-Tabari, in his voluminous exegesis of the Qur’an and the best in that field, quoted eighteen separate narratives from the Salaf on interpreting this verse.
None of them interpreted ‘mercy’ to mean the person of the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam). Shatibi is not the only alim to make this bold warning. Al-Imam At-Tabari who is known to be the author of the best and more comprehensive book of Tafsir, even though he lived in the last part of the third century and died in the beginning of the fourth century of Hijrah, he denied himself the right to interpret the Qur’an contrary to the interpretations narrated from the salaf. In his Tafsir vol.15 p.188, when interpreting the verse: ((And offer your prayer neither aloud nor in a low voice, but follow a way between)) Al-Israai:110, he preferred the saying of Ibn Abbas on the meaning of ‘prayer’, ‘aloud’ and ‘in a low voice’. He then mentioned another interpretation of his own, but said: “If not for the fact that I have already mentioned the sayings of scholars of tafsir and I do not consider it permissible to oppose what is reported from them, I would have said that it is good to interpret the verse as follows…. But we do not regard it proper, because the consensus of the masters of tafsir is contrary to that”. In his commentary on another verse he said: “I have preferred this interpretation because it is in agreement with the interpretation of the Sahabah and Tabi’een, because we do not allow going contrary to what is reported from them”. Tafsirut Tabari vol.16 p.151.
But this is not to say that the prophet is not a mercy because this is confirmed by an independent verse. Allah says: ((We have not sent you but as a mercy for the whole creation)).
But in this verse there is nothing to necessitate this interpretation. And moreover the word ‘rahmah’ independently or in the genitive form came in the Qur’an about 116 times, and no reasonable person will claim that it means the person of the prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) in all these places and in its different contexts. The fact is therefore that the proponents of observing the maulid festival only cling to this particular verse because of the mention of the word: ‘fal yafrahu’ (let them rejoice), and this is exactly what Shatibi outlined previously that one of the methodologies of the people of bid’ah is that they cling to some words with ambiguous meanings to claim the validity of their mazhab. This affirms the need to go back to the interpretation of the first generations. May Allah guide us all.
As regards the other arguments mentioned, I don’t think they deserve our time and energy. The only thing that remains is the issue of categorizing bid’ah into good and bad or wajib manduub mubah etc. and the hadith : Man sanna sunnatan hasanatan… I hope I will have the time to write on that. But for a detailed and more erudite information on this issue one should read the book ‘Al-Qaulul Fasl’ by Shaikh Isma’il Al-Ansari.
Wa sallallahu wa sallama wa baaraka ala Nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala aalihi wa sahbih.
Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh
Abubakar Muhammad Sani
Islamic University Madina
Rabee’ul Awwal 1422y
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