Opponent of Celebrating the Birthday of the Prophet

Date: 20/5/2015
Location: Salempur – Delhi

A group of twelve men gathered at my house. The group consisted of three scholars, two muezzins, and seven trustees. They had some questions, and they started with standard sceptical ones. One of them then asked about celebrating the birthday of the Prophet (ṣallā Allah ʿalaihi wa sallam), arguing that it is prohibited. Ḥaḍrat Shaikh Muḥammad al-Kasnazan put in my heart something that made me and the others laugh. I asked that person: “Do I know you?” He replied in the negative. I asked him: “How many children do you have?” He replied: “I have one boy whose name is ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.” When I asked him his age, he said that he had completed his first year five days ago. I said: “Congratulations, O brother! Did his mother throw a birthday party for him and sing ‘happy birthday to you’?” He replied in the affirmative. I said: “As a scholar, how do you justify permitting the celebration of the birth of an ordinary child while prohibiting people from celebrating the birth of he who saved the world from the evil of delusion and the darkness of ignorance?” He said: “What have I done to myself? Who taught you this?” I replied: “The one who sent me to you, my Master Shaikh Muḥammad al-Kasnazan.” After three hours of discussion, eleven of the twelve men took the pledge, and the other man said he had taken the pledge of another Ṭarīqa in the past.