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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasleeman kathiran kathira. Fama wadu. My brothers and sisters, we are in the month of Rabi’ul Awwal. And Rabi’ul Awwal is popularly known as the month of Rasulullah ﷺ. Because in this month he was born. Now, somebody might tell you, are you not happy that Rasulullah ﷺ was born? If you say I am not happy, then you have left Islam. Simple as that. As a Muslim, if you say I am not happy that Rasulullah ﷺ was born, you have left Islam. Period. No Muslim will say that. Are we happy? Of course we are. There is nothing that is more worthy of our happiness than the fact that we are happy. Than the birth of Rasulullah ﷺ. Not the birth of our own parents, not our own birth, not the birth of our children, nothing, nothing, nothing. The number one thing, source of happiness for the Muslim is the birth of Nabi alayhis-salaam. Because through him, Allah showed us the way to Jannah. If Rasulullah ﷺ had not come into this world, if Allah had not sent his Nabi, he would not have sent his book, he would not have given hidayah, and we would have landed up in some other place. So are we happy? Of course we are happy.
So then they might say, well then what is the problem? If you are celebrating, you are happy, I am happy, we are all happy, we are celebrating, what is wrong? I will tell you what is wrong. For this you have to understand two things. First of all, we have to understand the meaning of the word Ibadah. Worship. What is Ibadah? In Islam, Ibadah is any action that you do for the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, expecting a reward from Allah. Any action you do, for the pleasure of Allah, expecting a reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Suppose you can say, I am going to Krookah National Park for a holiday, sightseeing. Is it halal? Is it permissible? Of course. Is it Ibadah? No. I am going for sightseeing. Is it haram to go for sightseeing? No, it’s not. Please go. Please go. What makes it Ibadah? Supposing you say, I am going in order to see the creations of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and to praise Him and to thank Him. This is your niyyah. You are not going for a holiday. Holidays, obviously you will enjoy yourself. But you are going with a specific, clear intention. I am going for this reason. Inshallah, this time and the money and all of this becomes Ibadah.
You are eating your food. Why are you eating food? Because you are hungry. Is it halal? As long as what you are eating is halal, it’s halal. Can you eat? Of course. Is it Ibadah? Not automatically. If you are eating food and we should consciously do this. “Inna ma la’amalu bin niyyat.” The Prophet said, the reward of the deed is based on the intention. So, do everything with a clear intention. So, my intention of eating should be what? That Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala should give me strength so that I can worship Him better. This is our niyyah when we sit down to eat. We say, Bismillah. That’s the reason we say, Bismillah. “Allahumma barik lana fima razaktana wa rzukna khairun minhum.” We make the dua and then we eat the food. With this niyyah, it becomes Ibadah. Right? If you do not eat or drink and you do not have relation with your spouse from just before Fajr to Maghrib. What do you call this? Fasting. You call it starvation. It’s not fasting. What makes it fasting? Niyyah. You make the niyyah. Today I am keeping an Afil fast. Today I am fasting for the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Today I am fasting the first hour of Ramadan. Niyyah. Niyyah is shart in fasting. Incidentally, please understand this. Including Ramadan. Niyyah is shart. There is a difference of opinion whether something like Ramadan for the whole month, whether you can make one niyyah for the whole month or whether you need to make niyyah every day. There are people who said, ulama who said you must make niyyah every day. Others said because you are going to fast for the whole month, that is your niyyah. It’s acceptable. But nobody said niyyah is not required. Niyyah is required. If you do not make the niyyah, then it’s only starvation.
So now, somebody who is celebrating, what is his niyyah? Come guys, let’s have some fun. Is that the niyyah? No. He is celebrating with the belief that this is essential, that it is a part of Islam, that it is sunnah, and he is doing it with the intention of pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. He is doing it because he loves Rasulullah s.a.w. I am not casting aspersions on their love. I am talking about the action. Love alone is not a dalil in Islam to do or not do something. So they love Rasulullah s.a.w. There is no doubt about that. And they are expecting reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. So for them, whoever is celebrating, this action of celebration is an action of ibadah for which they expect reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Now you might ask, or somebody might ask you, okay, we agree with all of this. So what’s wrong with that? I am celebrating the birth of Rasulullah s.a.w. who I believe in, who I love, and I expect Allah, I request Allah, I beg Allah to give me reward for this, to consider this as an act of ibadah. What is wrong with that? Please understand very carefully. What is wrong with that is that it is not an action done by Rasulullah s.a.w. himself because the shart of ibadah, the condition of ibadah is that it must be an action which is done with the intention of pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and it must be done according to the sunnah of Rasulullah s.a.w. which means it has to be an action which the Nabi alayhis-salaam himself did or told you to do.
We just finished praying Salatul Fajr. What was our niyyah? Yalla I am praying Turagatul Salatul Fajr behind this Imam for your pleasure. Alhamdulillah, very good. And having made this niyyah, now you stand, you stand there and you recite some very beautiful poetry in Urdu or Arabic or Farsi or Chinese or whatever in praise of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Is that Salat? Now you might say my poetry, what is wrong with my poetry? Nothing is wrong with it. Your poetry is beautiful. Nothing is wrong with your poetry. But it does not become Salat. Why does it not become Salat? Because Rasulullah s.a.w. didn’t do it. Rasulullah s.a.w. did not pray in this way. He told us Pray as you have seen me pray. He didn’t say pray as you invent it for yourself. So the shart of Ibadah is it should be something which the Rasulullah s.a.w. did and demonstrated. That is why he came as the Rasul. If somebody invents an action of Ibadah which he considers to be Ibadah which Rasulullah s.a.w. never did, then this is the definition of Bida’a. Bida’a is not wearing pants or driving in a car. Bida’a is to introduce an act of worship, some act which you consider to be worship which is not in the Sunnah of Rasulullah s.a.w. To introduce this act into the Deen and to consider it to be Deen. To consider that to be an act of worship is Bida’a. Even though the act in itself may not be wrong. For example, you say every Wednesday we have this Majlis of Dhikr and this Majlis will be done after Salatul Maghrib and we will all sit together in one circle and we will put off all the lights of the room and we will just put one green light and we will put a chair there and nobody must sit in the chair because Rasulullah s.a.w. himself is sitting in this chair. But, people do all this.
If he is sitting in this chair then who is there in Medina in the Rauda? And if he is there in the Rauda and he is also in your chair in your house and he is also on the chair of all people like you who are doing it all over the world then is that the attribute of a human or is it the attribute of Allah s.w.t. It’s not even the attribute of Allah because Allah doesn’t come and sit in your chair. This is mythology. It is superstition. It is Bida’a. Because you are inventing an act of worship which Rasulullah s.a.w. never did. This is Bida’a. Complete and total Bida’a. So, I am giving you now I have given you the historical evidence and I have given you the religious evidence according to the Quran and Sunnah and that is why Rasulullah s.a.w. said “Inna azdaku al-hadith inna azdaka al-hadith kitab Allah.” Truly the most truthful of speech is the book of Allah. “Wa khayru al-hadi hadi muhammadi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.” And the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. “Wa sharru al-umuri muddhatuha wa kulla muhdathatin bid’an wa kalla bid’ati dalala wa kulla dalalatin fi annar ka’wa ma khala.” This is the hadith we hear from the member practically in every Jum’ah in every masjid in the world. He said all innovations in the deen are bid’at and ضَلَالَة and there is guidance وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ And all of that is in the fire.
So please I request you and remind you and remind myself let us not do something which Rasulullah s.a.w. never did. The Sahaba never did. The Khulafa Rashida never did. The Ahlul Bayt never did. Now find me the dalil for Imam Shafi’i or Imam Muhammad or any of the Aima celebrating Miladun Nabi. So let us not fall into these traps. The way to celebrate and to show our happiness and gratitude to Allah s.w.t. for sending Rasulullah s.a.w. which we feel to the deepest of our hearts is to show and to show our gratitude to Allah s.w.t. and to show our gratitude and to show our gratitude in what He did. That is the way of celebrating. That is the way of honoring. Follow His way. Follow His sunnah. In your appearance, in your walking, your talking, your dealings, your speech, your actions. Fast on Mondays if you want because this is what He used to do. That is His sunnah. Pray on time, pray in the masjid by jama. This is what He used to do. He did that till His last day. He went to the masjid even when He had to be carried to the masjid. He commanded that He should be carried and so He was carried. This is the way to celebrate. Not making some function and singing and dancing and may Allah have mercy on all the khurafat that happened in the city. I’m not even going there. It’s not worth talking about. All that is so clearly and obviously wrong. What is there to say? But I’m saying even those who are doing with the best of intention, they’re doing things in a nice way that may be nice in a way in a worldly context of having some celebration. It is not nice in deen. In deen, it is wrong. It is completely prohibited. It is haram. It is a bid’ah. Don’t touch it. Don’t go anywhere near it.
We ask Allah to help us to live this life according to the beautiful sunnah of Rasulullah and with the intention of pleasing Allah we ask Allah to be pleased with us and never to be displeased. And may the blessings of Allah be upon the noble Prophet and upon his family and the companions of Ijma’in. May the mercy of Allah be upon him.