The Celebration of the Birthday of the Prophet ﷺ : Shaykh Ma'sum Naqshbandi - Translated by Alan Abd al-Haqq Godlas Ph.D. - Suf Illuminations Journal

The Celebration of the Birthday of the Prophet ﷺ   ( Mawlid al-Nabi     ): Shaykh  Muhammad Ma'sum Naqshbandi , Eminent Scholar from Kurdistan - Translated from Persian to English by Alan Abd al-Haqq Godlas Ph.D.  Assistant Professor , University  0f Georgia - Sufi Illuminations  Journal Vol 1, 1996 Part 2 : Proceedings of the Second Annual Mawlid al-Nabi  ﷺ   , Conference , Chicago , 1995   

         

      In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate , the Merciful 

All praises belongs to God, Who by His assistance exalts Islam and Who, by His wrath, debases the worship of other things as gods. God is the one Who by His own command administers all affairs and Who by gratitude to Him perpetuates all bounties. God is the One Who leads the disbelievers on by His stratagems. By His generosity God has put the final outcome in the hands of  those who are conscious of God (muttaqin ), and He has enabled His religion to prevail over all other religions.

I praise Him for His exaltation of His saintly friends ( awliya ) and for His help to those who assist Him. I bear witness that there is no god but God ;  He is one without partner. I bear witness with the testimony of those who purified their hearts through " affirming God's oneness" ( tawhid ), by means of which they have pleased their Sustainer. And I bear witness that our master Muhammad  ﷺ   is His servant and His messenger,  the one whose Sustainer transported him by night from Masjid al- Haram to the Masjid al- Aqsa. From there, by means of God to the Sidrat al- Muntaha, the lotus tree in the highest heaven, which contains the paradise of refuge. May God send blessings and peace to him and to his successors, Abu Bakr   رضي الله عنه    , Umar    رضي الله عنه   , Uthman    رضي الله عنه   , and Ali   رضي الله عنه   .

I present my greetings and congratulation to my honorable brothers and sisters in attendance at this blessed festival of birth of the supreme messenger Muhammad  ﷺ   . Praise and gratitude is due to God. that unrivaled Sustainer who has bestowed upon those responsible success at convening such a conference and festival to honor the birthday  of the Seal of the Prophets  ﷺ   . I beseech God that all those who have taken the pains to organize this meeting will obtain the benefit of abundant  reward and recompense for their efforts. 

Let us begin with noble aya, " O humankind, We created you from male and female, and We made different peoples and tribes, so that you can endeavor to know one another. Indeed, the noblest of you  from the perspective of God , are the most conscious of God"  (Quran: Hujurat 49:13).

You should realize that this aya formally recognizes communities, peoples and tribes. Nevertheless it simply acknowledges that social groupings are a means for people to get to know one another. In fact from God's perspective ( as the aya asserts) the only distinguishing virtue among people is the degree to which they are conscious of God. Moreover this aya does not acknowledge the validity of political boundaries , which have been cause of disunity among Muslims.

Today, we have gathered to celebrate the birth of the Messenger  ﷺ ,  since God in His glorious speech has declared , " Indeed God bestowed a favor upon the believers when He raised up in their midst a messenger from among themselves to convey His signs ( ayat ) unto them, to purify them, and to teach them the divine book as well as wisdom --whereas before that they were indeed most obviously, lost in error"  ( Quran: Al Imran 3:164 ). In this aya, [ by endowing he Prophet  ﷺ with revelation ] God bestowed upon believers the favor of the mercy of guidance and hope.

"And in the Messenger of God ﷺ you have a good model for everyone who hopes for God and the Last Day, and who remembers God unceasingly ( kathiran ) (Quran: Ahzab 33:21 ).  If one looks carefully [Prophet  ﷺ  as a " good model," one will see that ] God has united in him all the qualities of the major prophets, the qualities being as follows:

1) Noah's endurance of hardship

2) Abraham's emigrating

3) Moses' struggling against Pharoah

4) Jesus' asceticism, piety, and his detachment from the world

Addressing the Messenger  ﷺ   , God said,  " ... and devote yourself to Him [ meaning God ] with utter devotion ( Quran: Muzzammil, 73:9 ). Elsewhere God again addressed Muhammad ﷺ     , O Prophet, Indeed We sent you as a witness and bearer of good tidings, as a warner  and summoner to God with His permission and as an illuminating beacon" ( Quran: Ahzab, 33: 45-46 )

God endowed the Messenger   ﷺ   with the greatest everlasting and constant miracle, which is the Quran. And He delivered the the following universal address to the jinn and human beings, an address that will apply until the Day of Resurrection: " Say, ' If all mankind and the jinn would come together and try to produce something like this Quran, they would not be able to produce it even if they were to exert all their strength in aiding one another!' " ( Quran: Isra' 17:88 ).

The miracles of the other prophets have disappeared with their deaths. The chilling of the fire for Abraham     ,  the transforming into a serpent of Moses    staff,  Jesus    giving life to the dead and curing those born blind and deaf,  all these miracles subdue [only] the physical senses. The miracle of the Quran however, subdues the human mind and its thoughts.  Numerous times we find in the Quran ayat such as    " Indeed there are signs in that for people who use their intelligence," " Will they not think!" and Will they not use their intelligence ?"

My dear brothers and sisters, the birth and the mission of Messenger    represent the critical point in the history of humanity. This is a clearly marked juncture between, on the one hand, the darkness of ignorance, superstitions, and ancient fables and on the other , the light of knowledge and nurturing of intelligence and human civilization. The juncture is marked by the first revelation revealed to the Messenger   ﷺ   ; " Recite in the Name of your Sustainer who created, humankind from clot. Recite, for your Sustainer  is most generous, the one who taught humankind by Pen, He taught humankind what they did not know " (Quran: Alaq 96:1-5 )

My dear brothers and sisters there are three types of festivals. The first are festivals prescribed by shari'a, which involve ceremonies of worship such as prayer and takbir, during which time Muslims also visit each other, such as on Festival of the Breaking of the Fast ( Id al-Fitr ) and the Festival of the Sacrifice ( Id al- Adha ). The second are festivals of respect, in which we honor the memory of great religious figures  and celebrate our joy at their birth. And the third are festivals connected to the natural world , such as the celebration of the new year ( nawruz), which is a custom observed by people.

Since we--and all praise is due to God-- are the community of the Prophet  ﷺ , we can celebrate the second type of festival, a festival of respect, at the birth of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ . In other words by celebrating his birth, we can honor him and show respect for the Divine Messenger ﷺ  who is the most noble of all created beings.

The purpose of this Milad gathering is to celebrate a long-standing ceremony. It dates back to first generations of Muslims, namely to the tabi'un ( the successors --namely the generation who came after the companions of the Prophet ﷺ  [sahaba ] ). It is a festival that has continued to be a means of reminding the community of Islam of the teachings, outstanding qualities, and traditions of the Messenger ﷺ  . And also it has been a way that Muslims have kept alive the awareness of both tribulations of the noble  Prophet of Islam ﷺ  as well as the sacrifices his companions endured, in order to transmit the Divine commands and instructions generation after generation all the way down to us.

I am both surprised and saddened that groups of Muslims who envision themselves as not being blind imitators crticize the celebration of the Milad, the festival of the birthday of the Messenger  رضي الله عنه   . They say that they only accept the Quran, that they neither follow the first generations of Muslims nor the great religious leaders, mujtahid imams [ who founded the schools of Islamic law].

The reply that can be given to these groups is that by following the Quran alone , one cannot even recite a single canonical prayer or pay zakat. Although the Quran declares that one must perform canonical prayers and pay zakat , neither does it give the number of rakats of our prayers nor the minimum amount of a commodity on which  zakat should be paid; none of these details are specified in the Quran. The same holds true for many religious responsibilities that drive from the principle religious duties and essential aspects of Muslim life, such as marriages. The companions, successors, chief legal scholars of the first generations of Muslims ( may God reward them with goodness ) all recorded and explained the principles and particular ways of observing the divine commands and following the manner in which the Prophet  ﷺ  lived.

These groups that criticize the celebration of the Milad, even though they see themselves as not blind imitators, nevertheless they too follow their own leaders. Can such people, who have red only recently -- relative to the history of Islam -- perceive Islam better than the companions, successors and the founding scholars of the schools of Islamic law, those whose vast knowledge and piety enabled them to make legal judgments? Are such who break with Islamic tradition better able to interpret and comment on Quran ?  Were people like Imam Jafar-iSadiq   رضي الله عنه   (d.148/765),  Shaykh Hasan-i Basri   رضي الله عنه         (d.110/728), the great legal scholars , and those who followed such as Muhammad-i Ghazali    رضي الله   (d.505/1111), Junaid -i Baghdadi     رضي الله عنه     (d.298/910), and thousands like them, can these people be considered to be polytheists, to be among those that worship gods beside God? Have they nor perceived Islam and the true teachings of Islam correctly ?

In order to understand these groups that criticize the festival of birthday of the Prophet  ﷺ , the words well known among the Arabs apply, " Don't ask about the man , ask about his friend!" It is sad that some superficial scholars who follow the doctrine of these groups are silent and make no criticism of  celebrations commemorating the anniversary of the coming to power of certain rulers, or celebrations of their birthdays , at which time huge amounts are spent from the treasury of Muslims in order to have  ostentatious festivals. Yet such scholars consider the festival of the birthday of the greatest Divine Messenger  ﷺ  ,  to be an innovation and to be prohibited, the very Messenger  ﷺ  ,  about whom God declared, " We only sent you as a mercy for the beings of the world". (Quran: Anbiya 21:107) 

All such divergent thoughts, deviations from the correct path, and breaking from tradition that have appeared in various periods of Islamic history have derived from the neglectfulness of Muslim rulers and governing councils.Specifically, the Muslim rulers and councils allowed people with false doctrines, together with their followers, to take root. Sadly, the bitter fruit deriving from those roots is now clear and obvious. The Prophet    declared, " What I fear most for my people are evil scholars".

Since the subject we are discussing is the festival of the birthday of the Prophet    and his veneration, it is not inappropriate to mention a few lines from the poetry of Shyakh Sa'di     رَحِمَهُ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ  (d.690/1291)

        God praised and venerated you                                                                                                                          Gabriel [ humbly] kissed the ground to magnify you    

        The high heavens are ashamed before your stature                                                                                          You were created when Adam was still but water and clay

        From the beginning, the origin of existence was you                                                                                        Everything that came into being derived from you                   

         I do not know what to say about you                                                                                                                since you are beyond whatever I can say about you   

        In confirming you, sufficient is the exaltedness of " Were if not for you                                                           [were it not for you, I would not have created the cosmos]"                                                                            In praising you, sufficient are [the surahs ] Ta Ha and Ya Sin     

        How can this defective Sa'di describe you ?                                                                                                      May blessings be upon you, O Prophet  ﷺ  , and peace !                                                                             

O God, You guide whomever You wish. Do not lead us astray! Do not let our hearts deviate after you guided us by Your benevolence and generosity and by the magnificence of Your Prophet  ﷺ , the Prophet of Mercy  ﷺ . Indeed You are nearby, All- Hearing  and You answer those who call upon You, O You who are the Most Merciful of All!

May your Sustainer, the Sustainer of exaltedness, be affirmed as transcending whatever can be said about Him. And may peace be upon all Divine Messengers.   All praise belong to God. the Sustainer of all worlds. May God send blessings upon the best of His creation, our master Muhammad  ﷺ, and upon his pure and inerrant family, at the beginning of all words and at their end. And upon you may God send peace, His mercy and His blessings !                                                              

Back Cover Sufi Illuminations Journal, 1996, Calligraphy by Mohamed Zakariya, American Calligrapher