Post by simnani on Apr 2, 2006 15:15:49 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
Ibn Taymiyya's Opinion on the Celebration of Mawlid
and the Deviation of "Salafis" from his Opinion
This is Ibn Taymiyya's opinion about Mawlid from the Collected Fatwas, Majma` Fatawa Ibn Taymiyya, Vol. 23, p. 163 and his Iqtida' al-sirat al-mustaqim, p. 294-295, Section entitled: "The innovated festivities of time and place" (ma uhditha min al-a`yad al-zamaniyya wa al-makaniyya):
And similarly what some people innovate by analogy with the Christians who celebrate the birth of Jesus, or out of love for the Prophet and to exalt him, and Allah may reward them for this love and effort, not on the fact that it is an innovation... To celebrate and to honour the birth of the Prophet and to take it as an honoured season, as some of the people are doing, is good and in it there is a great reward, because of their good intentions in honouring the Prophet.
This is what "Salafis" cannot stomach, for all their love of Ibn Taymiyya, and they cannot seem to forgive him for saying this. One "Salafi" editor of the Iqtida', Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqqi, has a two-page footnote here in which he exclaims: "Kayfa yakunu lahum thawabun `ala hadha??... Ayyu ijtihadun fi hadha??" -- "How can they possibly obtain a reward for this??... What effort is in this??" and the contemporary "Salafi" scholars are all without exception cut from the same cloth of intemperance and deviation regarding Mawlid, substituting their ruling to that of Ibn Taymiyya although the latter should be sufficient for them. Thus we see another "Salafi" author, Mashhur Salman, exploding in similar terms in his recent edition of Abu Shama's al-Ba`ith `ala inkar al-bida` (Assault on all innovations), because when it comes to Mawlid, Abu Shama instead of censoring it declares: "Truly it is a praiseworthy innovation and a blessed one"!
Further on in the same text Ibn Taymiyya mentions a fatwa given by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the Imam of Ibn Taymiyya's madhhab, whereby when the people told Imam Ahmad about a prince who spent 1000 dinars on the decoration of Qur'an he said: "That is the best place for him to use gold."
We ask: Was Ibn Taymiyya promoting bid`a when he permitted the celebration of Mawlid "as some of the people are doing"? Not only did he allow it, but he mentioned that their celebration of Mawlid "is good and in it there is a great reward." We ask again: Was Imam Ahmad making bid`a when he allowed the decoration of Qur'an? The answer to both questions is no.
Ibn Taymiyya's Opinion on the Celebration of Mawlid
and the Deviation of "Salafis" from his Opinion
This is Ibn Taymiyya's opinion about Mawlid from the Collected Fatwas, Majma` Fatawa Ibn Taymiyya, Vol. 23, p. 163 and his Iqtida' al-sirat al-mustaqim, p. 294-295, Section entitled: "The innovated festivities of time and place" (ma uhditha min al-a`yad al-zamaniyya wa al-makaniyya):
And similarly what some people innovate by analogy with the Christians who celebrate the birth of Jesus, or out of love for the Prophet and to exalt him, and Allah may reward them for this love and effort, not on the fact that it is an innovation... To celebrate and to honour the birth of the Prophet and to take it as an honoured season, as some of the people are doing, is good and in it there is a great reward, because of their good intentions in honouring the Prophet.
This is what "Salafis" cannot stomach, for all their love of Ibn Taymiyya, and they cannot seem to forgive him for saying this. One "Salafi" editor of the Iqtida', Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqqi, has a two-page footnote here in which he exclaims: "Kayfa yakunu lahum thawabun `ala hadha??... Ayyu ijtihadun fi hadha??" -- "How can they possibly obtain a reward for this??... What effort is in this??" and the contemporary "Salafi" scholars are all without exception cut from the same cloth of intemperance and deviation regarding Mawlid, substituting their ruling to that of Ibn Taymiyya although the latter should be sufficient for them. Thus we see another "Salafi" author, Mashhur Salman, exploding in similar terms in his recent edition of Abu Shama's al-Ba`ith `ala inkar al-bida` (Assault on all innovations), because when it comes to Mawlid, Abu Shama instead of censoring it declares: "Truly it is a praiseworthy innovation and a blessed one"!
Further on in the same text Ibn Taymiyya mentions a fatwa given by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the Imam of Ibn Taymiyya's madhhab, whereby when the people told Imam Ahmad about a prince who spent 1000 dinars on the decoration of Qur'an he said: "That is the best place for him to use gold."
We ask: Was Ibn Taymiyya promoting bid`a when he permitted the celebration of Mawlid "as some of the people are doing"? Not only did he allow it, but he mentioned that their celebration of Mawlid "is good and in it there is a great reward." We ask again: Was Imam Ahmad making bid`a when he allowed the decoration of Qur'an? The answer to both questions is no.
