Telling family about their Bid'ah practices
27-5-2004 | IslamWeb
Question:
I have come to know that celebrating Maulid is Haram and Bid'ah I used to celebrate before with zeal and Allah has shown me the light. I know the severity of doing Bid'ah. Now the problem lies with my family. We usually celebrate Maulid and anniversaries of our ancestors and other Auliya's like Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jelani and many more. Now how should I go about this problem? Should I tell them straight up that what we are doing is Haram? If I do that they will disassociate themselves from me; they will sort of cast me away, and I don't want to cut relations. Should I just keep to myself and play along with them and act as if nothing has changed? I am afraid I might seem to act like a Munafiq if I choose the latter. Is there any other way to deal with this problem?
Answer:
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Praise be to Allah who blessed you with the knowledge of the ruling about the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam), and that it is a Bid'ah (innovation), because the companions and the righteous people who followed their path did not celebrate it.
We advise you to call your family and the society in which you are living to stop this celebration. You have to invite them (call them to Allah) with soft words, wisdom, compassion and kindness, in a way that makes them feel that you only want good for them, and want them to act according to the Sunnah and leave the Bid'ah.
You have always to remember the Saying of Allah: {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad SAW) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islâm) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'ân) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better…..}[16:125].
You have to start step by step. Do not tell them from the first day that the Mawlid is Bid'ah and Haram, but tell them, for instance, it is not reported that "The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) used to celebrate his birthday, or that the companions celebrated the birthday of their Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam)?"
Of course, they cannot tell you 'Yes,' because that is not reported in the books of Hadith or the books of the biography of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) (Sirah and Sunnah). Everybody agrees that celebrating the Mawlid is Bid'ah. However, those who celebrate it say that it is a good innovation.
Islamic jurisprudence terms all kinds of Bid'ah (in religion) as misguidance, according to the saying of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam): "Every innovated matter (in our religion) is a Bid'ah, and every Bid'ah is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire."
The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) also said: "Whoever performs an action which is not in accordance with our guidance (path, way, methodology) it will be rejected." [Reported by Muslim]
If there was any good in the celebration of the Mawlid, then the people who were most enthusiastic to do good after the death of Prophet, and who loved the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) strongly, who were his companions, would have been the first to do it.
As they did not celebrate it at that time, then what was not a religion at their time will not be a religion after their death. Ibn Massaoud said: 'You follow or imitate but not innovate as your religion was completed, satisfactorily.'
We advise you to be kind and wise when calling your family to the Sunnah and to leave the Bid'ah, and Allah will enable you and guide you.
Allah knows best.