Why Celebrate Muhammad’s Birthday But Not Christmas?

Someone sent this question: “Why do you fight against celebrating Christmas and now you Muslims celebrate Mawlid (Muhammad’s Birthday)? Isn’t that what Muslims practice and preach all over the world?”

ANSWER

The celebration of Christmas has almost nothing to do with Jesus, and it’s well-known he wasn’t even born on December 25th, but Mithras was, a Roman figure who was worshipped as a son of God before Jesus was ever born. Muslim scholars agreed on celebrating of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, yet, Muslims are warned against venerating the Prophet excessively as the Christians did with Jesus.

Christmas: Not About Jesus

Now comes the issue of the practices observed by people at Christmas. These practices have nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus.

The true teachings of Jesus are totally ignored and forgotten. Therefore, Jesus is not part of the celebration. It is more or less a celebration of commercialism where decorations and presents are sold by the millions.

A very important point that must be highlighted here is that Muslims love and respect Jesus.

Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday

Now we come to the issue of celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Scholars allowed Muslims to celebrate the Prophet’s birthday provided that the celebration does not involve any prohibited practices.

The celebration is a means of expressing Muslims’ love for the Prophet and reviving his tradition, Muslims are warned against venerating the Prophet excessively as the Christians did with Jesus.

The Right Way to Commemorate Prophet Muhammad

What we see now are practices such as buying and eating sweets and having halaqas (sessions for remembering Allah) during the month of Rabi` Al-Awwal going around the villages and cities.

The occasion should be an opportunity to tell our children about the Prophet’s life and how he lived it according to the teachings of the Quran.

We should remind them of how the Prophet dealt kindly with the people around him whether Muslims or non-Muslims.

It should be an opportunity for introducing the Prophet to non-Muslims by focusing on his good manners and how he changed the world for the better.

How the Prophet inspired humanity in different fields such as education, environment, human rights, compassion, mercy, women rights, etc.

I hope this answers your question.

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