Asalam u ailikum,my name is Ickbar Mohammed. I have a question on the prophet birthday, there is a community group we have and we usually celebrate the prophet's birthday. We sing the tazeem as well. i just want to know if it's the right or wrong to do so? Please let me know as soon as possible so i could spread the word to my community.

Alhamdu Lillah

Celebrating the Birthday of the Prophet SAAW is not a Sunnah, nor it is an innovation or Bida’ah as some people might think. It is just a permissible act within the following criteria:

1- People must believe that what they do is not an act of worship, and that no blame on those who do not do the same.

Believing otherwise would render the celebration into a Bida’ah as the rituals (or Ibadat) in Islam are restricted to what has been narrated only. Obviously, celebrating the Prophet’s birthday is not included.

2- Celebration must not be annually, rather it could be held in an irregular basis. Regularity and consistency in the celebration will turn the whole event into a Bida’ah.

3- No exaggeration allowed in the status of the Prophet SAAW in the delivered lectures or Nasheed sang. Some people exaggerate in promoting and admiring Him SAAW. Some even think that He SAAW benefits and harms, He knows the future and the unseen, some give Him a Divine nature like what Christians did with Jesus SAAW!

That is why the Prophet SAAW warned us against any overstatement or exaggeration in admiring Him by saying (Do not exaggerate in admiring me like what Christians did with Isa, the son of Mary. Verily, I am a slave of Allah. So, say: He is the slave and the messenger of Allah).

4- The celebration itself must not be associated with other sins, like intermingling between men and women, using musical instruments for the Nasheed, or the like.

5- And finally, the celebration should be on private and not on a public level. Meaning, the whole country must not take the Birthday of the Prophet SAAW as a holyday like Eid Al-Fitr & Eid Al-Adh-ha, as doing so will make the Islamic Holydays three in number, while they are only two.

Ibn Taymeyah, may Allah have mercy on his soul, was asked about the status of congregating for performing rituals and other devotions. He gave a long and detailed verdict, but the emphasis here is on what he said regarding gathering to celebrate the Mawled or the Birthday of the Prophet SAAW. He indicated clearly that doing so in an irregular basis is allowed.  The collection of the Fatawa of Ibn Taymeyah; Volume 23 page 132-133

Nevertheless, I recommend you not to celebrate the Birthday of the Prophet Mohammad SAAW as this is not the appropriate way of showing the love of the Prophet. The only appropriate way is to follow His Sunnah, and celebrating His Birthday is not a part of His Sunnah. Were it to be a devotion, the eminent companions RAA would’ve been the first ones to apply it!