Casablanca – While many Muslims in Morocco and in the Islamic world celebrate the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, others prefer not to celebrate the event.
Also known as Mouloud in Morocco, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday is marked as a public holiday in most Islamic countries.
Celebration of Eid El Mawlid
For many Moroccan families, the holiday is a time for reunion. Some families gather to feast while others recite poems or sing songs praising the Prophet Muhammad’s life, morals, and character.
Al Burda is one of the most celebrated odes for praise of Prophet’s life in the Arab countries. Shaykh al-Busairi wrote the ode in the 11th century.
For some other religious people, the occasion is more than poetry reading. It is a spiritual memorial day to review the Prophet’s life, teachings and the suffering he went through to convey and spread Islam religion.
Religious people also take the opportunity to preach about the prophet’s life as a model for their lives as stated in the Qur’an and books about the Sunnah.
To celebrate or not to celebrate
Public celebrations of the birth of Prophet Muhammad did not happen until about four centuries after his death. There are opposing beliefs towards perceiving Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.
Some Muslim people see the his birthday as an event to chant songs of praise. Others view the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday as heresy at variance with Islamic beliefs. Both sides support their views by providing arguments from the books about the Sunnah and about Muhammad’s life.
Muslims who do not participate in celebrations on this day may choose to use the time as they usually would or to read Qur’an.
Some others see fasting on this day as another way to celebrate the Prophet’s birth.
How do Muslims believe in the Prophet?
Muslims believe that God sent Muhammad to present and confirm the monotheistic teachings that prophets such as Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus preached previously.
Muslims also believe that Prophet Muhammad was the last messenger to complete God’s revelation.
Prophet Muhammad’s earliest teachings were mainly based on the oneness of God, the denunciation of polytheism, belief in the last judgment and its recompense, and social and economic justice.
Prophet Muhammad’s life
Prophet Muhammad was born on the 12th day of the Rabi Al Awwal Islamic month, the year 570 CE of the Gregorian calendar, in the Arabian Peninsula, in what today is known as Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He was orphaned, as his mother died shortly after his birth, and his father died before he was born. His uncle Abu Talib took care of him.
At the age of 40, the Prophet first began preaching in Mecca in 610. In 622, he was then forced to migrate to Medina, 400 kilometers north of Mecca, because of the oppression he faced from the Quraysh.
The Quraysh were a mercantile Arab tribe inhabited and controlled Mecca at the time. The tribe viewed Muhammad’s popularity as threat to their ancestral paganism, but mainly opposed the potential impact on their lucrative pilgrimage businesses.
The year 622 marked the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
In 630, Muhammad returned back to his native city of Mecca with 10,000 Muslim converts. He later died in his wife Aisha’s home, just two years later, in 632 in Medina.
