Showing Devotion to the Prophet: Alternatives to Mawlid Celebrations
If not by Celebrating Mawlid, then how to Express our love for Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم
1. Believing in Whatever He Informed About.
To believe in the khabar (report, information) of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in everything that he informed about of the unseen and seen, the past, present and future, the world, the barzakh and the hereafter. This is because he is the truthful, and whatever he informed his ummah from His Lord is true and real.
2. To Follow Him (Ittibā) and Obey His Command and Restrict Oneself To His Sunnah.
This is from the greatest of signs of loving the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and is from the easiest of what distinguishes genuine, sincere love from what is besides it. The texts in the Qur’ān and the Sunnah in this regard are plentiful and abundant, and the Prophet severely warned against opposing his Sunnah and from innovations in the religion and we shall mention some of that in this treatise.
3. Judging to His Sunnah and Sharīah in Disputes.
This is also from the greatest signs of genuine, pure love, that a believer refers all disputes back to the Sharīah and authentic Sunnah of Allāh’s Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. Many people will judge to the opinions of their school of thought or to fabricated and weak narrations or to isolated (shādh) opinions and they will rely heavily on the statements of the latecomers from the 7th century and beyond and abandon the earlier generations closer to the era of Prophethood and closer to right guidance and at the head of them are the Companions. Judging to the Sharīah of Islām and to the Prophetic Sunnah is to make interpretations of the texts only through what the Companions knew and understood. Departing from their understanding and implementation is a clear and open sign of deviation because in the Qur’ān, Allāh made following their way from guidance itself.
4. Respecting (Tawqĩr) and Venerating (Ta’zīr) the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
From the signs of respecting the Prophet is not to raise one’s voice over his and not to put oneself ahead of the Prophet, meaning his command, his Sunnah and his Sharīah and also to be abundant and frequent in sending şalāt upon him. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “The miser is the one who when I am mentioned does not send şalãt upon me.”
5. Defending his Sunnah
The Companions were the best and truest examples of defending the Sunnah and of sacricifing with theirselves, wealth and children, in times of ease and hardship and their biographies are the greatest illustrations of this. When that which the Prophet had صلى الله عليه وسلم informed of splitting and the appearance of the sects, it was the Companions who preserved the Sunnah and conveyed it to the Successor (Tābiīn). The Companions rejected innovations in belief and worship and they transmitted what they knew of the Sunnah. The preservation of the religion was at their hands due to their transmission of the Sunnah and rejection of what opposed it from the innovations. A person’s love of the Prophet remains only a claim and cannot be genuine without following their way.
This is how the Companions loved and respected the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and there was no calamity greater upon them than the passing away of the Prophet.
Despite that, they preserved and protected the religion by conveying it with care and precision to those who came after them. However, there appeared enemies of Islām, such as ‘Abdullāh bin Saba’ al-Yahūdi whose subversive activities led to splitting and innovations and from the manifestation of those activities were the appearance of the Khawārij and the Rawāfid (commonly, the Shiah). The Shỉite movements became a magnet and refuge for every external enemy of Islām who desired evil for it and its people.
[Source : Regarding Celebration of the Prophet’s Mawlid by Abū Iyaad Amjad Rafiq]