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ʿAbd al-Sāmī al-Rampūrī
A khalīfa of Ḥajjī Imdād Allāh, he authored al-Anwār as-Sāṭiʿa fī Ithbāt al-Mawlid wal-Fātiḥa.
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Abū Shāma 599–665 AH
The ḥāfiẓ and historian, Shaykh of Imām al-Nawawī, wrote in his book on innovations, al-Bāʿith ʿalā Inkār al-Bidaʿ wal-Ḥawādith:
“Among the best innovations in our day is the remembrance of the birthday of the Prophet.”
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Al-ʿAlāʾī 694–761 AH
The Ḥanafī ḥāfiẓ Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl ibn Kīkaldī al-ʿAlāʾī authored al-Durra al-Saniyya fī Mawlidi Khayr al-Bariyya.
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Al-Bakrī
Shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bakrī wrote the seven-part al-Anwār wa Miftāḥ al-Surūr wal-Afkār fī Mawlid al-Nabī al-Mukhtār — “The Lights and the Key to Happiness and Reflection Concerning the Birth of the Elect Prophet.”
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Al-Bursawī d. after 800 AH
The Ottoman Shaykh al-Islām Sulaymān al-Bursawī, Imām to Sultan Yıldırım Bāyazīd, authored a Mawlid text that achieved great fame and was recited at Mawlid gatherings for a long time.
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Dahlān
The Shaykh al-Islām and Muftī of Makka, al-Sayyid Aḥmad ibn Zaynī Dahlān, wrote in his great work al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya wal-Āthār al-Muḥammadiyya:
“To celebrate the Mawlid and to remember the Prophet is accepted by all the ʿUlamāʾ of the Muslims.”
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Al-Dirdīr
The Mālikī Faqīh Sīdī al-Dirdīr composed his own Mawlid.
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Al-Fayrūzābādī d. 817 AH
The Shāfiʿī Imām, ḥāfiẓ, and lexicographer Majd al-Dīn Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Fayrūzābādī al-Shīrāzī authored al-Nafḥāt al-ʿAnbariyya fī Mawlidi Khayri al-Bariyya.
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Ḥājjī Imdād Allāh Muhājir Makkī d. 1317 AH / 1899 CE
The murshid of Rashīd Aḥmad Gangohī held Mawlid gatherings each year, standing to recite invocations of blessings and peace upon the Prophet.
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Al-Haytamī
The Imām and ḥāfiẓ of Makka, pre-eminent jurist of the Shāfiʿī school, Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, addressed the Mawlid across several works: al-Fatāwā al-Ḥadīthiyya; al-Niʿmat al-Kubrā ʿalā al-ʿĀlam fī Mawlidi Sayyidi Walad Ādam; Taḥrīr al-Kalām fī al-Qiyāmi ʿinda Dhikri Mawlidi Sayyid al-Anām; and Tuḥfat al-Akhyār fī Mawlid al-Mukhtār.
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Al-Ḥimyarī
Shaykh ʿĪsā al-Ḥimyarī authored Bulūgh al-Maʾmūl fī al-Ihtifāʾ wal-Iḥtifāl bi-Mawlid al-Rasūl.
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Ibn Diḥya d. 633 AH
The Mālikī ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Khaṭṭāb ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥasan, known as Ibn Diḥya al-Kalbī, authored al-Tanwīr fī Mawlid al-Sirāj al-Munīr.
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Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī
Issued a fatwā declaring the praiseworthiness of celebrating the Mawlid, quoted in full by al-Suyūṭī in Ḥusn al-Maqṣid:
“An authentic primary textual basis from which its legal validity is inferable has occurred to me — the rigorously authenticated ḥadīth in Bukhārī and Muslim that the Prophet came to Madīna and found the Jews fasting on the tenth of Muḥarram (ʿĀshūrāʾ). He asked them, and they replied: ‘It is the day Allah drowned Pharaoh and rescued Mūsā, so we fast in it to give thanks to Allah.’ This indicates the validity of giving thanks to Allah for a blessing bestowed on a particular day … Then what blessing is greater than the birth of the Prophet, the Prophet of mercy, on this day?”
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Ibn al-Humām’s Father d. 887 AH
Burhān al-Dīn Abū al-Ṣafāʾ ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Wafāʾ al-Shāfiʿī al-Maqdisī authored Fatḥ Allāhu Ḥasbī wa Kafā fī Mawlid al-Muṣṭafā.
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Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Dimashqī 777–842 AH
The ḥāfiẓ of Damascus wrote three works on the subject: Jāmiʿ al-Āthār fī Mawlid al-Nabī al-Mukhtār, al-Lafẓ al-Rāʾiq fī Mawlid Khayr al-Khalāʾiq, and Wird al-Ṣādī bi Mawlid al-Nabī al-Hādī. In the latter, having cited al-Bukhārī’s narration that Abū Lahab’s torment is lightened every Monday for having freed his slave-girl in joy at the Prophet’s birth, he wrote in verse:
“If such a disbeliever was denounced, and ‘Perish his hands’ in flames without end — yet it is narrated that every Monday his torment is lightened because of his joy at Aḥmad’s birth — what do you make of a servant who spent all his life happy with Aḥmad, and died believing in Divine Oneness?”
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Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī
Held the same opinion, as cited by ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Kattānī in al-Yumn wal-Isʿād.
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ʿIllīsh
The Mālikī Faqīh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ʿIllīsh addressed the Mawlid in al-Qawl al-Munjī, his commentary on al-Barzanjī’s Mawlid.
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Al-ʿIrāqī
The Egyptian Imām, ḥāfiẓ, and Shaykh al-Islām Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī authored al-Mawrid al-Hanī fil-Mawlid al-Sanī — “The Quenching Spring Concerning the Pure Prophetic Birth.”
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Al-Jazarī d. 833 AH
The specialist of Qurʾānic readings and ḥāfiẓ of Egypt, Shams al-Dīn al-Jazarī, authored ʿUrf al-Taʿrīf bil-Mawlid al-Sharīf — “The Beneficent Communication on the Noble Prophetic Birth.”
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Al-Kattānī d. 1345 AH
The Mālikī Ḥadīth master and Imām, al-Sayyid al-Sharīf Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Kattānī, authored al-Yumnu wal-Isʿādu bi Mawlidi Khayri al-ʿIbād.
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Al-Luʾluʾī d. 867 AH
The Shaykh of Damascus, Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Luʾluʾī, authored al-Durr al-Munaẓẓam fī Mawlid al-Nabī al-Muʿaẓẓam and its abridgment, al-Lafẓ al-Jamīl bi Mawlid al-Nabī al-Jalīl.
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Al-Mālikī
Shaykh al-Islām al-Sayyid Muḥammad ibn ʿAlawī ibn ʿAbbās al-Mālikī, in al-Bayān wal-Taʿrīf fī Dhikra al-Mawlid al-Nabawī al-Sharīf and Ḥawla Iḥtifāl al-Mawlid al-Nabawī al-Sharīf, gave the following fatwā:
“We say that celebrating the Mawlid of the Prophet is acceptable, that gatherings for hearing his Sīra and Madḥ written for him are acceptable, and that giving food to people and bringing happiness to the Umma on that occasion is acceptable. We say the celebration must not only be on the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, but can and should be on every day of every month, so people feel the light of Islam in their hearts. We say that Mawlid gatherings are an effective means for calling people to Islam and educating children — a golden opportunity for every scholar and dāʿī to remind the Nation of the Prophet’s good character.”
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Al-Nabhānī
The pious Qāḍī of Beirut, Imām Yūsuf ibn Ismāʿīl al-Nabhānī, authored al-Naẓm al-Badīʿ fī Mawlid al-Shafīʿ — “The Fine Poetry on the Birth of the Intercessor.”
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Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī d. 1014 AH
The ḥāfiẓ of Makka authored al-Mawrid al-Rāwī fī al-Mawlid al-Nabawī — “The Quenching Spring on the Prophetic Birth.”
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Al-Sakhāwī
The Egyptian Imām and ḥāfiẓ al-Sakhāwī authored a book on the Mawlid titled Subul al-Hudā.
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The Muḥaddith Ibn al-Jawzī
Recorded in al-Mīlād un-Nabī (p. 58):
“From the first of Rabīʿ ul-Awwal, the people of the honourable Ḥaramayn, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and all the other Arab cities in the East and West celebrate the gathering of Mawlid an-Nabawī. The main events are the recitation of and listening to the events of the Mawlid. Through these gatherings, people attain great reward and many spiritual successes.”
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Imām al-Qasṭallānī Commentator of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
Recorded in al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyya (1:27):
“Muslims have always been celebrating through gatherings in Rabīʿ ul-Awwal, the month of his birth. In these nights they increase ṣadaqah and good deeds; in particular they attain Allah’s mercy by narrating the Prophet’s birth in these gatherings. The gathering of Mawlid is proven to bring barakah, which ensures peace throughout the year.”
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Shāh ʿAbd al-Raḥīm d. 1131 AH / 1719 CE
The father of Shāh Walī Allāh held Mawlid gatherings annually, preparing and distributing meals to the poor.
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Shāh Walī Allāh Dihlawī d. 1176 AH / 1762 CE
Continued the family practice of holding annual Mawlid gatherings and feeding the poor, as recorded in al-Durr al-Munaẓẓam (p. 89) and Tafsīr ʿAzīzī (Sūra Alam Nashraḥ). He once attended a Mawlid gathering in Makka al-Mukarrama during which he said he saw manifestations of light cascading down, recorded in Fuyūḍ al-Ḥaramayn (p. 80–81).
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Shāh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Dihlawī d. 1239 AH / 1834 CE
Son of Shāh Walī Allāh and one of the renewers of the thirteenth Hijrī century, he likewise held annual Mawlid gatherings and distributed meals to the poor.
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Shāh Mazhar Allāh Dihlawī
The Grand Muftī held Mawlid gatherings in great splendour, lasting all night from ʿIshāʾ until Fajr, with ṣalawāt and salām recited standing, followed by the distribution of food and sweetmeats — recorded in Tadhkara-i-Maẓhar-i-Masʿūd (p. 176–177).
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Al-Shawkānī
Though he followed no school of law but the proofs of the Law directly, he wrote in his biographical compendium al-Badr al-Ṭāliʿ: “It is permissible to celebrate the Prophet’s birthday,” noting that Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī held the same view.
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Al-Subkī
Shaykh al-Islām, the foremost Shāfiʿī jurist Taqī al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī al-Subkī, used to celebrate the Mawlid surrounded by the ʿUlamāʾ of Damascus, as reported by his son, Imām Tāj al-Dīn ibn al-Subkī, in Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya al-Kubrā.
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Al-Suyūṭī
The Egyptian Imām and ḥāfiẓ wrote the fatwā Ḥusn al-Maqṣid fī ʿAmal al-Mawlid — “The Excellent Goal in the Celebration of the Prophetic Birth” — within his compendium al-Ḥāwī lil-Fatāwā:
“The reason for gathering for tarāwīḥ prayers is Sunna and qurba … and similarly we say that the reason for gathering to celebrate the mawlid is mandūb and qurba … and the intention to celebrate the mawlid is mustaḥsana without a doubt.”
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Shaykh Aḥmad Zarrūq 846–899 AH
The 15th-century Moroccan scholar in his commentary on al-Qasṭallānī’s al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyya, he defended al-Suyūṭī’s refutation of al-Fākihānī’s objections, as cited by al-Kattānī in al-Yumnu wal-Isʿād (p. 24):
“Al-Suyūṭī took care of refuting all that he forwarded in support of his claim, word for word — may Allah grant him increased care and kindness!”
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Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya A note on the sole dissent
Even the scholar most often invoked by opponents of the Mawlid conceded the good intention behind it, writing:
“What some people innovated, either by analogy with the Christians who celebrate the birth of ʿĪsā, or out of love for the Prophet and in order to exalt him — Allah may reward them for such love and effort, but not on the fact that it is an innovation … So one may magnify the birthdate of the Prophet and treat it as a festival, perhaps obtaining immense reward for it because of his good intention in honouring the Messenger of Allah.”
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Al-Qaraḍāwī
Dr. Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī issued a recent fatwā in support of celebrating the Mawlid.
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Qāsim Nānotwī
One of the founders of the Deobandī school, he would stand during the Mawlid and recite, as recorded in Qaṣāʾid Qāsimī Deobandī (p. 8):
“Help me, kindness of Aḥmad! For, besides you, there is no helper for Qāsim the helpless!”