&

STANDING AT THE MENTION OF THE BIRTH OF THE PROPHET

ON THE NIGHT OF THE MAWLID
Shaykh ߥli^ al-AsmarÏ al-¤anbalÏ

Released by www.marifah.net 1431 H

QUESTION:

What do the Sufis intend when they stand at the mention of the Prophet’s birth s during the night
of the Mawlid?

ANSWER:

They do it to honour him s. Ab‰ Zakariyy¥ Ya^y¥ al-ßar|arÏ al-¤anbalÏ (may Allah have mercy
on him) said, as was cited in >abaq¥t al-Sh¥fi¢Ïyya

The script of the finest calligrapher in gold ink on silver

Is not praise enough for al-Mu|~af¥
Nor for nobles to rise when they hear his name,
Standing in rows upright on their mounts.
As for Allah, He glorified him by inscribing his name
On His Throne; Alas, what a rank, beyond all other ranks!

The noble Sufis only stand at the specific moment when his mother ®mina’s delivering of him
is mentioned, and that is because all the goodness which followed his coming s was dependent on
his birth; therefore, to stand at that point makes up for not doing so at the mention of all other
events.

The proof for this is the analogy drawn between standing upon the mention of his birth, and
the way one would stand for him upon actually seeing him; this was mentioned by the author of
Nih¥yah al-Irsh¥d bi Layla I^tif¥l al-Mil¥d, and others.

It is established that the Companions stood for him s, one example being the ^adÏth of our
master Abu Hurayra g, who said: “The Prophet s would talk with us, and if he stood, we also
stood and remained standing until we saw that he had entered the house of one of his wives.” This
was reported by Ab‰ D¥w‰d (4:247.) Al-NawawÏ (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Al-
Tarakhu| Ïi al-Ikr¥m bÏ al-Qiy¥m (p.44): “The chain of this ^adÏth is an authentic (ßa^Ï^) chain,”
and he graded it as good (¤asan).

Note: Books have been written on this particular issue, such as Isti^b¥b al-Qiy¥m ¢Inda Dhikr
Wil¥datihi s, Ma^mud al-¢A~~¥r al-DimashqÏ (AH 1382), may Allah have mercy on him, and the
book Ta^qiq al-Kal¥m fÏ Wuj‰b al-Qiy¥m by Mu^ammad al-Q¥simÏ. And Allah knows best.