No Innovation in Veneration: The Legitimacy of Celebrating the Prophet's Birthday considering the Qur'an and Sunnah

Abstract

This study examines the jurisprudential legitimacy of celebrating the Prophet's birthday
(Mawlid al-Nabawi) through the lens of Islamic legal theory (Usul al-Fiqh) and
classical scholarly methodology. The research establishes the foundational principle
that veneration (ta'zim) of those whom God has commanded to be venerated—
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ISSN: XXXX-XXXX | Vol. __, No. __, 2026 | )IJLSS( اجمللة الدولية للقانون والعلوم االجتماعي
ة
particularly the Prophets—constitutes an independent act of worship, not merely
subsumed within imitation (ittiba'). The Qur'anic injunction to venerate the Prophet ﷺ
is demonstrated to be general and unconditional, coupled with faith itself, such that any
act of veneration falls under its scope, thereby precluding classification as reprehensible
innovation (bid'ah). Through the jurisprudential method of deriving rulings from
combined Qur'anic verses (istinbat bi-al-damimah), the study extracts the legitimacy of
Mawlid celebration from multiple Qur'anic texts. It concludes that commemorating the
Prophet's birth as an expression of gratitude for this supreme divine blessing is
jurisprudentially sound and consistent with the principle of the completeness of Islamic
law.