Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem
"Dhikra Mawlid Rasul Allah (s)"
al-Hafiz Imaduddin Ibn Kathir
About Ibn Kathir's Book of Mawlid
We are currently in the process of translating
the book Dhikr Mawlid Rasulullah sallallahu 'alayhi was-salam
wa Rida'atihi li ibn Kathir. The book was written by Shaikh
ul-Islam 'Imaduddin Ibn Kathir, a follower of ash-Shaikh Taqi
ad-Din Ibn Taymiyya.
The book consists of 31 pages. We obtained a copy from the
Library of University of Princeton, between the many manuscripts
there where it was kept in collection under number 4098.
Collection 4098 has sixteen different important manuscripts, with
"Dhikra Mawlid Rasulullah" being one of them.
That book was written by Ibn Kathir who is a vey well-known
scholar from the Salafi school and who was a student of the main
Imam and founder of the Salafi school Shaikh ul-Islam, Taqi
ad-Din Ibn Taymiyya. When he died, Shaikh Ibn Kathir was buried
beside his shaikh, Ibn Taymiyya in the Sufi cemetery in Damascus
(al-maqbirat is-sufiyya fi Dimashq).
On the first page of the manuscript, Ibn Kathir says he wrote the
book at the request of one of the muadhineen (adhan
callers) in the mosque al-Muzaffari in Damascus, mosque of the
Hanbalis, in the Salihiyya District --the mosque built by
Muzaffar ad-Din Kawkaburi. It was known in Damascus as Jami'a
al-Hanabila. At that time Ibn Kallikan, the historian, described
the Mawlid of the Prophet (s) as a big celebration, which all
scholars of the time used to take as a national holiday and a
religious, holiday including Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathir. In that
mosque was happening a big ceremony for the mawlid. Therefore the
muadhins of that mosque, ash-Shaikh 'Imad ud-din Abi Bakr and the
Shaikh Badruddin Hassan asked Ibn Kathir to write a book about
the permissiblity of Mawlid in Islam.
Being a talmeez (follower) to his shaikh, Ibn Kathir
felt it necessary to ask his shaikh's permission for writing such
a book. He asked Shaikh Ibn Taymiyya, if he had permssion to
write it. Shaikh Ibn Taymiyya gave him permission and encouraged
him to do that. This manuscript tells us that Ibn Kathir and Ibn
Taymiyya, the great scholars of Islam, were giving permission and
authorizing reading of the remembrance of the Mawlid ash-sharif.
In order for the general public to understand, Ibn Kathir wrote
it in a very easy language and he included in it what is good to
be done in the remembrance of the Mawlid of the Prophet (s),
specifically the poetry, the seerah and what is to be said.
Ibn Kathir says in this book, on page 19:
"The Night of the Prophet's (s) birth is a magnificent, noble, blessed and holy night, a night of bliss for the Believers, pure, radiant with lights and of immeasurable price."
--Shaikh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani