Eid Meelaad-un-Nabi (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) {Page 1}

By: Allamah Kaukab Noorani Okarvi
Translated by
Saiyyid Ghulam Khawajah

Hanafi is my creed, and I belong to Hazrat Ibraaheem Khaleel ul Laah's Millat. Dust from under the feet of Ghaus A'zam, I am a devotee of all (Auliyaa) the friends of Al-Laah.

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*Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat 'Umar, Hazrat 'Usmaan, Hazrat 'Alec (Radiyal Laahu 'Anhum)

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Wondrously excellent the full moon (the beloved of Al-Laah, (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) Has arisen over us from the vale of separation. It has, thus, become incumbent upon us To be thankful For the appearance of the full moon (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) till such time as A supplicant can pray, that is till doomsday.

That Blessed Assembly In The World Of Spirits.

Of The Souls Of All Prophets Of

Al-Laah ('Alaihimus Salaam)

At which the Creator Of The Heavens And The earth mentioned The Coming of His beloved Rasool (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam)

And then to that Joyous moment when The moon of Taibah

(Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) manifested Itself In All Its Resplendence.

Kaukab Noorani Okarvi

(Ghufira Lahu)

Al-Laah Subhaanahu has been most gracious to my humble self in that. I have been able to wholly devote myself to the service of the Faith and the Muslim Ummah. And to the cause of defending the honour and dignity of Hazrat Muhammad (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam), the Prophet of Allah. May my striving in this regard benefit the Ahle Sunnat Wa Jama'at as a whole! Aameen.

By way of recounting the blessings conferred upon me. let me state that I owe allegiance to all four spiritual orders (Naqshbandee, Qaudiree, Chishtee, Suhrwardee). Through the great spiritual Guide of the times, Hazrat Ganj-e-Karam Peer Saiyyid Muhammad Ismaiel Shah Bukhaari, popularly known as Hazrat Karmaan Waale (may Allah be happy with him and have mercy on him).

So far as education and training is concerned. The teachings and diplomas (Asnaad) have blessed me in tafseer and hadeeth by my own father, reviver of the Faith and great lover of the holy Prophet. Khateeb A'zam of Pakistan, Maulana Muhammad Shafee Okarvi Alaihir Rahmatu War Ridwaan, and faqeeh of his times, Shaikhul Islaam Maulana Ghulaam Ali Ashrafi Okarvi, and the Ghazaali of his times and Imaam of the Ahle Sunnat, Allamah Saiyyid Ahmad Sa'eed Kaazimi (may Al-Laah be pleased with him).

In addition, I have been the recipient of permission and diplomas in tafseer and hadeeth from Aalim Hijaaz, Hazrat Saiyyid Alive Maaliki Makki, from Mufti Baghdad, Mullah Abdul Kareem Muhammad Al Mudarris, and from the great scholar, Allamah Shah Abul Hasan Zaid Farooqi Dehlvi.

Several renowned divines, also, have honored me by giving me (Ijaazat wa Khilaafat) permission and discipleship in all the spiritual orders. (Salaasil-e-Tareeqat).

Even with all this, I consider myself to be only a beginner. And a mere servant of the "friends" of Al-Laah Subhaanahu and I wish that all believers and all men of goodwill may pray that I be steadfast in my belief in Al-Laah Subhaanahu, and that my end be good.

Since I acquired the capacity to recognise words and letters, I have spent most part of my life in acquiring and researching in the fields of knowledge and the arts, and of writing and speaking.

Keeping night vigil in prayers has been a habit with me, and most of my friends are fully aware of my deep attachment to knowledge and excellences as well as to books and the pen.

I have also undertaken extensive and difficult journeys through the countries of the Islamic world and of Africa and Europe. The meetings I have had with men of excellence and the holy places of high renown I have visited and the way I have benefited from them have strengthened my belief in my own redemption and have brought peace to my soul. Al-Laah be praised for all this!

My father departed from this world rather early, and this made me feel very desolate. I realised only then how his personality had been instrumental in keeping away from me many stresses and deep chasms.

His personality had many facets: an embodiment of pure love and manifestation of excellence. It is said that a good man is never alone and I found this to be true in the case of my father.

I always found him amidst a host of well wishes, devotees, and those who owed allegiance to him.

Even his opponents knew it only too well that Maulana Okarvi was not merely the name of a single individual; his was the name of a body of right guided persons, the name of a solid rock of greatness and steadfastness and of right and of truth.

My father's mentor, the revered Allamah Kaazimi, has very rightly observed: "Because of the qualities which he had in him, Maulana Okarvi was greatly envied by renowned people of the times in which he lived".

To whichever place he went, he was loved and respected for his piety. Whatever service he rendered by persisting in being an indefatigable strives after truth was a great feat. On the morning of 21st Raja, 1404 A.H. he left his earthly abode with praises to Al

Laah and salutations to His Apostle on his lips (may Al-Laah be happy with him). When he left for his heavenly abode, he had constructed more than a hundred Masaajld. (Mosques) a like number of Madaaris (religious schools), served many an institution, left behind highly valued writings, more than 18,000 sparkling speeches before multitudes, and enabled millions of people to be ardently in love with the Prophet of Madinah (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam).

I cannot recount to you the tremendous trials, which crowded on me from all sides after he left us. Whatsoever I may do and in howsoever way I may act, still how I can equal the way he did it. It has never been an easy task for me to console those who heard him and saw him and read him, and it is not so even today.

It is not an easy thing to make the foul mouthed detractors of the holy Prophet understand that the standard of the great savant that Maulana Okarvi was, and still is, distinguished and aloft. I am convinced that his noble soul must have pleaded for me before the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam). And I am sure that but for his goodness which has so far contributed to my success, the ingeniousness of the tyrants would have surely ruined me altogether a sordid game they are still playing.

But all I have to say to all such people is that the mercy of my Master, the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam), encompasses me more thoroughly than the enmity of my enemies, and my illustrious elders guard me and help me.

And I must say that the accepted prayer for his eulogists by the beloved of the Creator and His creations, the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) to Al

Laah, "help one who eulogies me with the Holy Spirit", has helped me tremendously.

I do not for one moment fear death or hurt at the hands of my adversaries. The only wish embedded in my heart and mind is that when my soul departs from my body then my eyes are set on the glorious face of my beloved Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) and my lips are busy in sending salutations to him. I only pray that profitable knowledge along with steadfastness be my destiny. I beseech everybody to join me in this prayer.

I have already said that it has never been my intention to hurt the feelings of anybody by tongue or by writing, even inadvertently, or to cause split or division within the Muslim Ummah.

But if it is a question of not paying the respect that is due to the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) Or if it is a question of due respect not being paid to the venerated companions of the holy Prophet or members of the holy Prophet's household. Or if it is a question of not paying due respect to the "friends" of Al-Laah Subhaanahu and upholders of Al-Laah's ordinances and signs (may Al-Laah be pleased with them), then I deem it my religious duty to assert the truth and to belie the falsehood.

On such occasions, I consider silence for the sake of expediency to be not only the worst sort of hypocrisy but taint mounting to unbelief. I will, then, not care for my assassination, but even my soul will feel most repulsed at not being able to punish such foul mouthed detractors of my Master.

I may state here that all my writings and speeches in rebuttal of Deobandi Wahaabi propagandists and of every other false sect reflect my fundamental belief that it would be absolutely unbearable for me to tolerate any insolence towards our beloved Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam).

My energy would not let me rest unless I have been able to give a silencing reply to the rubbish uttered by the foul-mouthed detractors of my Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam). At such times, how I wish I had not only the pen in my hand, but some such thing with which I could really silence such people.

Eid-I-Meelaad-un-Nabee (celebrating the birth of the holy Prophet, (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) is the first and foremost Eid of the universe. This concerns a personality but for whose creation there would have been no Eid and none to celebrate it.

I do not insist that those who refuse to celebrate the birth of the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam). Do so, but it is beyond me not to punish those detractors who declare celebrating the holy Prophet's birthday to be a thing which is both "pagan and innovative" (Shirk Bid'at).

This is so because my unbounded love for the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) prompts me not to tolerate such utterances. Showing the mirror to the detractors of the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) is ordained by Al-Laah Himself, and I am happy that my action in exposing such people is in accordance with the tradition set by Al-Laah Himself.

I do not know who that unfortunate person in "Honey Dew" (of South Africa) is who declared "12th Rabi-ul-Awwal' as the day of the holy Prophet's passing away instead of being his birthday, and has called for it to be observed as a day of mourning. He has also charged those who celebrate the holy Prophet's birthday as imitating the ways of non

Before this, in a book called Baraaheen-e-Qaati’ah (Final Arguments for Rejection), two stalwarts of the Deoband school of paganism and innovation and fabrication, Rasheed Ahmad Gangohi and Khaleel Ahmad Ambethvi, had likened celebrating the holy Prophet's birthday to celebrating the birth of Hindu god Kanaihya. The great irony of it is that the disciples of those who had thus likened celebrations marking the holy Prophet's birthday are now themselves celebrating it. Previously, they had been enjoining upon people to observe "Seerat-un-Nabee", but now people have realised that Seerat (traits) are not celebrated but acquired.

The present book by me is a rejoinder to a poster published by "Honey Dew", which itself pleads for celebrating the holy Prophet's birthday and has been written by the scholars of Deoband. A perusal of the list of subjects dealt with in it will make it perfectly clear to you all that celebrating the holy Prophet's birthday is not an innovation but preventing people from celebrating it is. Such a person does not know the meaning and import of "Meelaad, otherwise he would not have been so foolish as to call "Meelaad" an act of associating others with Al-Laah in worship (Shirk). He should know that celebrating Meelaad contradicts the very concept of joining anybody or anything with Al-Laah Subhaanahu. True, indeed, that those whose hearts are devoid of love for the holy Prophet are, also, devoid of profitable knowledge. May Al-Laah Almighty protects us from the mischief of such people! Aameen.

I must make it clear that I have written the rejoinder to "Honey Dew's" poster solely for the purpose of defending the dignity of the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) and I am sure that my striving has already been approved by him. It so happened that four days after finishing writing the tract at the house of my dear brother, Haaji Haashim Yoosuf Mansoor, in Piet Retief. And after I had gone to Durban along with my host, Haaji A.K.I. Mansoor Sahib, where I handed over the manuscript to the respected Maulana Muhammad Bana Shafi'ee Qaadiri, Secretary General, Maulana Okarvi Academy Al A'lami, South Africa, a wonderful thing happened to me. This slave of the slaves of the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam) was blessed by a vision of the holy Prophet (Sallal Laahu Alaihi wa Sallam). It is my earnest supplication that I may be repeatedly blessed with such a vision.

In the end, it is my duty to give thanks to my hosts in South Africa, the Mansoor family, the Wazar family, my other associates and all men of goodwill, and to ask them for my success. May Al-Laah Almighty blesses all such people with His mercy! Aameen.