Four days ago, Muslims in Malaysia again did what may by now be deemed as their official annual routine; the commemoration of the Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday-or more famously known in its Arabic equivalent, Mawlidul-Rasul-in special gatherings.
As many authoritative scholars have explained, the Mawlid gatherings, in terms of validity, are like any other type of gathering.
If such gatherings involve righteous and sound actions-like the Qur’an recitation, remembrance of Allah, sending salutations upon the Prophet, feeding the poor, and any other action encouraged or enjoined by the Religion of Islam-then they are desirable and legally recommended and those engaging in them are indeed successful if they are sincere in seeking rewards from Allah.
If what partakes in them is merely permitted-like allowed talk, eating and drinking without intending the countenance of Allah-then they are considered permissible.
Yet, if what partakes in them is sinful-like backbiting other Muslims or any other forbidden act-then not only is engaging in such acts unlawful but the gatherings themselves also become unlawful.
Sadly though, the many commemorative gatherings convened of late have suffered a fate similar to what frequently happens to a once noble or virtuous act turned a routine.
The commemoration thus tends to be more ceremonial than the embodiment of the message and spirit of his prophecy whereas genuine celebration of his birth and prophecy requires that one sincerely emulate him and seriously embrace his teachings.
And one of the fundamental teachings of the Prophet which many Muslims nowadays tend to neglect or are simply ignorant of is to avoid being engaged in anything nonsensical or meaningless.
“Of a man’s superiority and excellence in Islam,” the Prophet said, “is his abstaining from that which does not concern him (or is not meaningful to him)” (min husn islam al-mar’ tarkuhu ma la yaÊ»nihi).
This saying of his is so basic to Islam that some learned commentators have regarded it as conveying half of what Islam really is.
For in their assessment, Islam is basically comprised of two main acts, the dos as well as the don’ts (al-fi’lwa al-tark), and the aforementioned saying captures the latter.
As is clear from the saying and also confirmed by many scholars in their deliberation, what is meant is not merely confined to one’s bodily actions but applies also to one’s mental acts as well as one’s utterances and writings.
And the Prophet was indeed the embodiment of it in all aspects of his life.
In conversations or when giving speech, for instance, he is well-known for precision, leaving out what is unnecessary, excessive and inappropriate.
Verbosity, as such, is a vice just as silence is evil on such occasions where getting the true message across is obligatory.
One of the Prophet’s salient virtues has been verified to be comprehensiveness in speech (jawamiÊ» al-kalim), embodying the maxim “be pertinent even if concise” (dalla wa-in qalla).
In fact, numerous past compilers of the authentic Prophetic sayings, whenever they sought to compose collections that betray the aforementioned virtue-of which the 13th-Century Muhy al-Din al-Nawawi’s Collection of Forty Prophetic Traditions is one good example, would more often than not include the above saying.
For the saying not only emphasizes such a virtue but also succinctly exemplifies it.
Ibn Daqiq al-Ê»Id of the late 13th Century, in elaborating on it, related a story about Luqman, a wise gentleman who is highly esteemed in the Qur’an.
The latter, when asked by some of his contemporaries as to the cause of the high regard he had obtained even in his own time, replied: “Being truthful and trustworthy, as well as leaving what I shouldn’t be preoccupied with.”
It is also narrated from Sayyidina Hasan, one of the Prophet’s grandchildren, that among the signs that Allah has abandoned His servant is the latter’s obsession with matters that are meaningless.
And this, among others, involves one’s courage to say no in matters that are really none of one’s genuine business.
Yet, to determine what is meaningful and that which is nonsensical, one needs reliable yardsticks, a clear frame of reference, and a certain order of priorities and posteriorities.
In the final analysis, however, such determination shall have to pertain to one’s true self and what it really needs in order to succeed and attain salvation.
Thus, the Prophet in a long advice to Abu Dharr, one of his famous companions, ended it by reminding: “It is enough that one harms oneself when one is ignorant of one’s own self and burdens it with matters that do not concern it.”