ABSTRACT
As a new religious practice, the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday required justification by scholars who encouraged or condoned it. The observance of the occasion of the Prophet’s birth was often conceptualized by jurists as a form of reciprocation for God’s bestowal of the Prophet Muhammad. In this view, the Prophet himself was a gift conferred on the Muslim community and, indeed, on all of humanity; the bestowal of such a momentous gift required thanks, which were constituted by the celebration of the mawlid. The Damascene Shafi‘i Abu Shama (d. 665 AH/1268 CE) justifies the celebration of the mawlid on the basis that, in addition to involving charity toward the poor and the expression of love for the Prophet, it constitutes “thanks to God for what he has bestowed [upon His creatures] by creating His Messenger, whom He sent as a mercy to the worlds.”1
