the Night Journey and Ascension.
Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh said: “Marking the anniversary of the Ascension is not part of the revealed law. The Qur’an, the Sunnah, the principle of presumption of continuity, and plain reason all testify to this.
• As for the Qur’an, Allah says, ‘Today I have perfected for you your religion’ (Qur’an 5:3).
• As for the Sunnah, al-Bukhārī and Muslim record from ʿĀ’ishah that the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Whoever introduces into our affair something that does not belong to it, it is rejected.’
• As for reason, had this observance been prescribed, the people most entitled to practise it would have been Muḥammad ﷺ himself and his Companions.”
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The ḥadīth shows that the two legitimate festivals for the Muslim community are Eid al-Fiṭr and Eid al-Aḍḥā.
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Numerous ḥadīths and early reports encourage Muslims to broaden their scope of lawful enjoyment on those two days—displaying happiness and cheer, adorning themselves, exchanging greetings and visits. They are festivals of gratitude to Allah, who has favoured the Muslims with the fast and night prayers of Ramaḍān and with the pilgrimage rites and sacrificial offerings carried out with ease. Muslims must therefore follow the established way and shun innovation, for the Sharīʿah is sufficient—without:
– participating with the unbelievers in their festivals or celebrating alongside them;
– adopting Western holidays implanted among us by colonial powers; or
– inventing festivals for Islamic occasions that were never observed in the Prophet’s lifetime, nor by any of his Companions, but were devised in later, less enlightened centuries when the Sunnah was forgotten, innovation revived, and the Muslim community fractured. We ask Allah to enable the Muslims to revive the Sunnah of their Prophet ﷺ. -
Excellence in calling to Allah and in the manner of doing so: when the Prophet ﷺ abolished the two festival days formerly kept by the people of Madinah, he used a gentle and appealing approach. He contrasted those jāhiliyyah days with Eid al-Fiṭr and Eid al-Aḍḥā, and he stated that the two days of Fiṭr and Aḍḥā—