Numerous works and epistles—both classical and contemporary—have been composed to refute this innovation.
Moreover, beyond the fact that it is an innovation and an imitation of others, it inevitably leads to the establishment of additional mawlids: those of saints, shaykhs, and political figures, thereby opening many doors to evil.
Seeking Blessing from Places, Relics, and Persons, Living or Dead
Tabarruk (seeking blessing) is the request for blessing—namely, the continuance and increase of goodness in something. Such continuance and increase can only come from the One who owns and controls it, Allah the Exalted, for He alone sends down and preserves blessing. A created being has no power to grant, create, maintain, or preserve it.
Accordingly, seeking blessing from places, relics, or persons—whether they are alive or deceased—is not permissible. If a person believes that the object itself grants blessing, this is outright polytheism; and if he thinks that merely visiting, touching, or rubbing against it is a cause for Allah to bestow blessing, this is a pathway that leads to polytheism.
As for what the Companions used to do—seeking blessing from the Prophet’s hair, saliva, and whatever separated from his blessed body—this was exclusive to him during his lifetime. The proof is that after his death the Companions did not seek blessing from his chamber or his grave, nor did they purposely visit the places in which he had prayed or sat in order to seek blessing, much less any other sites. They likewise did not seek blessing from righteous individuals such as Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, or the other eminent Companions, neither while they were alive nor after their death. They did not go to the Cave of Ḥirāʾ to pray or supplicate there, nor to Mount Sinai where Allah spoke to Moses, nor to any other mountain said to contain stations of prophets or others, and they never visited a shrine built upon the trace of any prophet.
Furthermore, the very spot in Medina where the Prophet regularly prayed was never touched or kissed by the early generations, nor was the place in Mecca where he had prayed.