Is celebrating the "Mawlid day" Halal or Haram?
In my community, we used to celebrate the birth day of Mohammed (PBUH). In the past 30 or so years a lot of people start saying this is haram. Many people stopped doing it for many reasons but mainly not because they said it is haram but because the people who prohibit it are really bothering the people who do it. Like calling us "Mushrikin" or "Bid'ah".
I can see why they prohibit it, because some people do something considered odd by most Muslims, Like dancing or singing.. But the Celebrations I am talking about are simple, No dancing or any stuff like that. We gather, we read Quran, say some stories about Mohammed (PBUH) and remind each other about his ethics (Akhlaq). One more thing to mention, this kind of Mawlids are celebrated in many random days in a year not only in the real birthday of the prophet. But the name is Mawlid still. I think we do it this way to avoid making that day so special. Many times we call it 'Jalsat Zekr' جلسة ذكر and not Mawlid.
My question: Is celebrating Mawlid the way I describe it Halal or Haram and why?
