Today is the 15th of Sha’ban, the birthday (mawlid) of the 12th Imam according to the Twelver Imamite Shia. The mawlid (birth) of the Shia Mahdi is one of the most important religious occasions according to the Twelvers.
Neither Sunnis nor any other Shia sect, aside from the Twelver sect, believe that an alleged Mahdi was born over a millennium ago. Zaydis, just like Sunnis, affirm that Hasan al-Askari, the alleged father of the ‘Mahdi,’ had no children whatsoever as he was infertile! The Twelvers disagree and have created an entire cult (‘Mahdaviyat’) and occult around the so-called occultation (Ghaybat) of their ‘Mahdi’. They claim, based on flimsy reports even according to their own science of hadith standards, that the 15th of the sixth Islamic month of Sha’ban is the birthday of the Twelfth and last Shia Imam.
The Shia obsession with their Imam-centric ideology has driven them to distort even the sacred month of Sha’ban. They shamelessly claim that its essence revolves around the birthday of one of their Imams rather than the fundamental principle of Tawhid, as believed by Ahl al-Sunnah. (To them, the climax of Ramadan is the martyrdom of Ali ibn Abi Talib!)
The celebration of the Shia Mahdi’s birthday (who, according to Shia books, will emerge on the Majoosi festival of Nowruz and eventually be killed by some bearded lady) birthday is Iran’s grandest festival of lights, or at least it was, given the prevalent mass apostasy and irreligiosity in Shia regions of Iran today.
The Iranian regime lavishes a substantial amount of public wealth on the birthday festivities of a purported Mahdi, featuring fireworks, brightly lit streets, and large-scale celebrations while urging Iranians to pilgrimage to various shrines in Iran and Iraq.
Allow me to dissect the heresy of this celebration in this conversation:
Ahl al-Sunnah:There is no sahih hadith about a specific virtue of the 15th of Sha’ban. At most, one can say that some of the Salaf al-Salih increased worship, i.e., remembering and worshipping GOD/ALLAH (not saints), on this day (and in Sha’ban in general). So, as usual, Ahl al-Sunnah are being God-centric. This month is not about any imam or caliph. It’s about TAWHID!
Le Imamites: Umm… Our Ayatollahs promised us that the holy hidden 12th Imam (pseudo-Mahdi) was born on this day, and therefore we throw a birthday party (mawlid) for him and declare that day as a day of celebration (Id). It’s an official holiday in Iran, along with many other mawlids.
Ahl al-Sunnah: Ok, cool story. But do you feel at least a bit hypocritical for referring to Salah al-Tarawih as a bid’ah?! Plus, since your ‘Mahdi’ is now 1100+ years old, how do you fit 1100+ candles on his birthday cake?
Le Imamites: Nowsibi!!!
And this is just the tip of the Rafidi iceberg. The Twelver Imamite sect and its clergy have innovated numerous festivals and days of mourning in the name of Islam and the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them).
These are heresies upon heresies, which none of the Ahl al-Bayt ever advised anybody to commemorate or celebrate. On the contrary, the Imams of the progeny of the Prophet (ﷺ) had no other festivals than the two Eids (Al-Fitr and Al-Adha), just like the rest of Ahl al-Sunnah.
In 2008, Iran Daily, an English-language newspaper published by the Iranian government, highlighted that “the problem of too many annual public holidays has perpetually been a subject of concern.” It pointed out that “if official and unofficial holidays are added to weekends, almost half the year the country is holidaying!”
Low efficiency has long been a significant challenge to productivity in the Iranian business community. Amongst the critical issues for Iranian enterprises is the high number of public holidays. In fact, Iran has over two dozen public holidays, comprising national and religious occasions, most of which are Shia celebrations dedicated to Shia saints (Imams).
These are the consequences of introducing heresies (bid’ah) into the religion. The proliferation of mourning and birthday celebrations for their buried saints has had a detrimental impact on their economy. Furthermore, the image of Islam has been tarnished by the numerous bizarre Shia festivals, such as weeks of mourning and self-flagellation.
May Allah guide the bamboozled Shia masses away from the turbaned devils of Qom and Najaf, and guide them to the Quran and Sunnah.
EBNHUSSEIN.COM 