Passion, Trade, Politics, Entertainment and Violence in Celebrations of the Anniversary Birthday of Mohammad the Prophet (PBUH)
05 March, 2013 KHARTOUM, (SUDANOW)—The anniversary celebration of the birthday of Mohamed the Prophet, peace be upon him (PBUH) of is religious, intellectual, social, commercial and political dimensions. It is a show-place of ideas, activities, solutions and toys altogether.
The birthday celebration venues in the squares of Al-Khalifa in Omdurman, Sajanah in Khartoum and Khartoum North are beautifully decorated with colourful lights.
The Prophet’s birthday celebration has been observed by the successive governments since the Egyptian-Turkish rule in the Sudan in consultation and coordination with the Sufi sects and other religious groups
Sheikh Mohamed Abdul Gadir al-Mikashfy, a merchant in the Mawlid (birthday Celebration) Square, who has been displaying the Mawlid sweets for more than 30 years, said people in the past were in consensus over the Mawlid celebration; even the politically rival Khatmiyah and Ansar sects celebrated in Al-Khalifa Square of Omdurman. The Sudanese people of different intellectual schools used to share this occasion which begins with a parade led by the commissioner and the Egyptian-Turkish era accompanied by the musical bands of the police and army in addition to drums of the Sufi sects, surrounded by children and youths, women and men of all age groups. The Sudanese radio and television make live transmission of the Mawlid poetry with Poet Mohamed Al-Mahdi Majzoub ‘The Mawlid Night’ enjoying high popularity and admiration by the listeners and viewers who still continue to recite it in passion and adornment. The Arabic poem may be transcribed in English as follows: Lord, pray for the Wrapped up Condone and forgive my sins Help me with a big support The poet portraying the Sufi God’s extolling rings, saying: He beats the drum That resounds with the sheikhs swaying and dancing In conclusion, he says: Oh, the Mawlid night, the secret and beauty of nights And a spring that captivated the souls With the permissible charm The poet adds: The souls of the people embraced and queued And shared tasty elation The infatuated legs are birds In garments revolt and circle Fall in traps Then alert with injuries and get entangled In the nets Like a flaring flame However intellectual argumentation arose in the last two years on the legitimacy of the Mawlid celebration as, while the Sufis and Sudanese people in general regard the celebration as an expression of their deep and fair love to the Prophet (PBUH), the Ansar Al-Sunna a fad that was not practiced by the good ancestors and is an imitation of non-Muslims. This argumentation sometimes escalates into limited conflicts that made families and individuals reluctant to go to the Mawlid arena and decide to buy the sweets from any place The merchant of sweets Ali Mahmoud and his colleagues in the Sajanah Mawlid Square complain of a decline in the sale of sweets and toys due to the tension as well as the high prices resulting from the high rate of rents of the shops, as each shop is rented for up to 2.7 million SDG in addition to the garbage removal, health cards and security service fees. Another merchant, Al-Sadek Saif al-Dinn, attributes the high price of the sweets to an increase in the prices of sugar, sesame, groundnuts, utensils and substances used for manufacturing the Mawlid sweets. There is a great disparity in the prices of the sweets as, while a kilo of sesame and groundnuts sweets is sold for 15 SDG, the kilo of sweets made from honey, harisah, cocoa and melon-nut costs 50 SDG, the bride ranging from 30 to 120 SDG and the horse toy from 25 to 60 SDG, depending on the size. The merchants as well as the Sufis, Ansar Al-Sunna, Ansar and Khatmiyah and other religious societies rush to the local authorities for hiring tents in which they practices thir activities which last for 12 days for the Sufis and other religious sects and for more than a month for the merchants to display their sweets. Sweets merchant Ali Mahmoud of Al-Khalifa Square complains of the low rate of sales due to the tension and presence of numerous policemen to prevent frictions and also due to the high cost of the substances required for manufacturing sweets, including groundnuts, sesame, coconuts and chickpeas. Layman Abdul Gadir Al-Zain Ali explained the difference in the Mawlid celebration in the past and at present, saying that in the past, families used to frequent the Mawlid arenas for entertainment and for purchasing sweets and toys for the children. They spend long hours in enjoyment of listening to poetry extolling the Prophet (PBUH). At the present time, most of the people content themselves with buying sweets and toys for the children in a hurry for fear of eruption of conflicts between the Islamic groups or scarcity of the means of transport during late hours. Sheikh Hashim Ghariballah, leader of the Sammaniyah religious sect, defended the Sufis celebration of Prophet Mohammad’s Mawlid, citing evidence from the Holy Koran and Sunna of the Prophet (PBUH). He appealed to the leaders of Ansar Al-Sunna for restraining their unruly followers toward off friction between the two groups. He said there are limits for self-restraint and the Ansar Al-Sunna have over-stepped those limits by indicting particular persons of atheism. Sheikh Ghariballah argued that indicting any person of atheism is imposed only by the judiciary and entails certain procedures that amount to executing the renegade or sending him into exile, divorcing his wife and other verdicts. He said the Sufis consider the Mawlid celebration as a reminder of the course of the Prophet (PBUH) and an opportunity for explaining this course and a means for kindly spreading among the people the spirit of piety For his part, Dr. Hassan Hassab Al-Rasoul, a prominent figure of Ansar Al-Sunna group, has revealed that the Sufi sects and Ansar Al-Sunna have concluded a binding charter of ethics that contains insurmountable rules for spreading ideas. The difference over the Mawlid celebration is not people who love the Prophet and others who do not love him as imagined by the Sufis. According to renowned Dr. Yusuf Al-Koda, head of the Alwasat Islamic Party and Muslim preacher, Mawlid celebration is not a cult but it is means for spreading the Islamic Da’awah (call). Dr. Koda took a middle-of-the road position between the Sufis and Ansar Al-Sunna. He opines that the Mawlid celebration is permissible provided avoidance of gender intermingling and deeds violating the Islamic teachings and the true Sunna. Dr. Sabry Mohamed Khalil, Professor of the Islamic values philosophy in the University of Khartoum, considers the Mawlid celebration as a benevolent fad according to early Muslim scholars. He cited a statement by Imam Al-Shafie (a leader of one of the four Sunnite Muslim schools) that there are two kinds of fad – commendable and objectionable; what conforms to the Sunna is commendable and differs from it is objectionable Dr. Khalil remarked that the Mawlid celebration is a wish by the people of the Sudan, including Sufis majority and other groups, including the Ansar Al-Sunna who, like other groups, erect tents in the Mawlid squares on the occasion. E N D mas 
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