"Ramadhaan Mubarak" - Sunnah or Bid'ah? Answered by Dr Zakir Naik

Yusuf Chambers: The question a quite equal important actually is about how people welcome Ramadhaan with certain sayings 'Ramadhaan Mubarak'. Some people say it's a Bid'ah and others say it's a Sunnah, what is your ruling on this?

Dr. Zakir: To welcome month is good Alhamdulillah and our Prophet always informed that the people about this month and as I mentioned earlier that our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws)

its mentioned in Musnad Ahmad Vol. no. 2 page no. 230 Hadith no. 7148 which is also repeated, it is mentioned in Sunan Nasai ch. no. 5 Hadith no. 2106 that our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws), he used to always tell the people when the month used to approach, when it used to come the Prophet used to tell in advance

"O people the blessed month of Ramadhaan is approaching you and Allah (swt) has ordained for you that you fast in this month and the gates of heaven will be open and the gates of hell will be closed and the Satan will be chained and in this month is the night of Qadr which is better than a thousand months and if you will be deprived of the Sawab, of the blessings you are really a deprived person."

So the Prophet used to welcome this month. He used to wish other people. So same way today if you wish others the Prophet said the blessed month is approaching. If someone says Ramadhaan Mubarak, this Ramadhaan Mubarak is more often said in the Indian subcontinent by the Indians, by the Pakistanis because this word Mubarak, 'barka' is an Arabic word, barka means blessing and it is nothing but blessed month but when the Indians and Pakistanis, when they use the word Mubarak it is more of a sought of congratulation. When someone passes an examination they say Mubarak in Urdu which is derived from the Arabic word Baraka so when Ramadhaan comes they wish Ramadhaan Mubarak. Saying that it is the blessed month or a sought of congratulating and wishing each other that the blessed month is approaching. So according to me its not a Bidaah, you can welcome the month, it's a good thing that they are calling this month a blessed month and you are informing other people, reminding them that in this month is a lot of blessing. So according to me it's not a Bidaah. But how you wish, the words you choose that is Muba, that's optional. Like in Indian subcontinent we use the word Ramadhaan Mubarak, in the Gulf countries they use Ramadhaan Karim so all these words are good, the holy month or the blessed month or the month of forgiveness so the choice of words is yours. But the Prophet Muhammad (saws) he used to say to the people that O people the blessed month of Ramadhaan is approaching. So I feel people should wish each other and they should remind each other about this blessed month.

Yusuf Chambers: MashaAllah. JazakAllah Khair Dr. Zakir Naik Dr.Zakir Naik