Celebrating the birth of the Prophet (ﷺ) — taking it as an annual ''id, gathering for it, and devoting acts of worship to it — is a bid''ah (innovation) which neither the Prophet (ﷺ) nor the Rightly-Guided Khulafa'' nor any of the Sahabah nor the early generations did, despite their immense love of him (ﷺ) and their absolute capability to do so had it been a good thing. ''A''ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated: "Whoever introduces into this affair of ours that which is not from it, it shall be rejected." ([al-Bukhari 2697](/hadith/bukhari/2697), Muslim 1718). And in another wording: "Whoever performs an action which is not in accord with our affair, it shall be rejected." (Muslim 1718). The Prophet (ﷺ) said in his khutbah: "The most truthful speech is the Book of Allah, the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, and the worst of affairs are the newly-invented matters; every innovation is a misguidance." (Muslim 867). True love of the Messenger (ﷺ) is shown by following his Sunnah and not by inventing for him what he did not legislate for himself. The two ''ids of the Muslims are al-Fitr and al-Adha, as the Prophet (ﷺ) clearly established when he came to Madinah and found the people with two days of celebration: "Allah has substituted for you two better days: the day of al-Fitr and the day of al-Adha." (Abu Dawud 1134, sahih).