Milad un-Nabi 2028: Date, History & Significance

The night and day are spent in remembrance of the Prophet's character and teaching — mercy, honesty, care for orphans and the poor, and the message of one God. Julus (processions) with green flags and na'at singing wind through many Indian towns; homes and mosques are strung with lights. Deobandi and Salafi-influenced Muslims mark the day more soberly or not with festivity, holding that the Prophet did not himself institute it; Barelvi and Sufi communities keep it as a major festival.

Muhammad was born in the Year of the Elephant to Amina, his father Abdullah having died before his birth; his mother died when he was six, and he was raised by his grandfather and then his uncle. He worked as a shepherd and a trader, was known as al-Amin, 'the trustworthy', and at forty received the first revelation of the Qur'an in the cave of Hira. The mawlid celebrates that whole life as a mercy to the worlds (rahmatan lil-alamin).

Source: The scriptures and calendar of the tradition; community religious practice in India

Public mawlid celebrations are documented from the twelfth century (notably in Fatimid Egypt and under the Zengids and Ayyubids); the date and the very keeping of the day have been debated among Muslim schools. In India it is a gazetted national holiday, sometimes called Barah Wafat because the Prophet is also held to have died on the twelfth.

• Wikipedia

1. Observed by many Sunni and Sufi Muslims as the Prophet Muhammad's birthday, with mosques and homes lit and decorated with green flags.
2. Milad gatherings recite naat and salawat and retell the Prophet's life; processions (juloos) are taken out in many cities.
3. Some schools of thought, including Deobandi and Salafi Muslims, do not observe the day as a festival.

• Across India. Mawlid gatherings, na'at and sira recitation, green flags and julus processions, lit mosques, and food and charity for the poor; large observances in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Malabar.
• Kashmir (Hazratbal). Thousands gather at the Hazratbal shrine for the display of the Moi-e-Muqaddas, a relic held to be the Prophet's hair, on Milad and other days.

• Niyaz and sweets — Kheer, zarda and sweets distributed after the milad gatherings.

Eid Milad-un-Nabi falls on Thursday, 3 August 2028. Birth of the Prophet Muhammad (12 Rabi al-Awwal).

at sunrise

12 Rabi al-Awwal (Sunni); 17 Rabi al-Awwal (much Shia usage). The Islamic (Hijri) calendar is purely lunar with no intercalation, so its dates move about eleven days earlier through the Gregorian year on a 33-year cycle.

The date is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar and shifts against the Gregorian year.