Today on the Gregorian calendar is 2 January, and it is Mawlid Kandil. With endless faith in the Lord who creates being and non-being, and deep attachment to the final Prophet He loved enough to call “My Beloved,” I want to say a little about this day.
Mawlid Kandil, or Veladet Kandil, from Arabic Mawlid al-Nabi, marks the night the Master of the Worlds honored the earth with his birth. Some narrate that it was not celebrated in the bright age of the Four Caliphs. Mawlid means time of birth. Schools of thought read the date differently: Sunnis take the night linking 11 to 12 Rabi al-Awwal; Shiites take 16 to 17. That is why the days between are called Unity Week. On our soil the night lived in Ottoman practice; Selim II’s lighting of lamps on minarets left us the name kandil. Because we use the Gregorian calendar, the date shifts about eleven days each year, so we mark it on a different civil date annually.
I firmly oppose those who turn the night into candy, cake, and cig kofte parties, as my teacher Nureddin Yildiz warns. This video is for them:
In all these fine feelings, may the Lord be pleased with every servant who spends this night in prayer and worship. Hoping not to be missing from your prayers: blessed kandil.
