For Sunni Muslims, The day falls on the 12th day of Rabi' al-awwal, the third month of the Islamic lunar calendar every year.
Shi‘ah Muslims celebrate the birthday of Muhammad and the Shī‘ah Imām, Ja‘far al-Sādiq on the 12th day of Rabi' al-awwal.
It is recognized as a national holiday in most of the Muslim-majority countries of the world except Saudi Arabia and Qatar which are officially Wahhabi/Salafi and disapprove its commemoration, considering it an unnecessary religious innovation.
Mawlid an-Nabi is known by a variety of names such as mawlid, mevlid, mevlit, mulud, Mawlûd, mīlād, Yawm an-Nabī, Eid al-Mawlid an-Nabawī, Mawlūd-e Sharīf (Afghanistan), Maulidi (Africa), Mevlydi (Albania), Mawlid en-Nabaoui Echarif (Algeria), Eid-e-Meeladun Nabi (Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka), Mevlud (Bosnia), Gamou (Gambia, Mauritania, and Senegal), el Mūled (Egypt), Nabi or Mahanabi Jayanti (India), Maulid Nabi (Indonesia), Milād-e Payambar-e Akram (Iran), Maulidur-Rasūl (Malaysia), Eid Milād-un-Nabī (Pakistan), el Mūled (Tunisia), and Mevlid-i Şerif (Turkey).
