Photos: Karachi Shia, Sunni Muslims celebrate Prophet Muhammad birthday in Unity Week

Karachi Shia, Sunni Muslims celebrate Prophet Muhammad birthday in Unity Week Dec. 2015. The week between 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal and 17th Rabi-ul-Awwal is commemorated as a Muslim unity week. According to traditions narrated from Sunni Muslim scholars, the birthday of the final Prophet of Islam falls on 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal while the Shias consider 17th Rabi-ul-Awwal as the exact date of birth. In order to bridge this difference and use it as an opportunity to unite Muslims, Iran’s Imam Khomeini designated the period from 12th to the 17th of Rabi al-Awwal as the Islamic Unity Week. This dynamic concept aims to bring all Muslim schools of thought on the common platform of Islamic unity.