Well, the procession is an expression of joy and celebration if it is kept in conformity with the idea, with the objective of holding such procession. The procession can be held in memory of a film actress, for instance, so that procession should have some conformity with that concept. So if a procession is held in the memory of a great prophet, it should have all the characteristics of that possibility, that objective.
So what we object to is not holding processions on the birthday of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa as such. But what we object to is the manner these processions are brought about and paraded in the streets, for instance, in Lahore and some other places which I have witnessed myself, nobody can, no foreigner who visits there for the first time and does not know the significance could ever believe that this procession was held in honor of a prophet. In honor of a dancer perhaps, because sometimes they dance wildly and meaninglessly and call it Bhangra. So it is disrespectful, extremely disrespectful to the memory of the holy prophet to have a procession in his memory relating to him and in which you make odd things, such behavior as Islam condemns.
So that is the fundamental objection we have to such processions otherwise, to memorize and to commemorate a great prophet’s day, either of his birth or some great victory, in principle that should not be objectionable. Except another point which may also creep in, and that is that the birthdays are not an Islamic tradition in themselves. In the early centuries of light, when Islam was pure, when Islam was all that it was created for, nobody ever held birthdays in memory of anyone else. For instance, the founder of Islam’s birthday, peace be upon him, was never celebrated by his followers, by the followers who followed, by the followers who followed, in the generation after generation. It’s a Western concept wedded to Islam and unfortunately also in the Western traditions of just celebrations which are just, I mean, creating irresponsibilities rather than responsibilities.
Sometimes they create disorder, sometimes they create disturbance of peace. So that is the objection, otherwise to remember the holy prophet day and night and to send dhruv on him and salam on him, that should be the normal custom of everyone, who believes in him and who loves him.
