It is important, therefore, to determine whether Allah normally imparts such knowledge to human beings. It is simple logic that if any person is favored with such knowledge, then the prophets, particularly Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them all) would be the one to be so favored. We do not find in the history of any prophet anything to suggest that he was given such knowledge. The life of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has been documented in great detail. Things that he said or did have been elaborately reported and painstakingly verified. Nevertheless, there is no suggestion whatsoever that at any time did the Prophet have any knowledge of the future. On the contrary, there are numerous reports which suggest that when the Prophet sent an expedition to attack the enemies of Islam, he was always looking for news about them. He wanted to be sure of their fortune and their conduct. Allah could have certainly given him all the knowledge he wanted, but the Prophet always realized that he was only a human being, honored with Allah's message. He had to wait for the news to be brought by its carrier.

This means that if your Baba Ji has knowledge of the future, then he occupies a position with Allah which is higher than that of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. How else can we explain that a Baba Ji is favored with something that was not given even to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him?

You say that Baba Ji could also speak to Allah and Allah speaks to him. If we examine this claim in the light of the Qur'an, what do we find? There is a clear Qur'anic statement which says that there are only three ways in which Allah may decide to speak to human beings. That statement may be given in translation as follows: "It is not granted to any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation, or from behind a veil, or through a messenger sent and authorized by Him to make known His will. Exalted is He, and Wise." (42;51) What this Qur'anic statement tells us is that Allah has chosen not to speak to any human being directly. He could speak to him from behind a veil, and the only case we know like that is the case of Moses, when Allah spoke to him directly from behind a veil. On the other hand, Allah may send him revelations, and these can be vouchsafed only to prophets.

The third method is that Allah sends a messenger, i.e. an angel to give him whatever message Allah sends down to him. Again, this is an honor given to prophets. Now those Baba Jis in your part of the world claim to talk to Allah. May I ask: In what method? If it is any one of these three then they are claiming to be prophets. We know that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last of all prophets. No one can be given that status after he had passed away. Or do they claim that they have a different method of talking to Allah? If they do, how can they explain it against the above quoted Qur'anic verse?

The fact is that anyone who claims to receive special knowledge from Allah is an impostor. He is a liar because he claims to know something which Allah has chosen to keep to Himself. Note how these Baba Jis claim to know about people living far away. Do you not think that it is only convenient to their deception of simple-minded people that they make such a claim? Why do they not say that they know everything about people living in their community? If they make such a claim, their lies will soon be discovered. Hence, they prefer to claim knowledge that cannot be verified. This is the reason why they say they know about people far away.

There is no doubt that such people acquire some reputation. This is enhanced when events turn out in a way which can be related to what they have claimed. Suppose that a Baba Ji tells a woman that she would soon be pregnant and give birth to a baby boy. The women might have been married for several years without getting pregnant. If she happens to conceive, either after medical treatment or just naturally, that Baba Ji will be quick to claim that it was through his prayer that the request was granted. If that woman then delivers a baby girl, the Baba Ji will not have much difficulty in over-riding such small inconvenience. He may claim that the woman mistook his reference, or he may put the blame on Allah's door, saying that Allah had changed His mind after He had given him the news. What stupidity!

Because these people are impostors who are never tired of lying and deceiving simple minded people, Islam forbids its followers from going to them, listening to what they say and having any trust in them.

It is not true that the proper education is that which concentrates on the Qur'an and the Hadith. There are important branches of knowledge and it is essential that individuals in every Muslim community should specialize in them and attain a standard of excellence in these disciplines. To suggest, however, that religious are the only disciplines of knowledge required of Muslims is wrong. To start with, we cannot achieve any degree of excellence in these branches of knowledge unless we also acquire a standard of excellence in other fields and, indeed, in all branches of knowledge. The Qur'an invites people to look around them in the universe and to try to fathom its secrets. How can they do that unless they acquire appropriate knowledge?

When you are asked what makes a person a Muslim your immediate answer will be that he must declare that he believes that there is no deity save Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger. This declaration, as you realize, is made of two parts: the first concerns the Oneness of Allah and the second stresses the importance of the Prophet's role as Allah's messenger. What the second part of the declaration means in practice is that we can receive our teachings, values and practices, with respect to our faith, only from the Prophet, peace be upon him. If we were to receive these from any other source, we do not give credence to our belief in Muhammad as a messenger of Allah. The role of a messenger is to convey a message, he is expected to convey it to people complete, without omissions or additions. Our Prophet, peace be upon him, has stressed, time and again, that he only conveys what he has been asked to convey. Moreover, throughout his life after receiving his message, he never hesitated to convey anything entrusted to him, even when he was certain that conveyance of such a thing would be received with derision, ridicule and cries of "lies." At the end of his long and blessed mission, the Prophet, peace be upon him, addressed the great congregation who went with him on pilgrimage, and enumerated in his farewell address the basic principles and important duties of Islam, asking his followers time after time; "Have I conveyed to you Allah's message?" Every time he asked that question, the Muslims gathered in the Grand Mosque in Makkah answered in the affirmative. He then prayed Allah to bear witness to that fact.

If the message delivered to us by the Prophet, peace be upon him, is complete, then it cannot be made "more complete" by an addition made by any person, be he a scholar or devout, or indeed a direct descendant of the Prophet, peace be upon him. For any person to tell us a certain practice would endear us to Allah, or earn us any reward from Him, although it has not been taught or recommended to us by the Prophet, peace be upon him, is to make a false claim that he can never substantiate. He indeed, commits a bigger sin than that. By saying this, he says that he knows something which the Prophet, peace be upon him, either did not know or he actually knew but did not convey to us as part of his message. Whichever case he implies, he is guilty of an enormity which takes him out of the pale of Islam altogether. To say that he knows something of the faith of Islam which the Prophet, peace be upon him, did not know is to give himself a position higher than that of the Prophet, peace be upon him. To say that the Prophet, peace be upon him, kept quiet about it, despite his knowledge of it, is to accuse the Prophet, peace be upon him, of being unfaithful to his trust, negligence of his mission, or a deliberate concealment of part of it. No Muslim who truly loves the Prophet, peace be upon him, would entertain any such thought.

When we read the Qur'an carefully, we realize that Allah has chosen Muhammad to be His messenger, giving him all the qualities which make of him a messenger who is faithful to his trust, able to convey his message with clarity, accuracy and precision. We then go through the Hadiths from beginning to end to find out whether such celebrations as the one you have described has any place in Islam. The result of our search is bound to be in the negative. Indeed, the Prophet, peace be upon him, has not recommended us to hold or organize any celebrations related to his own person. We are not required to celebrate the Prophet's birthday or indeed any other occasion in his life. How, then, could it be possible that we should celebrate any occasion in anybody else's life or career? Had it been mentioned or recommended by the Prophet, peace be upon him, we could have done it willingly. The fact that he has always insisted that no one can be treated in any particular or exceptional way with regard to Islamic worship means that all such celebrations, dedicated in the honor or for the benefit, of any person are no more than false "worship." It indeed incurs Allah's displeasure.

The falsehood of the celebrations you have described appears in more ways than one. For example, reciting the Fatihah thousands of times in parrot-like manner is alien to Islamic worship. When we read the Qur'an, we should dwell on the meaning of its verses. The recitation done on such occasions pays no attention whatsoever to the meaning of the recited parts of the Qur'an. The special care taken with regard to the room where the food is served is also not Islamic. Incense has no special significance, although many people associate it with special "functions" of worship. There is no advantage in burning incense; indeed some people find its smell unhealthy.

What is more infuriating from the Islamic point of view is that some women are barred from help with the preparation of food or entering the place where it is served, simply because they are in their period or they are pregnant. How can such a practice be justified when the Prophet, peace be upon him, expressly states that "A believer can never be impure." This statement was made in the context of what is discharged by people in different situations. The import of this statement is the exact opposite of what is practiced in such celebrations. If a woman in her period is assumed to be impure and that her impurity affects the food she prepares, then we would have been told by the Prophet, peace be upon him, that we must not eat any type of food prepared or served by a woman during her period. The notion itself is absolutely absurd.

Your friend is absolutely correct when she states that such celebrations are innovations. No innovation should be encouraged or accepted or attended by any Muslim. The only situation where attendance in such places is permitted is when the person goes with the intention of making the teachings of Islam in respect of such traditions clear to the people present and try to persuade them not to go ahead with them. If someone whose knowledge and opinions are respected by the people organizing or attending such a celebration goes there and makes it clear to them that they incur Allah's displeasure instead of earning a reward for their efforts, then it is perfectly proper for him to go and do so. But if a person knows that whatever he says to the people would not affect the situation one way or another, then he should not go. The basis for this judgment is that celebrations of the sort you have described are not only innovations, but they constitute a violation of Islamic teachings. They come under the heading of Munkar, which means something opposed or contrary to Islamic teachings. As such they should be changed or stopped. Allah states in the Qur'an: You are the best nation that has ever been raised for mankind; you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah. Had the people of earlier revelation believed it would have been for their own good. Few of them are believers, while most of them are evildoers. (The House of Imran, "Aal Imran": 3;110)