Hyderabad: With only three days to go for Eid Al Fitr, the biggest festival for Muslims, there is no sign of the usual enthusiasm or the buzz in markets across India.
With mosques remaining closed for prayers and a ban on mass congregations on Eid day, the usual gaiety and excitement were missing because of the threat of the deadly coronavirus.
Perhaps for the first time in India’s history, Muslims will not be offering Eid prayers as the central and the state governments’ ban on all religious congregations as part of the fight against COVID-19.
All leading Muslim religious institutions and top Muftis from the community have issued a unanimous decree that Muslims should not offer collective prayers on Eid, but remain at home and offer ‘shukrana nafil’ (optional thanksgiving) prayers individually. And that’s truly unusual for a country that is home to 200 million Muslims — the second-highest Muslim population in the world.
Normally, on Eid day, Hyderabad witnesses congregations as big as up to 200,000 worshippers in eidgahs, but the shadow of coronavirus has made that impossible this time around. Similarly, Delhi’s historic Jama Masjid is also famous for its huge Eid gatherings.
Moulana Mohammad Azemuddin, the head Mufti of Hyderabad’s premier Islamic institution, Jamia Nizamia, has issued a fatwa that no public congregation should be held in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. He asked Muslims to instead offer thanksgiving prayers from home. Eid prayers are traditionally offered in groups or congregations. Individually, people can offer a ‘nafil’ (optional) or thanksgiving prayer at home, he added.
Unanimous statement
Several top religious scholars, including Moulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, general secretary, All India Muslim Personal Law Board, and Moulana Mufti Khaleel Ahmed of Jamia Nizamia in Hyderabad have issued a unanimous statement asking Musilms to abide by the government’s decision and pray at home on Eid day. The joint statement appealed to Muslims to abide by social-distancing norms and not to go to eidgahs or mosques for Eid prayers. “Under the lockdown, no public gathering by any community is allowed. Hence Muslims should offer prayers at home,” said the statement.
Some of the scholars, including Moulana Rasheed Firangimahli of Lucknow, has suggested that Muslims can offer Eid prayers in a group of four at home. “If an able person is available, he can even recite ‘qutba’ or sermon,” the statement added. However, there are not many takers for such restrictive measures.
Though Muslim political and religious leaders and community elders have accepted the decision in the overall interest of humanity and the country, questions were being raised that when several other activities were being allowed and even liquor shops were being kept open, then why should there be a ban on religious congregations? Social media and community circles across the country are abuzz that Muslims should stay away from shops and markets until mosques are opened and Eid prayers are allowed.
Posters explaining the reason In several cities across India, young volunteers are going around markets and commercial establishments, dissuading people from shopping for Eid, citing the miserable conditions of the poor. Many shop-owners in the Muslim-dominated old city of Hyderabad have put up posters explaining why the shops were still shut. “When everybody is suffering, what is the point of any celebration? Let us now help the poor and meet after Eid in better times and celebrate,” one of the posters in the Patthargatti area said.
Moulana Syed Hussamuddin Jafar Pasha, head of Amaarat-e-Millat-e-Islamia in Hyderabad, cautioned community members against TV channels taking advantage of Muslims coming out in large numbers for shopping and prayers. “They are waiting for an opportunity to tarnish the image of Muslims and blame them for the spread of he virus,” Moulana Hussamuddin said.
‘Super spreaders’
Behind such fears and apprehensions is the episode of Tableeghi Jamat’s congregation at the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi earlier. The Jamat, whose annual congregation was held in early February, when there was no lockdown, was blamed by government agencies as well as the media as “super spreaders” of the virus as many participants, including some from foreign lands, were later found to be coronavirus-positive and they ended up infecting others.
Though most of those people had recovered and returned home, a section of the Indian media was still continuing to blame Tableeghis for the spread of the virus. Even some top politicians such as the Chief Minister of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, made statements to this affect.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president and member of parliament Asaduddin Owaisi, arguably the most influential voice among Indian Muslim politicos, who was leading a massive relief programme for the local poor and migrant labourers hit by the lockdown, has also urged Muslims to avoid shopping and celebrating Eid. “Hundreds of thousands of people are starving across the country due to the unplanned lockdown. This is the time for us to come forward to help and feed the hungry”, Owaisi said.
Hate campaign
In addition to the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant economic hardships, Muslims in India are also reeling under the impact of growing Islamophobia and a sustained hate-campaign against the community. Along with millions of migrant labourers walking for hundreds of kilometres to get back home, with many of them dying during the arduous trek, there have been incidents of attacks and lynching of Muslims, with incidents of even pregnant women and children being beaten up, which have added to the gloom in the run-up to Eid this year. “Even in the time of the pandemic, atrocities against Muslims continue to sear our hearts. Police are beating up bearded people and houses are being ransacked. In Gujarat, police were not even sparing pregnant ladies”, Owaisi said.
No Eid shopping
Even three days after the Telangana government announced several relaxations in lockdown measures and allowed shops to reopen, traders’ hopes of luring Eid shoppers back to the markets were dashed. Even at the few shops that were open, there were hardly any customers.
Normally, around this time every year, entire Hyderabad is out on the streets, with shoppers jostling for space in the markets. But this time, the markets are deserted. Hundreds of hawkers selling bangles, artificial ornaments and other necessary items are also missing from the markets as the government has allowed only big shops to open.
In Hyderabad, the Charminar-Madina belt, normally the hub for Eid shopping, remains largely deserted. Only a few shops selling clothes, perfumes and women’s accessories were open, though there were no buyers.
A feeling of sadness and depression hang over the 400-years-old city of Hyderabad. Many old-timers say the city had witnessed such a low-key Eid only once in more than a century. Muslims in Hyderabad had faced a similar situation under the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, during Asif Jahi’s rule, when a massive flood in the Musi River had left the city devastated. The flood in September 1908 coincided with Ramadan had claimed 15,000 lives as life in most parts of the city was badly hit. Historical records say that the Eid Al Fitr prayers were also badly affected by the flood and people could not celebrate the festival in the usual way. “What we are seeing now is totally unprecedented. Even after the 1908 floods, there were exceptions when Muslims gathered in small numbers and offered prayers. This kind of total closure of eidgahs and mosques was never seen”, said historian and author Mohammed Safiullah.
Exercising caution
In Bengaluru, the capital of the neighbouring state of Karnataka, all Muslim commercial centres, including the famous Commercial Street and Shivaji Nagar, also remain deserted. Though some clothing and other shops were opened, following relaxations announced by the BJP-led government, Muslim community leaders persuaded the shopowners to keep them shut. A few shoppers who had come out for Eid shopping were also sent back. C.M. Ibrahim, former chief minister and a member of the Legislative Council, personally led the volunteers to make sure that the shopping centres remained closed.
“When mosques are closed and Eid prayers are not being allowed, what is there to celebrate?” asked Ibrahim. In a letter addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddiyurappa he has demanded that mosques should be reopened and Eid prayers should be allowed in eidgahs. “If liquor shops can be opened why not mosques”, he asked. Ibrahim has urged Muslims to exercise caution. “Shops were allowed to open just before Eid by the government under pressure form the business lobby. If something goes wrong and the virus spreads further, they will simply blame Muslims, as they had done in the case of the Tableeghi Markaz,” he explained.
