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Hyderabad: COVID-19, the deadly virus playing havoc across the world, will have a profound impact on the religious activities during Ramadan starting with in a week.
With infection continuing to spread and causing deaths, top Islamic religious scholars and clerics in Hyderabad have joined their counterparts in other states of India in deciding to continue restrictions on offering daily prayers in mosques as part of social distancing.
Along with this, Taraweeh, the special night prayers of Ramadan, will also be discontinued. Ulema belonging to different sects and schools of thoughts have urged Muslims to offer all the prayers, including Taraweeh at home in view of the grim situation.
Jamia Nizamia, the premier institution of Deccan has also issued a decree making it clear that collective Taraweeh was not compulsory in the face of pandemic.
Hence for the first time in memory all the mosques in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, including nearly 4,000 mosques in Hyderabad will remain closed in Ramadan. The decision to not have Taraweeh will hit the Huffaz (memorisers) of Quran hard, however, who mainly depend on this annual prayers as their source of income.
A Hafiz who leads the Taraweeh prayer and recites the entire holy Quran over the period of the holy month is paid special remuneration ranging from Rs 25,000 to more than Rs 100,000 depending upon the largesse of the congregation of a particular mosque.
“Ramadan brings a lot of blessings for humanity. But it is really sad and shocking that this time all our religious and spiritual activities will be curtailed. Saddest part is that there will not be any Taraweeh this time,” said Hafiz Syed Qayamuddin, who regularly recites the holy verses every Ramadan. “It is not just about the income or money. Traditionally Taraweeh is an integral part of the holy month.”
Economically weaker sections
While Qayamuddin, an engineer by profession himself does not charge any money to lead the prayers, he noted that a large majority of Huffaz come from economically weaker sections and to a large extent depend on Ramadan for their income.
“It is undoubtedly a huge set back,” agreed another Hafiz on condition of anonymity. “Last year I was paid about Rs 40,000 for my services and I was looking forward to the holy month this year.”
Some of the Huffaz were still hopeful that the rich and affluent Muslim families will invite them to recite the holy book at their family gathering at home but it will be confined to only a few areas of Hyderabad. But the Huffaz in districts and smaller towns will be deprived of their source of income.
Hyderabad, where Muslim community is large in number and economically better off than in many other parts of India, offers such a big annual opportunity to the Huffaz that hundreds of them are drawn from other states, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during the month.
Another segment likely to be hit hard were the Madarsas or the religious schools who are completely dependent on the donations and Zakath paid during the holy month. Normally the representatives of Madarsas including the big one go around the homes or the mosques to collect the contributions but this year the lockdown has closed that option and most of the institutions were relying on social media to appeal to the donors for contributions.
