I read a strange story in the news today. Joshimath, also known as Jyotirmath, is a small town in Himalayas’ hills in India. Majority of its population is Sikh but a minority of 800 Muslims live here too. Surprisingly there is no mosque in the town. Muslims usually offer Eid prayers at the “Gandhi Maidan”, a public ground.
It was not so this year though, it was raining for days before Eid and the ground was wet & muddy. The situation was very worrying for Muslims; nowhere to pray Eid ul Fitr.
Boota Singh, the head organiser of the biggest temple in Joshimath approached Muslims and invited them to pray Eid in the hall of their Gurudwara. It was a kind offer; Muslims accepted it.
On the Eid day Muslims offered their prayers at the Gurudwara hall. Afterwards they were greeted by the members of the Sikh community & offered sweets. The Hindus of the town joined in the festivities as well; it was a big sign of openness & humanity.
It left me pondering how we are treating our own Muslims in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan & in Pakistan; killing Sunnis, Shias & Hazaras let alone Christians and Hindus. Is this what our beloved Prophet (SAW) taught us? We have lost patience & kindness to other humans which was one of the greatest virtues of our Great Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
He (SAW) was blessing for the worlds (the Rehmat al Aalmeen).
Is this what our forefathers used to do? No, they protected non Muslims as well as kind ot each other. One of my Jew colleague says, Jews prospered under Muslims rule and lived together in harmony.
We need to do some soul searching. Time to reflect!!!
AA It is a strong remark and ignores the overall scenario while ficussing on one icident only. Just ponder and think if there was no Pakistan would you have been able to read this blog and write such a reply? Pakistan creation was envisaged and achieved by thinkers, practioneres and visionaries beyond their time. This is a Sikh communicty with a small minority of Muslims without a mosque. look around India and check out incidents in Bihar, Gujrat Ayodhia and countless others. Also check statistics of the %age of Mulims and their relavant status. We need to be ggod Muslims… Read more »
Salaamualaikum. One of the brothers above talked about ‘implementing’ Islam in India. Well, I don’t understand what he means by that, but let me be frank in saying that Muslims have only progressed when they have accepted and implemented deen in their lives. And im purposely not using the ‘deeni’ and ‘dunavi’ lives as our deen mashaAllah encompasses everything. If we think we need hakoomat to be successful, we need maalo-daulat to be successful, or any other thing without having deen, let me say we will fall flat on our faces. Look at the condition of so many muslim countries.… Read more »
Not at all strong remarks,I agree with you mr Ibrahim,We should have been united under one india and should have struggled to
implemented Islam there,after all muslims ruled India for a 1000 years,rather then creating 2 pakistans at the cost of scores of muslim brother and sisters who sacrified their lives.
Interesting story.
It shows another example that big India should have been one country for Muslims, Hindus and Sikh. This mosaic was there for hundreds of years and creation of Pakistan was more problem than any solution.
Sorry if it is a strong remarks.