Iqra Rizwan Warsi won 3 Gold Medals at Lucknow University.
Iqra has been awarded Dr. Radha Kumud Mukherjee Gold Medal, Pandit Devi Sahay Mishra Gold Medal and Smt. Shyam Kumari Hukku Memorial Gold Medal. Iqra has secured 84.05 percent marks in BA.
Iqra has also been awarded the Best Student Award Bronze Medal in the year 2021.
Rizwan, the father of Iqra Rizwan Warsi was a painter who used to do spray painting earlier. He lost his job during Covid, when he started selling masks near hospitals. The expenses of the house go on with these earnings.
According to Iqra, mother Tarannum Warsi is a homemaker who always boosted morale.
Iqra said that “The financial condition of the house is not good. The situation was even more difficult during the Covid period. Mother used to stitch masks. My Father Rizwan used to sell them outside hospitals. Even now the situation has not changed much.”
We are four siblings, in which I am the eldest. Three siblings are younger than me. I am pursuing masters, my parents have supported me a lot. My Parents struggled in every way and studied and today i am gold medalist.
Iqra’s father said that, “I sell masks and sometimes other items by hawking to make arrangements for the livelihood of the children. Now the son has also started doing a private job, which earns him Rs 4,000 a month.” Somehow, two-time livelihood and children’s education fees are arranged.”
Translated from Hindi Webportal Themooknayak.com
source: http://www.thehindustangazette.com / The Hindustan Gazette / Home> News> Education / by Ayesha Mastoor / headline and text edited / January 25th, 2023
Shah Rashid Ahmed Khadri, a 67-year-old Bidri craftsperson from Bidar, is among the Padmashri Award winners this year.
He gained instant popularity when he sat working with his tools on the Karnataka Tableau at the Republic Day parade in 2011.
He has spent nearly five decades in the art that he learnt from his father Shah Mustafa Khadri, a master craftsman who was honoured by the Nizam of Hyderabad.
The Khadris were a family of limited means and Rashid could study only up to PU. His father, however, did not want him to be a Bidri craftsman as he felt they did not earn enough. He enrolled Rashid into English typewriting course. However, he began assisting his father who began losing eyesight due to old age.
He is a winner of Shilpa Guru Award, Rajyotsava Award and national award for handicrafts. He is a regular invitee to the Suraj Kund Mela, Dilli Haat and other exhibitions in India.
He has also served as a procurer for the Cauvery handicrafts museum in Bengaluru and a master trainee for various various craftsman training programmes of the Central and State governments.
His creations have been exhibited in the U.S., Europe, West Asia and Singapore.
He said that he had never expected this honour. “I miss my father today. I am sure he would have been happier than I am,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Karnataka / by The Hindu Bureau / January 25th, 2023
Sir Syed Muhammad Saadullah is one among the Indian Muslim leaders who made an immense contribution to shaping Independent India and yet remained unsung. He was the only Muslim among the members of the Drafting Committee for the Constitution of India, led by Dr. Babasahib Bhimrao Ambedkar.
Before shedding light on Saadullah’s role in the Constitution Drafting Committee, let us know about the Assembly that drafted the Constitution of India.
On December 9, 1946, the Constituent Assembly was formed. Its meeting was boycotted by the Muslim League. Soon after, on December 11, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as its chairman. It had 389 members which were reduced to 299 after the partition.
On January 22. 1947 it adopted the Objectives Resolution unanimously. In the same year, the national flag was adopted on July 22, and Independence was achieved on August 15, 1947, with the partition of the country.
On 29 August 1947, a drafting committee was appointed with Dr. BR Ambedkar as its chairman. Other members of the committee were KM Munshi, Muhammad Saadullah, Aladi Krishna Swami Iyer, Gopala Swami Iyengar, N Madhav Rao, DP Khetan, and TT Krishnamachari.
On 22nd November 1949, the ‘Constitution of India’ was passed in the assembly and the last session of the Constituent Assembly was held on 24th January 1950. On 26th January 1950, the ‘Constitution of India’ came into effect after 2 years, 11 months, and 18 days.
The Constituent Assembly in session
Who was Sir Syed Muhammad Saadullah?
Sir Syed Muhammad Saadullah was a member of the draft committee but even before that, he was a well-known leader of India. He was the Prime Minister of Assam in British India. He was also Chairman of Guwahati Municipality and Minister of Education and Agriculture of Assam from 1924 to 1934. Saadullah was a highly educated jurist.
Syed Muhammad Saadullah was born on 21 May 1885 in Guwahati into a traditional Assamese Muslim family and died in 1955. He was educated at Cotton College, Guwahati, and Presidency College, Calcutta. After receiving higher education, he started practicing law in Guwahati and soon made his mark as a lawyer. He also practiced in the Calcutta High Court for some time. He became the Chairman of the Guwahati Municipality and was nominated as a member of the Legislative Council in Shillong.
Assam became a Chief Commissioner Province in April 1912. Saadullah participated enthusiastically in the Council’s deliberations and spoke freely on matters of interest to the people of Assam.
He soon became an important figure in the province of Assam. He established his identity as a lawyer after just a decade of struggle. In later days, he also practiced in the Calcutta High Court. Among his neighbours and contemporaries, were Fazlul Haque, Nawab Attaur Rahman, and Barrister. Khuda Bakhsh and Nawabzada AFM Abdul Ali.
He was also important in British India. He was knighted in the 1928 Birthday Honors and made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire in the 1946 Birthday Honours.
In his political life, Syed Muhammad Saadullah was closely associated with the All-India Muslim League. He attended the 10th session of the League in Calcutta in December 1917 and served as a member of the committee that negotiated the Lucknow Pact between the Muslim League and the Congress.
In 1946, he participated in the demand for Pakistan and supported the inclusion of Assam in Pakistan. However, when Assam seceded from Pakistan at the time of partition, he remained in Assam. Similarly, as the Prime Minister of Assam, he contributed to the building of a modern Assam.
He was an able parliamentarian, an eloquent orator, an experienced administrator, and a moderate and liberal leader in ideology. Saadullah is regarded as one of the architects of modern Assam. As the head of the Assam government, he planned well and developed development plans. He took a special interest in the promotion of industries. He is said to have supported and encouraged the migration of peasants from Bengal to develop agriculture in Assam and to introduce jute cultivation. His critics accuse him of deliberately settling Bengali Muslims in Assam.
Muhammad Saadullah is also known for his generosity, honesty, and competence. He also worked for the tribal people of the North Eastern region and inducted a tribal leader JJM Nicholas Roy in his first cabinet. He was considered the best person because of his experience, ability, and honesty.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home / by Ghaus Siwani, New Delhi / posted by Aasha Khosa / January 26th, 2023
“Material culture is the history and philosophy of objects and the myriad relationships between people and things.” Bernard Herman, material culture scholar.
I have always had a fascination with old homes. I grew up in one – Abid Manzil in Aligarh, built in 1935. Well-known as the home of Aligarh Muslim University, the town in western Uttar Pradesh saw many Indian Muslims migrate there in the early 1900s from different parts of the erstwhile United Provinces. This included the Muslim zamindar elites who came from neighbouring principalities as well as working-class and middle-class families from eastern Uttar Pradesh. Many wanted to give their children the chance of a good education at the university. These people brought their cultures and histories with them, blending with the Islamic yet liberal intellectual philosophy propagated by AMU and spearheaded by its founder, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. The homes of these people, mostly built in the 1930s, are evidence of this syncretic tradition.
On my most recent visit to Aligarh I realised that these pre-Partition houses were gradually disappearing. I met with some of the remaining families, who wanted to talk about the rich history of their homes, the culture and ways of life they embodied, and the measures they were currently taking to secure a future for their homes and themselves. This photo essay tells the story of these homes and the people who live in them.
Ibne Sahab was born in 1923. He lost his mother when he was just a month old and was raised by his father. Ibne Sahab’s childhood was spent in Chattari and he moved to Aligarh to pursue his formal education when he was 15 years old. He studied Persian and Psychology at Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was Scheherazade Alim’s paternal great, great-grandfather. She spent her childhood in Aftab Manzil, named after her maternal great-grandfather Aftab Ahmed Khan, who built the house in 1904. Scheherazade Begum studied law at Oxford and became a barrister and has taught law at AMU. After two decades of living and working in Dubai, Scheherazade Begum and her husband Abdul Alim Khan returned to Aligarh and to Aftab Manzil in 1997, and have lived there since.
Aftab Manzil saw the comings and goings of influential men and women. One of them was E M Forster. Scheherazade Alim’s grandfather Sir Ross Masood was a close friend of the writer, who dedicated A Passage to India to him. Masood became the Vice Chancellor of AMU in 1929, a position he held for three years. The photograph on the right was taken in Italy in 1911. The photograph on the left shows Scheherazade Begum with Forster. It was taken in England in 1962. She herself cultivated a deep bond with the writer, calling him “Forster Chacha”.
Aftab Manzil was built using bricks manufactured by Ford and MacDonald, the company responsible for supplying red bricks for the building of AMU. Other homes such as Habibullah Manzil were also constructed using surplus material from AMU. Courtyards like this, at Habibullah Manzil, are typical features in old homes. They are public spaces that allow family members to socialise, yet at the same time are private and separated from the outside world.
Professor Tariq Gilani, who lives in Habibullah Manzil, says that it is difficult to secure an old house, especially since there is no one, single uninterrupted wall, each room having several doors. David Lelyveld, in Aligarh’s First Generation, explains that this was the case “so that different sorts of people might come and go without crossing paths.” The architecture, therefore, reflected the norms of social interaction in the early 20th century.
These norms dictated that spaces within a household be separated on the basis of gender. Purdah was adhered to, especially among the elite. To enter the ladies’ quarter, or zenanah, male servants and visitors had to announce themselves first. In the case of Rahat Manzil’s haveli, non-related males would have entered through a zigzag corridor, preventing them from directly viewing the zenanah.
Farrukh Said Khan with his wife Faizana Said Khan in their formal living room in Rahat Manzil. Faizana Said Khan is the great, great-granddaughter of the Nawab of Jaipalguri. The swing is about ninety years old. The photograph of Ahmed Said Khan on the wall is from when he received an honorary doctorate from AMU. Farrukh Sahab recounts that his grandfather, Ahmed Said, was born in 1889. He was an orphan. His parents died in Saudi Arabia in the early 1890s. After the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, Mahmud Ali was unwilling to stay under British rule. But when his son (Ahmed Said’s father) and daughter-in-law died, he had to return to take care of his grandson. Ahmed Said was eight years old when his grandfather passed away. He was sent to English House (AMU’s old guest house) by the British, who had taken control of Chhatari – Ahmed Said’s ancestral zamindari. When he turned 21, Ahmed Said was made the Nawab of Chhatari. He built Rahat Manzil in 1920 as a guesthouse to accommodate his family when they travelled to Aligarh from Chhatari.
Raja Masudul Hasan, also known as the Raja of Asgharabad, supervised the building of Hasan Manzil. He was a keen collector, and according to Zafar Sahab (his son and current owner of Hasan Manzil), he bought this copper ashtray from Chinese traders who frequented Aligarh in the 1930s. He moved to Aligarh in 1925 from Asgharabad, where he was a zamindar, and died in 1954.
Over the years, the landscape of Aligarh has undergone dramatic changes. Where there were once independent bungalows and havelis surrounded by orchards, now stand three or four storey apartment buildings. Many more people have migrated to Aligarh in search of education or employment. This changed landscape, although inevitable and positive in some ways, has imposed stress upon those who live in old homes in Aligarh. Some are uncertain about what will happen to their homes after they are gone. Will their children come back and take charge of things or will their homes, like many others, be broken down and apartment buildings erected in their place?
People have coped with these challenges in different ways. Ibne Said Khan has transformed Rahat Manzil’s formal dining room into a museum dedicated to the life and career of his father, statesman Ahmed Said Khan. He says that one winter evening, after his father’s death in 1982, he saw that his servant was bringing bundles of old paper to feed the angethi (brazier). He asked the servant where he was getting these papers and discovered stacks of old documents and photographs in the storage area. He rescued these and set to work, chronologically organising documents and photographs that captured the breadth of his father’s work. With more than a hundred photographs and documents mounted in the main dining area, Ibne Sahab says that there are still many photographs and documents to be sorted and incorporated into this museum.
The Sherwanis of Muzammil Manzil have renovated a section of their house and transformed it into a school, which they run. Blossoms started in 2001 in a rented house and later shifted to Muzammil Manzil. What was once an aangan (courtyard) is now a school playground. The school has over 800 students.
The Sherwanis also maintain a library in one section of their house named after Syed Sherwani’s grandfather and the original owner of Muzammil Manzil – Nawab Muzammil Ullah Khan. The library started with 500 books but Sherwani Sahab’s father, Rahmatullah Khan Sherwani, expanded it over four decades. It now holds 16,000 books and 2400 rare manuscripts.
This door was hand painted by Rashid Sahab’s nephews. Like Zafar Sahab, Rashid Sahab says that the family has inculcated a sense of responsibility in the next generation to take care of Saman Zaar. For the future, he adds, “We should try to come back to this place and live together (as a family).”
~ Meher Ali is a freelance journalist from Aligarh. She is currently based in Ahmedabad.
source: http://www.himalmag.com / Himalmag, South Asia / Home> Culture> Photo Essay / by Meher Ali / December 19th, 2013
More than 650 students who received coaching in mathematics from Anees Kutty have been selected in NDA.
Donning a cap and beard and his typical smiling countenance Anees Kutty, popularly known as Bhaiya, makes mathematics a fun to learn.
He has the charm and skill to make even the most math-phobic persons fall in love with the subject. Anees Kutty is a well-known Mathematics teacher in Pune, Maharashtra.
He not only teaches mathematics but also guides his students to find the right stream of education and the college for further education. He informs their parents about various institutions and schools run by the government, such as Navodaya Vidyalaya, Sainik School, and R M C School, etc.
He has been counseling parents of his students to admit their wards in schools like this run by the government, for they can have a good future after studying in these.
He is sure that most of the students joining the Navodya Vidyalas end up getting well placed job, do well in life and hold high positions. The problem is that common people do not have complete knowledge of these institutions. Anees Kutty belongs to Kerala and has been living in Pune since long.
He explains, “When I was in Class X, I taught mathematics to my classmates for the first time on Teacher’s Day.From that day people started coming to me with unsolved mathematics questions.”
He started teaching maths in 1988. Anees Kutty feels that the objective of teaching mathematics in schools should be to develop the reasoning power of the students. “It is not right to just memorize the facts,” he says. Kutty plays the role of mentor, and career counselor for every student.
“I want today’s child to grow up to be a responsible citizen of India” For this, he encourages his students to take admission in National defence Academy ato become officers in the Indian Military. The NDA at Dehradun is a joint service academy of the Indian Armed Forces that trains cadets from all the three services, Army, Navy and Air Force. All the candidates are jointly trained for their respective service academies for pre-commissioning training.
Anees Kutty says that mathematics is a matter of understanding and practice. He has been teaching maths to children for the last 35 years and keep innovating ways to generate interests of students in the subject. He uses formulas lile Amar-Akbar-Anthony, Changu-Mangu, Mara-Mari, Jugalbandi, etc. to make learning mathematics fun. Children love his satta method, which means ‘shortcut to a problem’
His students do not call Anees Kutty as Sir, but as Bhaiya. And he always guides them like an elder brother. Anees Kutty’s methods of encouragement, training and explaining mathematics have helped a large number of children admission into the NDA. Apart from this, his students are providing their services in other places.
Math is all around he says, “The importance of mathematics has increased in today’s technology era. Children should come out of maths phobia and present their 100 percent. Be it Aryan More or Gaurav Jagtap or Aditi Kumar, with the help of Anees Kutty, he and many youths like him were successful in making their place in the NDA. Today he is doing his bit to serve his country.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home / by Shehtaj Khan, Pune / posted by Shaista Fatima, ATV / January 23rd, 2023
Three Kashmiri youths have been selected for the International Snow Sculpture Championship to be held in America on January 22. An official invitation from international ice sculpture organizer Breckenridge International invited the four participants to represent India in the competition in Colorado, USA.
Zahooruddin Lone from village Patan in Baramulla district, Irfan Latif Mir from a remote area of Kupwara district, Tasadeq Hussain Hijam from Magam village in Baramulla, and Mardul Upadhyay from Uttar Pradesh will be in the Indian ice sculpture team.
This will be the 32nd edition of the International Ice Sculpting Championship in Breckenridge, Colorado, USA. The organizing committee has a history of inviting artists from all over the world.
Team leader Zahooruddin Lone said.”This is an international competition that celebrates art, culture, and the ephemeral, beautiful nature of snow,” the invitation read. We are very pleased to have been selected for the International Snow Sculpture Championship to be held in Breckenridge, Colorado. We are grateful to the organizing committee for allowing us to participate in this championship.
Representing Team India is a huge achievement for us and we are very proud to be getting this opportunity from across Kashmir which will inspire many other youngsters here. They will try to participate in such international events and make Kashmir proud.
Zahooruddin Lone with his sculpture
Zahooruddin Lone popularly known as Zahoor Kashmiri has represented India twice in the International Snow Sculpture Championship, according to him snow is natural in Kashmir and it is easy for people to learn how to make snow sculptures.
According to Lone along with other professional ice sculptors Tasadeq Hussain from Budgam trains 20 students interested in making ice sculptures at the Government Degree College, Magam. He said that ice is an easy medium to work in.
Lone said that since the ice in Kashmir is natural and there is no stress of wastage, etc. The interested youth can take time to learn professional ice sculpting.
Hailing from the small village of Patan Singhpura in North Kashmir, Lone has done his Master’s in Fine Arts from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.He has gained experience in snow sculpting from ‘Snow Festa-2014’, organized by Apelner Event Management and J&K Tourism in Gulmarg followed by the International Snow Sculpting Championship.
He is the leader of a team of 35 professional snow sculptors from across India. Photos of snow sculptures created by young children soon after the recent snowfall have gone viral on social media, showing that the new generation is learning the art.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home / story by aasha@awazthevoice.in / January 17th, 2023
From Hyderabad there are only two football players who have had the honour of playing against the legendary Pele of Brazil. Although Hyderabad had produced several famous players in the history of Indian football, only two of them, namely the brothers Mohammed Habib and Mohammed Akbar, got the chance to play against the great man. That opportunity came when the New York Cosmos team, which included Pele as well as several other international stars, was touring Asia and decided to play a match at the Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata against Mohun Bagan club in 1977.
Mohun Bagan Athletic Club which is one of the oldest clubs in Asia was founded in 1889 in Kolkata and has had a glorious history. In 1977, the then President of Mohun Bagan, the famous Dr. Dhiren Dey, contacted his counterpart in Cosmos club and fixed up a date for the New York club to play against his own club at the huge Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata on September 24.
Amidst massive fanfare and publicity, the foreign team arrived two days early in football mad Calcutta (as Kolkata was then called). But even as the team arrived, nature began sending out ominous signals. A steady downpour began which refused to ease up. Despite that, lakhs of people lined the streets to welcome the soccer superstars as their motorcade made its way from the airport to their hotel. About 90,000 tickets were sold out in advance and the sponsors and advertisers came flocking to be part of this great show on Indian soil.
Mohammed Akbar recently shared with siasat.com his memories of that historic occasion. “It continued to rain for two whole days and the ground’s condition at the stadium became appalling. There was almost ankle deep water and mud. The foreign players who included Pele, former Brazil captain Carlos Alberto and Italian superstar Georgio Chinaglia took one look at the ground and said that they will not play in such conditions. The players explained that if they get injured on such a ground, the insurance company will not pay the costs,” said Akbar.
“Then our Dhiren Dey sahab went rushing to their hotel and literally fell at the feet of Pele. He told Pele and the others that tickets had been sold out. Advertisers and sponsors had paid money which had already been spent on hoardings and media advertisements. The imagination of the public had been whipped into frenzy by the press. Now if the match does not take place, the fans of Calcutta will lynch me. They will burn down the stadium and my house and business. Please at least enter the ground. Let the people see the great Pele on the field of Calcutta, begged Dhiren Dey sahab,” said Akbar.
“After a lot of persuasion Pele realised the predicament of the organisers and very reluctantly agreed to enter the field and perhaps play at half speed. We the Indian players, especially those who had played in Calcutta, had no difficulty. So the match began with our Mohun Bagan team going into an all out attack against a half hearted and hesitant Cosmos team,” said Akbar.
“After a while our Shyam Thapa scored a goal and we took the lead. Then they equalized by scoring a goal even though they were playing at half speed. After Habib bhai scored the second goal for Mohun Bagan, their coach must have rebuked them soundly. They began playing much better. We began to feel the pressure. They scored their second goal to make the score 2-2 but then decided that they will be satisfied with a draw. They did not want to take more risks on the muddy ground. So the match ended in a draw at 2-2,” said Akbar.
“After the match ended, Pele praised Habib bhai and a few other Indian players in front of the media. We felt so encouraged to hear his words. That the greatest legend of football had hailed our efforts made us feel heroic. He said that in brains and execution, Indians are second to none. It is only in physique that Indian players are slightly behind. I felt very sad the day Pele passed away. He was not only a great footballer but also a thorough gentleman,” said Akbar.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Hyderabad / by Abhijit Sen Gupta / January 04th, 2023
Heena clocked 38.57 seconds to improve on Karnataka sprinter Unnati Aiyyappa’s earlier national mark of 40.11 seconds.
pix: indianathletics.in
Rezoana Mallick Heena of West Bengal set U-16 national record in girls 300m race at the National Junior Athletics Champions here on Saturday. Heena clocked 38.57 seconds to improve on Karnataka sprinter Unnati Aiyyappa’s earlier national mark of 40.11 seconds set last year.
Uttar Pradesh high jumper Khyati Mathur was another athlete who broke a meet record, winning the girls U-18 event with a clearance of 1.79m to improve on M Jishna’s mark of 1.77m in Mangalagiri in 2019.
In the track events, Deepak Rohilla (Haryana) and Priya H Mohan (Karnataka) emerged the fastest in the Under-20 men and women’s 400m sprints. Deepak Rohilla won in 47.50 seconds while Priya Mohan was home in 53.94 seconds.
Odisha’s Lalu Prasad Bhoi and Dondapati Mruty Jayaram took the titles of the fastest men in the Under-20 and Under-18 sections, with timings of 10.71 seconds and 10.83 seconds respectively.
Bhawna (Haryana) and S Megha (Kerala) were the champions in the women’s Under-20 and Under-18 100m races.
source: http://www.thebridge.in / The Bridge / Home> Athletics / by PTI / pix edited: by indianathletics.in / November 13th, 2022
The Yenepoya School (TYS) is extremely proud of Mohammed Shamil, who has only bettered himself after each performance in skating.
Mohammed Shamil of grade X earned a silver at the CBSE national level skating championship held at Shalom Hills International School, Gurgaon, Haryana from January 9 to 11.
He won the 300 mtr TT rink race under the age group of 16 years boys inline category.
The school congratulated him for his outstanding achievement.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Campus Beat / by Media Release / January 13th, 2023
Most Muslims feel disturbed over the growing misconceptions about their religion in the minds of their compatriots, but only a few feel the responsibility of addressing this issue. Ali Bhojani of Mumbai is among the Indians who took charge of the situation that he felt was mostly created by the acerbic debates on television shows and is addressing the myths about Islam.
When he and some of his close friends embarked on this project, met people of other religions, and spoke to them about Islam, he was in for a bigger shock.
“I met the friend of a friend, who was a Jain,” he told Awaz-the Voice on phone from Mumbai. The Jain friend insisted that they move to the bar for the conversation.
“After gulping down a drink or two he told me that needed to loosen up with a drink so that he could muster the courage to ask a few questions about Islam. He admitted that he had fears speaking about Islam,” Ali said. “This came as a big shock.”
The Jain friend told Ali that he had fears of “forced conversion” and being labeled as a Kaffir (nonbeliever in Arabic) in case he asked candid questions about Islam. “I was shocked. Why is it so difficult to speak about Islam? Even today, I have goosebumps thinking of it.”
A poster on a hadith (Twitter)
Ali, a chartered accountant by training who has taken to social work and also runs a travel company in Mumbai, says it was with the idea of “telling the world about our real Prophet and not the one shown by television channels” that a group of 15 Muslims from all walks of life including Dr. Zeba Malik, Principal, Anjuman-e-Islam institutions, joined hands to tell others about the real Islam.
To start with, 15-days before Prophet Muhammad’s birth anniversary (Eid-i-Milad un Nabi), the group organized interactions with different people – Municipality workers, officials, diplomats from consulates, business leaders, Maulanas, MLAs, etc to “clear the toxic air and bring in positivity.” The idea was to present the common messages of Prophet Muhammad called hadith to people of other religions.
“We wanted to publicize simple hadiths like the ones on neighbours, never wasting water, not hurting anyone, paying the labourers before the work is done, the killing of one person is killing the humanity, never harm anybody, etc.” The group organized quiz competitions in schools and colleges on Prophet’s messages. It ran a social media campaign #Prophet for all to generate awareness about the founder of Islam.
The group put up hoardings with simple messages of the Prophet on roadsides and positioned volunteers with placards with Hadith messages in the busy marketplaces for the passersby.
On the day of Eid-Milad un Nabi, the group took out a procession in which people of all faiths participated. “We deliberately didn’t invite a usual Priest-Maulvi-Pastor kind of people to give a message of inclusive celebrations but common people who want to bring about a positive change,” Ali said.
A posted on Hadith on Twitter
Its social media campaign elicited a huge response globally. The 30-second reels of Hadith messages on Instagram, posters on Facebook, and Twitter under the campaign #ProphetForAll were liked and shared by netizens all over the world.
The Prophet For All page on Twitter states its purpose: “To remove the growing misunderstandings about the message of Islam and bring about communal harmony in society.”
Inviting non-Muslims inside a mosque and taking them around was also part of the campaign for peace and communal harmony in the group.
The group members all over the country sent packets of dates and mithai to non-Muslim friends on the occasion. Each box had a small printed message of a hadith “Next year we plan to scale up the movement,” Ali said.
However, buoyed by the success of the group’s Eid campaign, Ali and his friends are planning to hold an all-faith Diwali Milan for the forthcoming festivals in all 227 Municipal wards of Mumbai. “Imagine we are going to touch the lives of two crore people,” Ali quips. “imagining the impact it will have.”
Ali says the idea of this campaign occurred to him when he realized he was scared of passing through a non-Muslim neighbourhood. “I feared for my life and then I realized the other also felt the same while passing through a Muslim neighbourhood.”
He said this cannot go on like this and a dialogue between the two communities must be started.
Ali and his friends didn’t have to raise funds for the campaign. “Social media was voluntary work, snacks and little refreshments were sponsored by people, and the prize money for the competition was pooled by us,” he said.
Ali says there are similarities in all religions and we need to highlight these instead of the differences
source:http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Stories / by Aasha Kosha, New Delhi aasha@awazthevoice.in / January 23rd, 2023
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