Milad-un-Nabi in myriad ways

The Muslims of Bangalore celebrated Milad-un-Nabi (birth of Prophet Muhammad) in varied, including atypical, ways on Sunday.

While a large number of the faithful took out the usual processions (Juloos) that converged at the YMCA Ground on Nrupathunga Road in the evening, quite a few others chose to remember the Prophet in rather different ways.

Syed Hamid Mohsin, who runs an NGO Salaam Centre in Jayanagar, has launched a campaign ‘Muhammad For All’ to introduce the Prophet to a large section of the citizens, especially non-Muslims.

Mohsin has compiled a biography of the Prophet “Follow Me: God Will Love You” and begun gifting copies, 20,000 of them, to those who want to know about the Prophet. According to Mohsin, Prophet’s birthday provides the perfect opportunity to his followers to spread his message.

“Milad essentially means we, the Muslims, have to disseminate his noble teachings,” Mohsin said. As part of the campaign, he has put up 20 hoardings across the City and invited people of all faiths to ask for a free copy. In the words of Syed Tanveer Ahmed, Chief Editor, karnatakamuslims.com, such a campaign to introduce the Prophet to the people at large has never been carried out in the City’s history.

Uniform civil code
At the Milad-un-Nabi function organised by the Markazi Milad-o-Seerat Committee, Sunni Jamiat All Karnataka, Governor H R Bhardwaj said only the ignorant people would disrespect the Prophet or the Quran. “Sirf nasamjh log hi aisa kar sakte hain” (only the uninformed can do that), he said, in a veiled reference to the recent incidents that were deemed blasphemous by Muslims.

The Governor, who spoke in chaste Urdu and recited a few couplets, dismissed the calls for a uniform civil code.

“Outsiders (non-Muslims) should never call for changing the personal law or bringing a uniform code unless Muslims themselves want it,” he observed.

Bhardwaj assured Muslims of “complete peace and security” in Karnataka as long as “I’m here as the head of the State”. “Mujhe to aansoo aajate hain jab aap kehte hain ke aap ke saath zyadati ho rahi hai,” (I feel moved when you say that you are being treated unfairly), he said.

The Governor asked the community to take part in politics and produce ”good statesmen”.