At This Temple In Gujarat, You Can Witness Hanuman Chalisa & Qawwali At The Same Time
And, this group of 10 qawwals didn¡¯t just set the stage on fire but also made the devotees sing to their tunes.
It was the last Saturday of the holy month of Shravan and hundreds of devotees had turned up at this Hanuman Temple in Tarsali to offer prayers to the Lord. While the celebration in the temple premises began with Hanuman Chalisa soon the air reverberated with the sounds of ¡®Ya Mohammed¡¯ and ¡®Khwaja¡¯. It was a historic moment as the Hanuman Temple trustees had for the first time invited Muslim qawwals to perform in the temple.
And, this group of 10 qawwals didn¡¯t just set the stage on fire but also made the devotees sing to their tunes. ¡°We have performed at several mosques and religious programmes but this is for the first time that we performed in a temple. We were surprised when we were invited to sing qawwali at a temple in the holy month of Shravan,¡± said qawwal, Imran Mirasi, a resident of Jambusar.
¡°We immediately accepted the invitation as it is a symbol of communal harmony. Be it qawwali or a mantra, if sung with devotion, it reaches the god. We offered prayers to Lord Hanuman through qawwalis,¡± Imran told TOI. The qawwals began their programme with a song dedicated to the country and then performed in both Hindi and Gujarati language.
¡°We are artists so we never differentiate between any religion. In fact, we are thankful to Shri Maruti Mandal as they gave us a chance to perform in the temple. We were amazed by the number of devotees who turned up to hear qawwali along with Hanuman aarti. This can happen only in our country,¡± another qawwal, Akhtar Mirasi said. He added that his family has been in the profession of singing qawwalis since several generations.
TOI
Rakesh Patel, president of Shri Maruti Mandal, who organized the qawwali, said that this initiative will go a long way in promoting communal harmony. ¡°We prayed to the lord by chanting Hanuman aarti and then celebrated the holy day by singing qawwali too. We are glad that devotees from the city joined in big numbers and even praised the qawwals for their performance,¡± Patel, who is popularly known as Bhagyabhai in the area, said.
This temple located by a lakeside has nearly 3,000 members of which 500 are Muslims. Both Hindus and Muslims pray at the temple every Saturday and donate generously to the trust.
