Hyderabad: The Jama Masjid Chowk at Murgi Chowk near Charminar, built over 200 years ago, has reverted to Friday discourse in Urdu 73 years after it stopped the service in the local language.
Soon after the ‘Operation Polo’ in September 1948 that led to the merger of Hyderabad state with the Indian Union, the mosque built during the period of Sikandar Jah, Nizam III, stopped the Urdu service and restricted itself to Arabic sermons. This was done to avoid controversies in view of the prevailing political conditions then. The mosque, popularly known as Chowk-ki-Masjid, relaunched the Urdu discourse on first Friday of Moharrum, the first month of Islamic calendar, this year. The devout have welcomed the move as the discourse in Urdu will help them keep abreast of socio-economic and educational problems of the community.
Chowk-ki-Masjid is one of the two historical mosques in Hyderabad where the Friday sermon (Khutba) is delivered in Arabic without a discourse (bayan) in Urdu. The other mosque is Mecca Masjid.
After the management of Chowk-ki-Masjid reintroduced the Urdu discourse, the state Waqf Board too is planning to follow suit in the Mecca Masjid.
The Friday sermon preceding the congregational noon prayers is divided in two parts. Both parts are delivered in Arabic. But since people in India do not understand Arabic, the Friday sermon is preceded by a discourse in Urdu or regional language. As far as Telugu states are concerned, the Arabic sermons for all the Fridays in a year were selected by the ecclesiastical (religious) department of the Nizam government almost 100 years ago. They are simply repeated even now, while the Urdu discourse is largely based on the current topics.
The managing committee of Chowk-ki-Masjid felt that the devout attending the Friday prayers are denied the benefit of knowing the religion and social, cultural and educational issues plaguing the principal minority community, as none of them follows what’s said in Arabic. About 2,000 people attend the Friday prayers in the mosque and in the absence of Urdu discourse, many of them turn up only a few moments before the congregational namaz.
“We discussed the issue for long and finally decided to reintroduce Urdu discourse for the benefit of the devout. Since the relaunch of Urdu service seven weeks ago, the response from the devout has been quite encouraging. They are turning up in mosque quite early to listen to the Urdu discourse. Mufti Mohammad Haneef Quadri of Jamia Nizamia has been hired for the Urdu bayan or discourse,” said Syed Asim Ahmad, member of the managing committee.
Asim Ahmad said the mosque has opened a library for the benefit of students. It also plans to run coaching classes for competitive and public examinations. Mosque committee president Munawar Hussain has been offering incentives to poor and meritorious students.
Waqf Board chairman Mohammad Saleem told TOI that he would take steps for reintroduction of Urdu service in Mecca Masjid too as thousands of people turn up at the nearly 400-year-old mosque for the Friday prayers.
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73 years on, Urdu discourse back in Jama Masjid Chowk - Times of India
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