Salima Khanum was looking forward to a quiet Sunday of prayers and reflection when she received an SMS from her nephew that said, “Happy birthday to our dear Prophet”. The cheery greeting was followed by the announcement that her extended family, which lives in the far-flung suburbs, was coming over to celebrate Eid-e-Milad with her.
“They came bearing gifts, sweets, festoons and colourful banners. And in no time my house resembled one of those elaborately decorated trucks carrying tableaux in the Eid-e-Milad processions,” said a bemused Salima (42), the Dongri resident believes the Prophet’s birthday is best observed in a simple manner, especially as his death anniversary also falls on the same day.
And while purists and moderates have never seemed to agree upon what the best way to celebrate Eid-e-Milad is, Muslim-dominated pockets in the city were decked up with fairy lights, fancy decorations and sparkling banners on Sunday. A procession comprising thousands of devotees in hundreds of elaborately decorated trucks wound its way from the historic Khilafat House in Byculla to areas such as Dongri and Mohammed Ali Road. It finally culminated at the Haj House in South Mumbai.
Preparations for the big day had started 11 days ago - on the first day of Rabi-ul-Awwal, which is the third month in the Islamic calendar. The Prophet was born on the 12th day of Rabi-ul-Awwal in 571 AD in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
A pre-Independence tradition, the Khilafat House Eid-e-Milad procession was started by freedom fighter Maulana Mohammmed Ali Jauhar in the early 1920s. Mahatma Gandhi had attended the inaugural event in order to promote Hindu-Muslim unity during the British Raj.
Leaders of the two Islamic sects - Sunni and Deobandi - are, however, divided on what is the more appropriate way of marking the occasion. While the Deobandis point out that the ritualistic celebrations on the Prophet’s birth anniversary have no sanction in Islam, the Sunnis insist that it is their way of showing respect.
“The Prophet preached simple living and high thinking. So what is the point of taking out rallies, displaying banners and shouting slogans, supposedly in his honour,” wondered Mujeeb Siddiqui, an imam at a Dongri mosque. Interestingly, Eid-e-Milad is only celebrated by Muslims in the subcontinent and not by those living in the Arab world or elsewhere.
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