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Taste of Life: From the Prophet’s teachings: A story of selfless giving during the pandemic
The Dargah of Maula Ali, located in Dahiwadi village in Maan taluka of Satara district, attracted devotees from Pune on Eid-e-Milad
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a vast number of individuals and institutions provided ready-to-eat food or ration kits to those in need, including migrant workers, those stranded away from home, and those travelling by trains, organised by the government.
In April 2020, while I was volunteering for Saad Pratishthan, an NGO based in Pune, I met a twenty-five-year-old man in Kodhwa. We were distributing packets of cooked khichadi when he and his younger brother came on a scooter with a box full of biscuits and water. He told me that his family was taking care of food arrangements for almost sixty people belonging to the Potraj community who lived nearby, and that they would cook food for more if we told him where it was needed.
“You can concentrate on other areas, we will take care of the people here”, he told me with a smile. He was Muslim.
Over the next many months, we stayed in touch, exchanging notes and information about the supply of food and ration kits for the hungry. His family fed thousands of people. When their funds were exhausted, they sought donations from friends and relatives and continued with the charity.
He often mentioned his grandfather. It was he, the patriarch of the family, who had mobilised and supervised the activity.
After the second wave of the pandemic subsided, he called me to inform me that his family had decided to stop the relief work. I requested him to let me talk to his grandfather. I wanted to thank him for supporting the hungry and the poor.
The grandfather shrugged it off. He told me that it was his duty not to let anyone go hungry and that it was the only right thing to do.
“How could I sleep knowing that people around me were hungry?” he asked.
Feeding the hungry has been described as one of the noblest acts a believer is supposed to do, as well as to enthuse others to engage with.
According to Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet Muhammad was once asked: “What if a person has nothing?” The Prophet replied: “He should work with his own hands for his benefit and then give something out of such earnings in charity.” His companions asked: “What if he is not able to work?” The Prophet said, “He should help poor and needy persons.” His companions further asked: “What if he cannot do even that?” The Prophet said: “He should urge others to do good.”
The companions said: “What if he lacks that also?”
The Prophet said: “He should check himself from doing evil. That is also charity.”
Taking a cue from the verses of the Quran, traditions of the Prophet (Hadees), and the teachings of Sufis, feeding the poor and the hungry took root in Muslim societies all over the world.
The grandfather came to Pune from Ahmednagar (Now Ahilyanagar) in 1944 at the age of fourteen. His father was a clothes merchant with a shop in Raviwar Peth who followed the Islamic concepts of charity, generosity, compassion, humanity, benevolence, altruism, and hospitality. He actively participated in food charity as and when he could, especially during festivals.
Ahmednagar had a tradition of distributing food every year on the occasion of “Paigambar Jayanti”, a syncretic term, or Eid-e-Milad-Un Nabi, also known as Mawlid. The food charity was initiated by the Tambatkar Muslims, and the feasts took place in the Danedabara area of the city. About one and a half to two thousand people, irrespective of their religion, were fed in these feasts. The food was vegetarian and usually comprised pooris, a vegetable curry, rice, and a sweet.
His father donated to the cause even though he was not a part of the community.
The grandfather started helping his father in Pune at quite a young age and shared the responsibility of donating food and money for the hungry.
The Anjuman Islam organised a large procession of Muslim residents of Pune city and the Cantonment on “Paigambar Jayanti”. It travels through Bhavani Peth and Ganesh Peth every year. The marching band would play at the forefront of the procession, and men carried flags with the crescent moon and the star on them. Teams of young volunteers would walk in discipline to the beat of the band, and a large crowd of Muslim citizens would follow behind them. The grandfather’s family distributed sweets to onlookers and the devotees in the procession.
At home, his mother cooked halwa, puri, kormas, and mutton pulao to celebrate the Prophet’s birthday.
The Prophet was born on the 12th of the Arabian month of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and beginning in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, Muslims in Southwest Asia and North-eastern Africa began celebrating his birthday as a religious occasion. In 1123 CE, the Shiite Fatimid dynasty in Egypt began holding public celebrations of the Prophet’s birthday in which sweets and charity were dispensed to the public, preachers publicly recounted the Prophet’s virtues, and the ruler led visits to the shrines of prominent descendants of the Prophet in Cairo.
Eid-e-Milad is a common celebration across the Muslim world. Usually undertaken in the form of a festival, its specific elements vary from region to region. Narrating the stories from the Prophet’s life and charity of food, however, are the universal aspects associated with it.
In Pune, food was distributed by several organisations and families to the poor and the hungry, belonging to any and every religion and caste, in Nana Peth, Raviwar Peth, and in the Cantonment on Eid-e-Milad. The menu was vegetarian and comprised rice and dal with halwa, or halwa–poori.
From 1936, “Anjuman Fidayyate Hind” organised religious lectures around the Prophet’s birthday. These lectures were held in the library hall of the institution. Hindus and Muslims living in Pune city and the Cantonment were invited every year by the president of the organisation, Sheikh Gulamnabi Rasool. The topics of the lectures centred on the life and thoughts of the Prophet.
The lectures were conducted from 9 pm to 11:30 pm. It was expected that the audience would arrive at the venue after dinner. However, many worked till late and could not go home to eat before the lectures. Hence, dinner was arranged for them in the small courtyard outside the institute’s library. The grandfather sponsored dinners for five people every year.
The Dargah of Maula Ali, located in Dahiwadi village in Maan taluka of Satara district, attracted devotees from Pune on Eid-e-Milad. They offered coconuts and sweets at the shrine. The grandfather and his family visited the shrine sometimes. They organised a small feast for devotees who had come from faraway places. Mutton curry was served on the occasion. There was a separate hearth and utensils to cook the vegetarian meal for Hindus visiting the shrine.
I called the grandfather last month to inform him about this article. He asked me not to mention the family’s charities and his or his grandson’s name. I assured him that I would not mention their names.
I have never met him or his grandson. But I know that some people will never go hungry because of them, and others like them.
(Chinmay Damle is a research scientist and food enthusiast. He writes here on Pune’s food culture. He can be contacted at chinmay.damle@gmail.com)
