Shias, Sunnis bow together here

IT?S RAMZAN and here is a masjid where members of Shia and Sunni sects offer namaz together. Maliki Masjid on Maliki Street, Muftiganj, harmony stands out, as it is in Lucknow that Shia and Sunni have a history of conflict.

IT’S RAMZAN and here is a masjid where members of Shia and Sunni sects offer namaz together. Maliki Masjid on Maliki Street, Muftiganj, harmony stands out, as it is in Lucknow that Shia and Sunni have a history of conflict.

HT Image

It was built about 13 years ago that this masjid was built by late Zainul Nawab Maliki, a revered figure in the community for the ritual of offering namaz on glowing ambers, said his daughter Farahana Maliki.

She lives in the ancestral house right across the masjid with her husband and daughter.

“On first floor, Sunnis offer prayers and on ground floor Shias offer prayers.

Members of both the sects enter the masjid from a common gate,” she said.

Zainul Nawab Maliki did not take any donations to built the mosque but built it on his own.

The daughter brings out an album containing pictures of Nawab Maliki offering namaz on glowing embers laying his prayer mat on it. And a lot of celebrities, including Shatrughan Sinha, Rajesh Khanna and Dilip Kumar, have been witness to it. The masjid is something of a monument. There is a clinic adjoining the masjid that runs on charity. Dr Pramod Porwal, a Hindu, had a friendship pact with Zainul Nawab Maliki that he would serve the masjid and he observes at least one roza in Ramzan every year.

The masjid shows communal harmony.