Mid-Day
January 14,2002 www.chlomumbai.com
On wings with a prayer
By: Manoj Nair

Followers of Imam Raza on board the Boeing aircraft, where they sang praises to Prophet Muhammad and the imam on the occasion of the latter's 150th birth anniversary

On Sunday, more than 3,000 feet above Mumbai, there was a full-throated prayer for peace by 150 people in an aircraft.

Followers of Imam Raza, noted scholar from the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam, sought duas (blessings) and sang praises to Prophet Muhammad and the imam on the occasion of the imam's 150th birth anniversary.

The flight was the third in a series of programmes the academy had organised. On December 26 and 28, hundreds of followers took part in prayers on the ground and sea.

For an hour, the upholstered interior of the Indian Airlines' Boeing aircraft was turned into a prayer room, redolent with the scent of flowers and attar.

"Jung ke baadal door ho jaye (Let the clouds of war go far away)," the followers sang.

Most participants thought this and other prayers for peace were appropriate, considering the warlike situation along the Indo-Pak border.

On chartering the aircraft for prayers, Mohammed Saeed Noori, general secretary of the Raza Academy in Mumbai, said, "It is one way of making the imam's anniversary memorable."

He added, "This has never been done before. We wanted to sing the imam's praises on the sea and in the air."

To bring home the significance of the prayers aboard an aircraft, followers sang, "Hawa hain Raza ka; Fiza hain Raza ka (The air is Raza's; the universe is Raza's)."

Students, businessmen, religious scholars, clergy members and a few children were aboard the flight that took off from Santa Cruz airport in the afternoon.

Farooq Ahmed, a mobile phone dealer from Mohammad Ali Road, joined the group with his 12-year-old son Kausar. "It is something I will remember forever," said Farooq.

Earlier, Farooq and Kausar joined a cavalcade of flag-laden cars, buses and motorbikes, called the Raza Caravan, which carried followers from Minara Masjid to the airport.

A six-volume compilation of 3,663 sayings of Prophet Muhammad, from Hazrat Raza's book, was released during the flight.

Imam Ahmed Raza Khan was born on June 14, 1856, in Jasoli in Bareilly. He is believed to have written 549 books on varied topics. Apart from the Koran, Imam Raza wrote books on history, mathematics, philosophy and Arabic grammar. His tomb in Bareilly, called the Ala Hazrat Barelvi, is a popular place of pilgrimage.

The postal department also released a stamp to mark the anniversary.