Hyderabad: Subdued Eid brings families together!

Hyderabad: It was Eid with a difference this year. With the state government imposing partial lockdown just two days before the festival, the Muslim community in the state had to revise the plans of celebration keeping in view the seriousness of the situation arising out of Covid-19 and decided to make it a subdued one.

As Muslims believe in one word, 'Allah Bharose', formed into a team and offered prayers at their houses instead of going to mosques. One benefit of this lockdown is that the members of joint families had enough time to bond with each other. Apart from that the nuclear family members of the joint family also joined their cousins to offer prayers at their ancestral homes and spend quality time with them, said Muneer Ahmed. He stated, "Though initially they were little disappointed that they are unable to offer prayers at Eidgah, they felt that in view of the pandemic, like that of the last year, they should offer the prayers with extended family members by following the religious protocols and it's a great feeling because the sense of brotherhood is being strengthened. 

"My uncle and his family travelled from Masab Tank and Mehdipatnam to Malkajgiri so that we can offer prayers at our ancestral home together," Muneer said.

Fayaz Ahmed, a native of Nadigudem in Suryapet district, noted, "Generally what would happen is that we would go to Eidgah to offer the prayers and meet and greet friends and relatives in the same Eidgah and come back to our homes and visit our relative's houses individually. But the entire family gatherings which are happening at our ancestral home are giving a feeling of true union and such a feeling was missing all these years."

"As we all knew that the importance of religious sermons is considered to be divine, we went a step ahead in a creative way and downloaded the sermons delivered by our Imam's and played it on the mobile, thus giving a feeling of offering prayers at Eidgah," said Md Azhar, a native of Karimnagar.

He added, "The happiest thing this Ramzan was that many of our family members that have gone separate and began nuclear families in Hyderabad also drove back to their ancestral home in Karimnagar to offer prayers with their families."