Ied al-Adha at India
Muhammad Ramadhan (INA AFS to India YP 18–19)
Assalamualay’kum, may peace be upon you.
It is almost two months I live in Ahmedabad. In India, the peoples religion are varied just like in my country Indonesia. India known as the most Hindu population in the world. Along Hindu as the majority religion, it has Islam, Christianity, Sikh, Buddhism, etc. There also a lot of Islam believers, Muslim, in India. The number of Muslim is 189 million (2011 census) or 14.2% from the total population. India also the second biggest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan.
Religious and social life in India is different than in Indonesia. Usually, Muslims and Hindus are not living together in one community and living separated. This is happened since a long time ago, and we can see it from the historical site. In Ahmedabad Old City Jain, Hindu, and Muslim community are living separated and every community having their worship house in their respective community. In Hindu and Jain community they have a temple, and in the old city, Muslims have the Jama Masjid. The reason behind this, when one of the religion community is having a prayer, example in Islam there is an adzan that should recite out loud from Masjid speakers five times every day, it will not disturbing the other community.
In modern Ahmedabad also there. Yesterday at the Eid al-Adha I got a chance to celebrate the Eid al-Adha this year with my Gujarati Muslim counselor and local Indian/ Gujarati Muslim community. It was a great experience because there is a lot of difference between Islam in India and Indonesia. At the first time, I felt strange because there was no ‘takbiran’ like in Indonesia. ‘Takbiran’ is the recite of takbeer before Ied prayer at Idul al-Adha or Idul Fitr (The Ied celebration after Ramadhan month) in Indonesia. The shalat prayer (In India and Persia known as Namaz) in here, the takbeer in the second rakra’at was before the ruku’. It was funny because I was doing a mistake by directly did ruku’, I did not know because in Indonesia we do the five-times takbeer before we recite the Al-Fatihah.
After the shalat Eid al-Adha, I did not feel as a foreigner and I felt a strong brotherhood among Indian/ Gujarati Muslims as when they greet each other, they shake hands, hug and said ‘Assalamualaykum’. I also had a chance to visit the graveyard of my friends grandfather.
In India, beef is illegal. Because, cows is known as a holy animal by Hindus and some of their gods is resides in cows. There is a history that the ban of slaughtering cows to sacrifice is pioneered at the Mughal regime, which are an Islamic Kingdom. It means Hindu and Muslim are respecting each other since that time. Aside we cannot slaughter cows for sacrifice, they use a goat for the sacrifice. Even in India, Eid al-Adha is known as Eid Bakra which means Goat Eid. The meat from the goat is distributed to the poors, family and relatives.
At the Eid, I feel happy to eat chicken and mutton with my cuonselor because I live with my host family which they are a vegetarian which makes me rarely eat a non-veg food. This time, I did not eat the chicken with rice like in Indonesia, but it taste very good and for us Indonesian we feel legitimately’ celebrating the Eid al-Adha.
At that day I also had a chance to visit one of Muslim site, Sarkhej Roza, which consist a Mosque and the tomb of Shaikh Ahmed Khattu Ganj Bakhsh, the advisor of Sultan Ahmed Shah I. Ahmed Shah I was the ruler of Mughal empire and the name of Ahmedabad City is coming from Ahmed Shah I.
After conducting a little research and observation, now I know the main difference between Islam in India and Indonesia is the different of in Madhhab or Fiqh. Fiqh is the Islamic jurisprudence as the understanding of sharia. In India, people is following the Hanafi madhhab and in Indonesia people is following the Syafi’i madhhab. As there some difference, it is normal in Islam but the basic point of Islam is the same regardless you are Hanafi, Syafi’i, or the other madhhab like Hambali. Usually Muslims in Southern Asia countries like Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are following the Hanafi madhhab, and Muslims in South East Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore are following the Syafi’i madhhab.
Now I understand that Islam is also diverse, and every Muslims all over the world have their own uniqueness and culture, like in the culture of ‘takbiran’ before Ied prayer in Indonesia and eating khir and puri in India at the Ied Mubarak.
Even they having a different madhhab and celebrate the Ied with some differences, I feel satisfied. As the difference in maddhab or fiqh not made me feel as outsider or not sharing the similiar happiness with them. Differences helps me to get more knowledges, broaden my horizon, and open my eyes that this world is big and diverse. The most important thing is when it comes to differences, we do need to compare but we cannot argue which one is right or wrong. Because there is nothing wrong, just different. As a Muslim and a world citizen, I am happy to share my story to give the message of peace and harmony. To sum up, I will give a motto from my country that unites Indonesia: Bhineka Tunggal Ika. Which means, Unity in Diversity.
Wassalamualay’kum. May peace be upon you.
