Iftar in Pakistan’s rural mosques: Amid nostalgia, social divisions threaten ancient communities
https://arab.news/4d53k
After many years, I visited my ancestral village of Umerkot in southern Sindh province, and was pleasantly surprised to see so many traditions, values and cultural expressions surviving the modernization trends that have swept the cities. The rapid material transformations society is witnessing hasn’t altered the core values of civic life there, especially those associated with religious rituals and practices.
Iftari, or Iftar, the breaking of the Muslim fast at dusk is very different in Umrkot than in most urban areas these days. Nothing or very little has changed over the past half century. The only difference I saw was that there were more people in the neighborhood mosque than in the past-- and there were more mosques.
The warmth, fraternity and feelings of togetherness in most villages in Pakistan at Iftar create the atmosphere of an extended family, but the numbers of mosques increasing to four or more in different neighborhoods, tells a different story of sectarian fragmentation over the years. Though the atmosphere is the same in every mosque’s courtyard, with people greeting each other with smiles, handshakes and embraces before sitting down on a mat on the floor to break their fasts, it’s not lost on anybody that religion here is getting politicized. It may only be a matter of time that this spirit of community is lost with divisive religious and political discourses, urbanization trends in the rural areas and growth of material values. The number of mosques in the village represents different sects, each having built its own in a different corner. That was never the case before-- all the villagers used to attend the single mosque they had for generations in one neighborhood. The political use of religion, with so many such parties using modern social media platforms and resources for outreach, are adversely impacting communitarian solidarities.
The warmth, fraternity and feelings of togetherness in most villages in Pakistan at Iftar create the atmosphere of an extended family, but the numbers of mosques increasing in different neighborhoods, tells a different story of sectarian fragmentation over the years.
- Rasul Bakhsh Rais
Still some things, nostalgic and wonderful, remain the same. As before, it doesn’t take much time to finish the quick meal when the fast breaks. Unlike in the urban mosques, the local Imams in the villages don’t give enough time to the worshippers to finish eating leisurely, and rush for prayers. Every person brings at least one dish, and even those not fasting for some reason, send a dish if they cannot make it to the mosque themselves. About fifteen minutes to half an hour before the call for the sunset prayer, the dishes are placed in a long row next to each other as they keep coming. The display of dishes is colorful and the aroma wafts through the atmosphere with great expectation among the worshippers, exhausted by a long day of fasting.
In the villages of Pakistan, the Iftar’s daily ritual in Ramadan is about community, compassion, giving and celebrating the joy of breaking the fast together. Relatively richer households contribute more meat-based dishes, offering an opportunity to the poor who cannot afford them at home, but everybody makes a huge effort to give their best to the occasion. There are also those who are destitute and poor, who attend the Iftar with or without fasting, and they are always welcome.
The fear is that, with the changing winds of time, with more and more politicization and sectarianism sweeping through the country, the true spirit of a single Muslim community is becoming lost even in the villages-- which are historically areas centered around communal living. In many ways, the Iftars in Umarkot-- and in rural areas around the country-- have already drastically changed beneath the surface. The culture of community, unity and religious harmony is at stake, as the same divisive messages trickle down from the corridors of power, from the media and from Pakistani society at large. And it’s a shame, and a danger, to let it fade.
- Rasul Bakhsh Rais is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity” (Oxford University Press, 2017). Twitter: @RasulRais
