Most of us have seen practice of sending food to Masjid / Madarsa on daily basis. The concept is behind the practice is ‘eesal e sawaab to dead ones’ i.e. this act will benefit the dead one on whose name such food is given. In many parts of sub-continent, students of madarsas used to go on the doors of people for getting food. Some people thought that this act of students makes them down to earth and negates their ego.
It has been pointed out by some school of thoughts in Muslims that the practice is not Islamic in its very roots and the concept has been taken from the religions already prevalent in subcontinent before Islam. Is it true that this is specific to sub-continent’s people and not observed in other parts of the world (say middle east)? Is it followed in Hindu and Sikh communities as well?
Most of us have seen practice of sending food to Masjid / Madarsa on daily basis. The concept is behind the practice is 'eesal e sawaab to dead ones' i.e. this act will benefit the dead one on whose name such food is given. In many parts of sub-continent, students of madarsas used to go on the doors of people for getting food. Some people thought that this act of students makes them down to earth and negates their ego.
It has been pointed out by some school of thoughts in Muslims that the practice is not Islamic in its very roots and the concept has been taken from the religions already prevalent in subcontinent before Islam. Is it true that this is specific to sub-continent's people and not observed in other parts of the world (say middle east)? Is it followed in Hindu and Sikh communities as well?
Don't know about 'eesal e sawaab' like tradition since it is not followed in my state. But students going to the doors of people to get food is a part of ancient Indian/hindu/Buddhist/jain traditions that dates back to the Vedic times. Negating the ego is only a part of it since all students from the poor one to the crown prince had to beg the local people for food. At the age of 8 boys (and girs of ancient India) would be initiated and enter the Gurukula which was a type of residential school to begin their learning. From initiation until the age of 25 all individuals are prescribed to be students and to remain unmarried. The gurukulas were supported by public donation so the public supported the education of the students and fed them. No fees were taken since knowledge was considered sacred.. This made gurukulas one of the earliest forms of public school offices. At the end of the study period when the student graduated, the guru could ask the student is a traditional gesture of acknowledgment, respect and thanks to the guru, which may be monetary, but may also be a special task the teacher wants the student to accomplish. If the student was poor and the teacher asked for monetary compensation, it was the duty of the king to provide that on behalf of the student. So, yes going to people's doors for food is a proud and time honored tradition. I doubt the barbaric lands of the ME ever had any wonderful practice or traditions of such values. Of all the ancient centers of learning most were situated in South east asia, china, Christian Constantinople and Greece during the time of Plato
Don't know about 'eesal e sawaab' like tradition since it is not followed in my state. But students going to the doors of people to get food is a part of ancient Indian/hindu/Buddhist/jain traditions that dates back to the Vedic times. Negating the ego is only a part of it since all students from the poor one to the crown prince had to beg the local people for food. At the age of 8 boys (and girs of ancient India) would be initiated and enter the Gurukula which was a type of residential school to begin their learning. From initiation until the age of 25 all individuals are prescribed to be students and to remain unmarried. The gurukulas were supported by public donation so the public supported the education of the students and fed them. No fees were taken since knowledge was considered sacred.. This made gurukulas one of the earliest forms of public school offices. At the end of the study period when the student graduated, the guru could ask the student is a traditional gesture of acknowledgment, respect and thanks to the guru, which may be monetary, but may also be a special task the teacher wants the student to accomplish. If the student was poor and the teacher asked for monetary compensation, it was the duty of the king to provide that on behalf of the student. So, yes going to people's doors for food is a proud and time honored tradition. I doubt the barbaric lands of the ME ever had any wonderful practice or traditions of such values. Of all the ancient centers of learning most were situated in South east asia, china, Christian Constantinople and Greece during the time of Plato
Interesting,it seems that in ancient India, they had fixed date of marriage at 25.
in my village, we used to take iftari to masjid on purely voluntary basis and it was meant for ALL the people present in the masjid at the4 time of iftar.
food for the resident imam was on a turn basis. families volunteered to provide food for one day whenever their turn is on…usually, once in two months.
host families tried their best to have good food for the imam saaHib because they had to do it once in 2 months. as a result, imam saaHib had the best food year round in the entire village lol…roz muraGhGhan kaash ham bhii kisii masjid ke imaam hote!
but normally, masjid even in remote villages is attached with madrasa, where poor student get education and people of village provide food to them for 3 times. so how come this two month period and providing Murghan food to pesh imam possible. In our town, they still give normal food (what the family members eat for three times on daily basis). Special food (meetha, halwa, biryani) is for special occasions like Eid, Shab Barat, Muharram or barsi of any dead family member.
You are right in a way (and I’ve observed during my madarsa education days) that such special food is presented to molvi saheb and students are given normal food. Even, the madarsa, where I studied had a cook who used to cook watery salan for students (as if they were on some nafs kushi) and all the food from homes was given to molvi saab except for daal / sabzi which was molvi saab’s discretion to give to anyone of his favorite student. lols.
This lead to many stories of students eating food on way from people’s homes to madarsa. I heard a student Juma Khan was beaten by molvi saab as he probably had eaten mango received from a home on way to madarsa and some other student caught him doing so.
kaash ham bhii kisii masjid ke imaam hote! 