Friday 26 / July / 2024
New Delhi: In a sign of bonhomie between the two communities, the Vishnu Mahadeva temple in Kerala’s Malappuram district organised an Iftar feast recently.
Vaniyannoor Chathangadu Mahavishnu temple committee members in Malappuram district said that around 300 Muslims of the locality gathered for the Iftar feast hosted by the temple.
Every year, the temple celebrates the annual day of the consecration of its deity and ends it up with a community feast, which is open to everyone. “This year the festival coincided with the Ramadan fasting, hence the Muslims in the locality could not participate in the grand lunch. After holding discussions, the temple committee decided to host an Iftar for the Muslims of the community,” said the President of the temple committee.
The president of the committee said that the response from the Muslims in the locality was great. “More than 300 attended the Iftar. We could manage and there was no scarcity of food,” he said. With the venue being a temple, the food was vegetarian and included vegetable biriyani, parotta and chappathi.
The guests at the Iftar party included Panakkad Rasheed Ali Thangal and prominent political leaders of IUML (Indian Union Muslim League), Congress, CPI(M) and the BJP.
The temple had organised the ‘Mahasudarshana Homam’ last week which saw thousands of devotees from various parts of the state participating. Usually, Muslim community members from the region also take part in the ritual.
Since the ‘Homam’ was conducted in the afternoon, Muslim community members who were fasting could not take part in the ritual. Hence the temple committee decided to host the Iftar party inside
“ This kind of a gathering is the need of the day. For the well being of our land and our citizens, I appeal everyone to be part of such events going forward”, said Rasheed Ali Shihab Thangal after attending the Iftar party.
The temple committee secretary KK Lakshmanan said that the Vaniyannoor temple should be held in the same festive atmosphere with all the rituals.
The land for the temple was donated by Hassan Haji, a resident of Vaniyannoor. Notably, 1.3 acres of land was donated for the temple land where people from all religion takes part in the festivals.
