A belated Khushiali Mubarak and Didar Mubarak (double mubaraki…)
I thought I would write a little something about the didar for the benefit of those who were not there. I think it might also aid reminiscing for those who were! Z and myself were fortunate enough to be able to make it along with my parents, numerous members of my family and a few friends.
There had been a air of celebration from the time didar had been tentatively announced for Dubai. In fact, extra prayers had started in JK, once it was known that Hazar Imam would be visiting Dubai for the ground breaking ceremony. And this is when the registration process began for the gulf jamat.
It had been 20 years since the gulf jamat had been blessed by didar from Hazar Imam. Some background: 1983 is when the land to be used to build the new centre was originally gifted by the Sheikh. The land is in a relatively built up area close to Wafi Mall. Rumour has it that Etisalat, the telecommunication monopoly here, was planned to build its headquarters next door to the site. Hazar Imam was concerned that a large building at this location would overshadow the centre and diminish its identity. Sheikh Mohamed was also rumoured to have put his foot down, to reclaim the Etisalat land and has ordered for a car park to be built there instead. It is reported that Sheikh Mohamed has said about Hazar Imam: He is not like my brother, he IS my brother. But I digress.
Thursday was the day we arrived in Dubai. The week previously had been spent looking into hotels, deciding when and how to pick up the registration cards. You have to understand that hotels in Dubai were already fairly busy, with the FIFA youth world cup being held here as well as the Dubai Air show and 10,000 Ismailis descending on the city made it tricky to get a hotel room. Dubai is known for its top end hotels, but I’m sure some of the lower quality ones were doing good business this week. In fact, I heard of people staying in Abu Dhabi and doing the 90 minute drive to Dubai on the needed days.
The land used to cater for event was near the Dubai Trade Centre. (specifically between Zabeel 1 and 2 - as I told the taxi drivers on many an occasion) A mammoth marquee had been erected. It was amazing that such a feat had been achieved, in what looked like waste land, within such a short period of time. The logistics behind such an operation must have been extraordinary.. We arrived to see many people in celebratory mood. People were queuing to both register and pick up their cards and food was being served behind the tent, butter chicken, kuku paka and kebabs, if I remember correctly. And this is where we started bumping into people from abu dhabi, from dubai, from London, from Canada and beyond. A geet evening was planned from about 10pm and people congregated to a part of the hall that had been split off for this purpose. There was a small dance area and many people sat around this area watching. What I witnessed here was truly amazing: murids from all parts of the world dancing in different ways. You looked across this area and you would see 4 or 5 different varieties of raas garba from different parts of the world. People dressed in different types of clothes all dancing together. You begin to realize that while some of our traditions are different, we are all the same.
Friday was a day of rest for the populous as it quite literally is here is the UAE. Many more people started flying in from overseas, and the ticket desk was inundated with registrations. Many people did the jumeira beach thing, since everything else is closed til the evening and you could see the increase in numbers when you attended jk in the evening.
Saturday was the day of didar. The doors were opened at 10am (people had queued from 8)and the Jamat were expecting didar to be held between 3-4pm. Seating was allocated based on the card colour you had. Gold for VIPs (donors etc), Silver for the gulf jamat, and blue for the international jamat. Just so you get a picture of numbers, there were roughly 3,000 gulf jamat and approximately 10,000 others, although varying opinions exist about how many people were actually there.
The marquee was made of a cream and beige fabric and there were large arrangements of flowers hanging from the roof along with the chandeliers. The stage was central with a intricate wooden covering, like a sort of crown, with 5 wooden domes. On entering the hall, everyone received a tasbih and a snack pack to keep them going for the 5 hour wait. There were 3 large screens at the front of the hall where we watched the speech from the 25th anniversary of the IIS. We had hoped to watch a video of the ground breaking ceremony at this point, but this did not transpire. I guess it will be showed another time. Either way the speech is on the AKDN website. (see below)
The didar really was a case of east meets west. There were Ismailis from India, Pakistan, UK, US, Canada, Afghanistan, Tajikistan – not so many from East Africa – due to the impending visit to Kenya. We sat with the Gulf Jamat, which was an enlightening experience. We met Ismailis from Chitral who had moved to Sharjah, some from Bombay who had moved to Dubai and a couple from Tajikistan, now in Bahrain. The Gulf Jamat really is a mixed crowd. If you consider myself, born in the UK and now in Abu Dhabi, amongst the rest of the murids, you’ll realize the span that this Jamat covers. It looks like a predominantly first generation jamat which looks to be growing every day.
Ginans were sung by different ‘teams’ from the various gulf jamats prior to Hazar Imam’s arrival. And at about 415 Hazar Imam’s car pulled up which we saw on the big screen. He changed from his suit into his robe within about 7 minutes. And although it wasn’t officially declared a durbar, it really felt like it was. An ayat was recited and saheb jin more muneh bhave was sung, which apparently is His favourite ginan. The president made a speech to Hazar Imam, reaffirming our allegiance, congratulating Him on His achievements and thanking Him for all that He does for us. He also wished Him a Happy Birthday, which Hazar Imam smiled to. An antique tile was presented to Him on the occasion of his birthday which was from Asia.
It’s not for me to recount the exact words of the firman. I am sure will hear the firman in the weeks to come but amongst the points that were made were the following:
He thanked the ruling family for the way they have welcomed Him to Dubai and commented that when He thanked the Sheikh, the Sheikh said that You do not need to be thankful – this is Your home. He mentioned the international nature of the jamat in front of him; He gave blessings to all of us, and our families; He noted that the Dubai Centre was important because of the increasingly importance of the middle east; He talked of how he wanted to address areas of the world in which Ismailis live in poverty; He told us to stay on sirat-ul-mustaqim and brought up the importance of prayer, to stay away from bad habits and if you did not have time for prayer, take a tasbih and say ya Allah, ya Muhammed, ya Ali, because that is a prayer in its own right; He talked of the schools of excellence and ismaili centres he hopes to set up across the world – and thanked the donors; He praised the fact that this mulaqat was arranged under a very short time frame and he gave blessings for the volunteers; He was happy to be spending his birthday with his spiritual children; He said that we should not be absorbed in materiality; He talked about the fact that there will be changes in our practices – I believe to standardize the way that our faith is followed over the world - but only He will decide what will be changed and there will be no compromise on the essence of our Tariqah; He also said that it was important to find out and know about our history and the Toronto Museum will help to do this.
I hope this gives an understanding as to what was said. It will all make more sense once you hear the firman.
Hazar Imam stayed with the Jamat for about 45 minutes. Mukhisaheb returned and said that Hazar Imam had told us to celebrate His birthday with dandia! After a period of congratulations were everyone roamed the hall, Jamatkhana followed. Food. dandia and dancing followed. It had been an historic occasion - all made possible by the team of volunteers who made everything run so well.
Its not a work of literature but I hope that this gives you all some glimpse into what we were blessed enough to experience.
best wishes
R.