#118: Eid Prayer
Last Friday I went with my father, brother, and two uncles, along with another 10 000 people to the Old (Lenin) Square for the Orozo Ait (Eid ul-Fitr) prayer. People usually start gathering starting from 7 am to occupy the best spots close the the Mufti and other imams. Before the actual prayer, which usually starts closer to 9am, the Mufti "leads the sermon" with a long lecture on the importance of fasting, alms (zakat), charity (sadaqa), prayer (namaz), and just being good Muslims.
As always, he then praised the Kyrgyz government for allowing the religious freedom and giving support to Islam "unseen in other Central Asia countries." His lectures usually have covert political messages. This time too, he called Muslims for "patience in the light of rising prices, because it was a way for Allah to test us."
Following the 10-minute prayer, people rushed to shake hands with the Mufti (in green) and Bishkek's Head Imam (in white) for soopchuluk or to "get their blessing."
I got the backstage access to take pictures
A colleague of mine, KB, was also there that morning. I always wanted to take picture of people bowing and kneeling down. These are her pictures. Great shots!
3 comments:
Great post! The pictures really added so much!
Azamat: Thanks for sharing. For various reasons, good and not-so-good, public displays of faith like this is very uncommon in the US and Great Britain. Your pictures and story are a good reminder that the world is a wide and diverse place. A+M+M+J
Thanks, Ulaana.
Andrew, I was discussing this very topic with my American colleague. I explained that these people, who go for public prayers, display their faith only once or twice a year on big holidays. She said it is very much true during Easter and Christmas in the US. People who regularly pray, go to their neighborhood mosques. There is diversity even among the Kyrgyz Muslims.
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