I’m sure than are many others like me in this society, being suffocated by ignorant mullahs.
RAWALPINDI: I have been living since 1994 near a mosque named Jamia Masjid Noori, located near Dhok Saidan Road in Rawalpindi Cantt. For all these years, I have greatly suffered due to the misuse of loudspeakers by the mosque’s imam. It is used not only for the azan and Friday prayers but also for various kinds of functions all year long. To my knowledge, the law permits the use of loudspeakers only for the azan and for the Friday prayer sermon but the police are obviously not willing to implement the law.
Every week, the maulana, usually after the Isha prayer, starts using the loudspeaker. He continues doing this for at least a couple of hours. On Fridays, some young boys begin reciting naats at about 10 in the morning and continue till the peshimam takes over and he carries on till around 3 pm. Even more agonisingly, the mosque uses its speakers almost as a routine around 10 am on other days of the week as well, and this includes Sundays.
The maulana sahib is a fiery speaker and loves to deliver his sermons in a highly emotional way to an audience that becomes increasingly charged as the speech progresses. Worst of all, the loudspeaker becomes a real headache for me when the maulana, in the heat of his emotional speeches, shouts at full throat till late at night. For example, a gathering was held in the mosque on January 26. Another maulana had been invited as chief guest to speak on ‘Tahafuz Namoose Risalat’. The function started immediately after the Isha prayer and ended past midnight.
Thanks to the use of the loudspeaker in this way, I am faced with the following problems: I feel as if I am involved in some kind of sin when I am busy and cannot spare time to listen to the Holy Quran being recited. I can neither study for an exam nor pray with concentration. And my younger daughter, who is two years old, is unable to sleep at night. After a long day's work, I feel tired and want to go to sleep early, something made impossible by the misuse of the loudspeakers.
I often wonder what service to religion is being performed by the cleric who insists on using — rather misusing — the mosque loudspeaker and thereby inconveniencing every one that unfortunately live close to him. I’m sure than are many others like me in this society, being suffocated by ignorant mullahs.
Jahangir Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2011.
