Bohras pray through the holiest night of sacred Ramzan

Nagpur: In the month of Ramzan, a night considered to be extremely auspicious is ‘lailatul qadr’ or ‘shab-e-qadr’. This night is celebrated by all Muslim community members by praying through the night. The hours are variously called the night of decree and destiny, which calls for prayers, offering namaz from sunset to sunrise.
Since the Dawoodi Bohra calendar is slightly different from the Islamic calendar, they observed the night of prayers on Thursday.
Each year, the masjid is beautifully decorated so the community members can spend the entire night until dawn offering prayers. However, this year they celebrated it at home with online videos and recorded prayers. Most faithful stay up all night with prayers and namaz, and stop only the sun rises.
City businessman Malik Fidvi spoke about the significance of this holy night and how did his family celebrates. “This night the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad and it holds a high degree of importance for us. All the members in the family sit together after the iftar and begin reciting the prayers, namaz and dua,” he said.
The prayers and namaz begins around 9.30pm and continues till 3.30 in the morning, when the sun rises. “We all sit together and recite holy prayers to Allah. This year we couldn’t go to the masjid, but every year there would be huge celebrations and prayer. We pray to god to take away the illness and negativity of the virus, and offer namaz with all our hearts,” said Bilquis Saha Akthar, a housewife.
“We Bohras celebrate it a day before. This day is better than a 1,000 nights, as mentioned in the religious books. We will see recorded messages and religious videos on our televisions and mobiles, so we can take advantage of the holy teachings,” said Sheikh Shabbir Fidvi, a senior community member.
Agreeing to this Kauser Ali Khumusi, another Bohra community member, believes that this night is the night to learn the lesson of good and purity, and pray that all the negativity and evil is swept away off from one’s life. “Ramzan is all about positivity and purity. Even during lockdown our spirits are high and we are praying, fasting and feasting together. We offered prayers at home, just how we would do at the masjid,” he said.