A quiet Ramzan in Valley, no Jumat-ul-Vida prayers

QUOTE: “Unfortunately, we could not deliver the traditional last Friday sermons in which we bid farewell to the fasting month. For the first time ever, no tarawih and Friday prayers were held during Ramzan. We can only pray and hope that the pandemic gets over soon,” Moulvi Iftikhar, local cleric

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 22

Like all important Ramzan-related religious functions, people in the Valley spent the last Friday of the fasting month indoors. No congregational Jumat-ul-Vida prayers were held here on Friday and no sermons bidding farewell to Ramzan were heard.

“Unfortunately, we could not deliver the traditional last Friday sermons in which we bid farewell to the fasting month. For the first time ever, no tarawih and Friday prayers were held during Ramzan. We can only pray and hope that the pandemic gets over soon,” said Moulvi Iftikhar, a local cleric.

While the markets continued to remain shut with no sign of Eid shoppers, several top Valley-based clerics, including Kashmir’s Grand Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam, have called for austere Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations.

They have also advised the people against holding the Eid congregational prayers in the red zones and hotspots.

Eid is being celebrated on Monday, subject to the appearance of the crescent. The festival, which marks the end of the fasting month, is celebrated for two days in the Valley.

Meanwhile, restrictions were tighter on Friday than the last few days as barbed wires had been laid at several places to prevent the free movement of people.

No relaxation in the lockdown has irked shopkeepers as their business has taken a hit ahead of Eid.