In a nod to the syncretic traditions of the state, the first donation to the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation responsible for the Dhannipur Mosque Project has come from a Hindu.
Rohit Srivastava, a Lucknow resident employed at the Law Faculty of the University of Lucknow, on Saturday made a donation of Rs 21,000, which was received by the IICF spokesperson Athar Husain and trustee Imran Ahmed.
Srivastava said that the thought of making the donation came to him thanks to the traditions based on which he grew up. “I live in old Lucknow where most of my neighbours are Muslims. I have grown up with Muslim friends. Holi, Diwali and Eid have been shared festivities. The proposed complex will have a hospital, too, and I wanted to make a small contribution to that.”
In addition to a mosque and a hospital, a museum, library and community kitchen are also to be part of the proposed complex—the land for which was granted by the Uttar Pradesh government after the Supreme Court’s judgment on the title suit last November.
Srivastava did not aim to be the first donor. It was only when he presented the cheque that he was informed that he was the first to do so.
Ikram Ullah, the chief financial officer of the Foundation, said, “The account of the Trust was opened in the last week of August. Since then, whatever deposits have been made in it have come from the trustees and have been used for legal purposes, registry etc. This is the first donation that we have received from an outsider.”
Srivastava’s act has attracted some criticism. He said that he had received a threat on social media from a Hindu saying that he must be shot for his act. “Such things do not bother me,” he added.
The other criticism has come from some Muslim elders who have said that receiving money for a mosque from a non-Muslim is un-Islamic.
Raihan Akhter, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Theology at the Aligarh Muslim University, said, “Donations from non-Muslims can be taken to lay the foundation of the mosque provided that certain conditions be fulfilled. The donation should come from a place of belief and faith, which does not mean belief in Islam but in the cause. Second, the donor must not give in the hope of staking a future claim in the mosque or have a strategy to do so. The third is that the money should not come from a source unacceptable in Islam, such as from the sale of alcohol or from interest earned. It is also necessary that the donation must have come willingly and not through force.”
These injunctions come from the Fatwa AL Hind (Page 132, Chapter 6), a book composed by 500 Islamic scholars in the late 17th century.
To Srivastava, the donation is a small contribution to the cause of amity. “There is no bigger religion than harmony,” he said.
