Code_Red

As no one noticed that people of Lahore are celebrating Mela Charaghaan (The most important festival in the city )these days, I thought, I should clarify its islamic status with you learned folks

So, what is your opinion on celebrating Mela Chiraghaan (festival of lights)

For those who have no clue about this mela, briefly, People of lahore have been celebrating this festival for past 400 years, near Baghbaan pura (shalamar gardens) to remember the love, devotion and affection of a Saint and very well known Muslim poet Hazrat Shah Husain with one of his friend and devotee Madhu Lal ,a hindu. So much so that their names merged into a single name and know he is known as Madhu lal Husain !

Is it Islamic to celebrate such a festival ???

itsme01

are these people of Lahore going to get blessings and mercy of Allah[swt] by celeberating the dead?

Code_Red

Sadiyah

What good would finding out the status do? Not like it matters anyway.

This will most likely serve as yet another thread where members would eventually end up bashing and abusing each other.

I thought you're the one clarifying the status. Therefore, please go ahead and enlighten us.

syedpk

It is how one interprets Shirk.Ullemas from the sunni wahabi/deobandi sect believe that it is shirk but but other sects disagree with them especially the sunni bravelvi and shias. Those who are favour of Peeri-mureedi say that the Pir is the"wasela" or path towards God.We have Holy quran and hadiths of prophet muhammed salahu alahe wasalam for our guidance.

I was watching GEO and the reporter gave a background about shah husain and this mela.I have heard about shah husain that he was a great poet etc .But when the reporter said that shah husain "loved" madhu lal and he did mention that madhu lal was a hindu and his devotee but the thing that he loved this boy.i mean something like"shah husain us bachay madu lala kay ishq mai giraftar hogaey" shocked me.

No way one can say that it is islamic and after searching on the net I found out that many have wrote that pedastry was common in sufi order .According to them various sufis didnot mind praising a young boy's beauty.Wikipedia is mainly contributed by its members but still they have made a topic on this as well and they are even quoting hadith in a negative manner as if it is allowed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederas..._Islamic_lands

I wanted to start a thread on it but I didnt because It wont serve anything.

AQ

I'll second that. Code_Red first wanted to share his fatwah and then asked us about the status itself.

Kaleem

logon ko khaney ko roti nahi or wahan loog meeti ka tael zaya kar rahaien hain.
Peri Mureedi is BS. Dead people do not help any one, on the contrary they benefit from our duas.

Code_Red

As anticipated, No one knows about Mela charaghaan. Just because basant (festival of kites ) gets so much hype and media attention and so many devoted people do research on it ....we get freshly baked fatwas every year. But no one knows about the festival of lights so Fatwas are hard to come by

In short, Hazrat Shah Hussain was a great poet and intellectual, He had a gift and his poetry is classic. He is among the top Punjabi poets like Waris Shah, Baba Fareed, Sultan Bahu and Bulhey Shah. People love to listen their kafis and kalaam which are spritual and have deep meanings. They are at par with persian / urdu poets like Rumi , Ghalib , Mir and Iqbal

Mela Charaghan is a typical funfair with joyrides and food stall. Common folks of this city throng there and have a good time with their family and kids, in old days traders from other part use to come to lahroe and sell their goods, merchandise and livestock

other people listen to qawalis and kafis of hazrat shah husain and devotees dance at the beat of Dhool

This is very good article and a quite comprehensive one thanks for sharing

But keep one thing in mind that platonic love and affection between men has always been there in known history of mankind, and it is natural. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had a deep affection and love for his cousin Ali (ra)
Hazrat Nizam uddin Aoulia loved his student Hazrat Amir Khusro
There are number of examples in hindu, muslim, Roman and Greek. Love devotion and friendship among men is a very common and natural phenomena

There are countless number of movies made on this subject where friendship among men is shown as the strongest bond. Famous indian movies like "Sholay" countless hollywood movies and sitcoms "perfect stranger" and more recently "Friends "

This is perfectly normal relationship. I am aware that there are relationships, in history which were not very spritual and more physical. But we should not automaically assume the later case for every relationship

Barfee

I dont know about it being wrong or right but it looks heavenly :love:
I love diyas/candles especially when they are all over the city :love:
I think we did chiragha for some holiday too, the eldres of the house never approved of it cuz they beleived it was hindu tradition but i love it :love: it looks so pretty :love: I remember burning my hand all the time but still loved it :love:

Sadiyah

Code_Red, thank you for providing us with the history of the event. What's the Islamic verdict though? You said you'll provide us with an Islamic verdict whether or not to celebrate this festival and that seems to be missing.

AQ

He does not know it either. He is just pissed at the fact that everyone calls Basant a non-islamic event so here he came with one more "phuljhaRi" .. that is all. nothing much. Really.

MiniMe

What would be Islamic verdict on a poetry festival where a poet while reciting his poetry is waving sword against the opposing poet, and while both poets are backed up ten or twenty men waving swords at each other and dancing not only this the whole festival would start early by a huge camel race where traders from all over the region are gathered to trade camels. What would be Islamic verdict on the Horse race festival which is celebrated at the end of every summer, or what would be Islamic verdict on piece of poetry which can only start after you praise the beauty of women. I think you will not find any Islamic verdict on these because there is none available. All the above are Arab cultural practices which they have been doing for ages, local festivals, celebrations, trading souqs (bazaar) taking the shape of festivals, its still very common in that area.
So now if the poet and his poetry is celebrated in Lahore, in which people will burn some diya, bring Chadars to the grave of this great poet and say Fatiha, donate money, and the kids would enjoy going on the rides, ordinary people would buy stuff brought from all over the area, people would celebrate this mela for three days, not only this the third and last days is meant for women and families only so why would you need a Islamic verdict on that, how is it different than any other festival in the Arabia?

Code_Red

You are welcome

Does anyone know about Faiz Aman Mela ?

Now few questons for Sadiyah and Anwar Qureshi and all other folks who are looking for a verdict.

IS CELEBRATING FAIZ AMAN MELA ISLAMICALLY PERMISABLE??

Reciting Heer waris Shah in public Allowed in Islam or not ?

Listening Qalaam of Hazrat Sultan baho is good or bad ?

Shall we get reward in afterlife for Singing songs in praise of the heroics of Dulha bhatti ??

(Dulha Bhatti, {Adbullah Bhatti} a Punjabi version of Robin Hood who robbed the rich and helped the poor, a rebel against Mughal Empire )

Dullah bhatti was later caught and was executed publically, by Mughals. His shrine is in Pindi Bhattiaan ( a town name after him ) and a mela is held there every year and people pay tribute to their hero !

I will be looking forward to hear from you

Das Reich

this quote is from the article you posted, simply praising a young boy's beauty is it haram?

OMG

syedpk

Das Reich
Meray bhai You didnot wrote what others said on this topic read mamayah al rumi it is even not worth quoting here.

Sadiyah

Code_Red, I fail to see the purpose. You started off by stating that you'll provide us with a verdict, which you haven't yet.

Secondly, please enlighten me about the festivals where you wish to obtain my verdict. I'm not familiar with any of them.

I'd have to agree with AQ here that this thread's just another 'phuljharee'.

AQ

^
Code_Red just wants to prove that Basant is something that could be permissible based on the Islamic boundaries (regardless of its Origin and the death toll every year, which by the way is just part of fun according to him). That's it

Code_Red

Sadiyah, I fail to see the reason why a sensible person is not able to understand the purpose of this thread The message is loud and clear !

Try to understand demography, and even you can't , then please try to give people some respect and avoid ignorant and cheap remarks like

Just because you have no knowledge of history and culture of subcontinent, it does not mean that you have lisence to utter nonsense about these festivals and sacred figures

Just like there is nothing islamic in Faiz Aman mela OR the annual convocation of Punjab University, same way there is nothing Islamic in Mela Chiraghan or Basant !!

For God sake, religion is not a nutshell. It does not and it can not dictate people to disassociate form thier demographical association.

Funfairs used to held in Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) time and according to various tradition he used to visit them with his family and had a good time.

AQ

Bingo!

See, Sadiyah! Code_Red wanted to prove that basant is totally Jaaiz festival.



Bhai Code_Red: Did Mela MaveshiyaaN also start somewhere in Lahore?

What is your Scholarly verdict on that ?

And IF there in nothing religious or Islamic for that matter about Mela CharaaghaaN, I wonder why it is in Religion forum.

Mods, please, kindly move it to Culture Forum X 2