By Dawood Auleear
This lunar month of Muharram, Muslims have been celebrating their past in the form of telling and listening to stories in what is known as Majalis. In my youth, I enjoyed Majalis, a great social gathering, listening, sometimes in sadness, to the recounting of the life and struggle of those martyrs who fought to defend Islam and Islamic values with some paying with their lives. The meetings were occasions to share grief and empathy on the fate of those who lost their lives during those heroic battles.
The past is vital for our identity. Someone without a past is taken for a nonentity, as we know. In common parlance, if someone has no memory, he is deemed to be simply mad! The importance of the past is vital not only for the individual who would in social gatherings talk about the greatness of his ancestors, but also to a community and to the wider nation.
UNESCO is aware of the need to preserve the heritage of all cultures expressed in the forms of writing, painting, sculpture etc. Mauritius has successfully joined the group of countries that have preserved a good part of their history by having designated at least Le Morne and Appravasi Ghaat as World Heritage sites. Also, in Mauritius the Chinese community has been trying to get the Chinatown area in Port Louis acknowledged as a heritage site while the Mauritius Commercial Bank is sponsoring the upkeep of the Blue Penny Museum.
But what is the Muslim community doing? Does it have any awareness of the meaning of collective heritage? I contacted quite a few leaders of the Jummah Masjid management team to introduce the idea of doing something to preserve this jewel of a building constructed in the years of the settlement of Muslims here. I did not get the courtesy of a reply… Which says more of the recipient than the sender of the request. Jummah Masjid is a masterpiece, financed partly and initially, with a 2-cent levy on each rice bag, built by Tamil artisans who were engaged by the French in the construction of Port Louis. Many visitors have stood by the gate of this historic building expecting to be get a chance to admire it and a response to any of their questions/queries in vain, but they leave the site without a response and disheartened.
By the way, those who recall the damage caused by fire to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the response of the whole of France to reconstruct it must marvel at the attachment the French have to their past. National Heritage Ministries have been created in many developed countries for the specific purpose of stemming the loss of historical buildings. But how was it possible to re-create the Notre Dame Cathedral and get it back to most of its original state? The whole building had been digitalized and so it was easy to recreate it. The restoration is not complete yet and lovers of history and religion can watch the cathedral in 3D images broadcast outside the precincts of this yet-to-be-completed icon.
I had proposed to the Management of the Jummah Masjid who have stepped into the shoes of their ancestors who had themselves taken it over after an arduous court battle, to digitalize our heritage with a possible partial financial contribution from a French NGO. I wonder how many people will be outraged to learn that I have been kept waiting for a response as if the Jummah Masjid is not part of my business and it is safe in the hands of some God-chosen people. I and my likes have just to pray in the mosque and leave afterwards. Well, I’ll pray. May the Almighty Allah put some sense in those entrusted [by whom?] with the upkeep of our jewel in the crown to save it from the vagaries of nature, cyclone, earthquake and fire and to live in the present and use science for the benefit of the Ummah, and just as we have been preserving the first writings of our Holy Quran. And as Allah preserved the Holy Kaaba from the army of the elephants. The comparison applies equally to the building with the pious hope that the jaffran I am offering is not mistaken for grass.