I stare at these 48 year old black and white photographs and I listen to the seventy year old man talk about them. I just could not help wondering….
“If it did not happen I would say that it was impossible for mankind to have made so many changes in so little time. It is amazing, or may I say mind boggling, to see photographs and listen to stories that happened only 48 years ago.
It is as if the people that lived then, lived in some other dimension of time, followed some other religion and lived in some alien place. Can you imagine that there was no TV then – leave out CDs, they did not even hear of the word video, there were no computers and no cellphones.
Can you imagine, they did not even have color photographs, which we take so much for granted. The rate at which technology is advancing is astonishing, and these changes are having a profound impact on every aspect of our lives. Our social, moral, and religious way of life has changed drastically without us even realizing it.
I was jolted back to reality – I was looking at photographs of an event to celebrate the Birth of Muhammed Mustafa Sallallahu Alayhe Wasallam (Meelad un Nabi)
For decades, the Muslims in Durban celebrated the birth of the Holy Prophet Muhammed Salal lahu Alayhe wasallam. For the Muslims then, it was the most important day of the Islamic calendar. Almost the entire Muslim community, including people from as far as Johannesburg, would assemble in the city center (Grey street) to witness the massive “Juloos” (parade) of Muslim brigades or bugle bands.
The event was so special that each brigade would spend months training for just this single annual event. They had special uniforms and musical instruments such as snare drums, trumpets, bugles, bag pipes, cymbals etc.
Although these celebrations were organized mainly during the strict apartheid era, the event was so popular that it even attracted some of the apartheid dignitaries. This great event sadly came to an end in 1972.
When I got back to my office I immediately pulled out the more recent photographs of a similar event that takes place today.
In 1989 (17 years later) the Anjuman-e-Waris-e-Mohammedi was formed and one of its primary objectives was to revive the birthday celebrations of the Prophet Muhammed Mustafa Sallallahu Alayhe Wasallam and to create awareness about him.
The photographs of the first procession that the organization organized, in no way showed the grand splendor of the event of the past years. Less than 300 people had attended the first Juloos procession and there was no brigade that marched and no food distributed.
What did happen, however, was that the event had a deep spiritual aspect to it that attracted a band of people that would since then work tirelessly to make the event a success. With each year that followed, the Anjuman-e-Waris-e-Mohammedi has made steady progress.
By the following year a brigade or marching band was created especially for this event and sweet rice (Jarda) was distributed. In subsequent years other improvements were made such as researched newspaper articles, street decorations, little hand held flags for the children, meals etc. The event now attracts more than 4000 people and more than 20 different Islamic organizations.
I go back into my reverie – but this time I look towards the future and I see the changes to come: Life is like a wave, after riding every crest we fall into the through and after every through we rise to a new crest.