- Niujie Mosque hosts biggest congregation of faithful in Beijing
BEIJING, China – Muslim community observed Eid-ul-Azha with religious zeal and fervour here on Sunday in across China.
The day was dawned with special prayers in mosques for peace, progress and well-being of the Ummah and China. Eid congregations was held at mosques in the cities, towns and villages across the country.
In Beijing, one of the biggest congregations of Muslims on Eid was observed here at historic Niujie Mosque where thousands of faithful thronged to offer the Eid prayers. After offering Eid prayers, the faithful sacrificed cows, camels, goats, and sheep to replicate to replicate the supreme sacrifice made by Hazrat Ibrahim (AS).
Eid-ul-Azha is an Islamic festival to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim (also known as Abraham) to follow command of Allah to sacrifice his son Hazrat Ismail. Muslims around the world replicate the same sacrifice by sacrificing animals in the way of God.
In China, Eid-ul-Azha is celebrated by various ethnic groups of Muslim community in China, including the Hui, Uyghur, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tajik, Tatar, Khalkhas, Salar, Dongxiang and Bao’an groups. Many foreigner Muslims living in different provinces of China also join their brothers and sisters in faith and attend celebrations and offer the prayers.
The magnificent Niujie Mosque is the oldest and the largest mosque in Beijing and also is one of the famous mosques in the world.
Originally built in 996 AD, the Mosque was initiated by an Arabic scholar Nasurddin and was named as “Libaisi” by the Chinese Emperor in 1474 AD. The Mosque has a strictly central axel balanced layout covering 10,000 square meter area. The Muslims also offered Eid prayer in more than seventy mosques in Beijing.
Since it was my Second experience of observing any religious festivity in China, it broke the myth of western media propaganda of alleged curbs against Muslims in China. I was happy to see the government officials facilitating the religious festival which broke away the malicious, fabricated and misleading stories about maltreatment of Muslims in China.
The Chinese government had provided a foolproof security cover around Niujie Mosque as hundreds of security officials had been appointed to provide services to the Muslims offering prayers. It was fabulous to see non-Muslim Chinese also celebrate Eid festival with the Muslim community to show solidarity.
Many non-Muslims shared greeting of Eid with Muslim early morning on Eid while many also sent messages and arranged small parties to greet the Muslim friends. Special prayers were made for safety, security and well being of Muslims in Palestine, Kashmir and Pakistan.
Smiles were everywhere and the atmosphere crackled with excitement. Everyone wore colorful new and traditional clothes. There were so many foreigner Muslims offered prayer with their Chinese brethren. After prayer everyone shared greeting and hugged each other and pray for unity. It’s a symbol of love and solidarity between Chinese and foreigners.
There are so many Halal food restaurants around Niujie. Soon after offering prayers, the Muslims went to food and sweet shops with their respective family members to mark the day of blessings.
Talking to DiploMag, Mr Ibrahim Khalid from Egypt said that the government of China attaches great importance to religious rituals of Muslims.
“Eid-ul-Azha Festival is a great day here in China. Thousands of fervent Muslims celebrated the Eid with us in the vicinity of Niujie Mosque. The police cordoned off all roads leading to the mosque. This was a manifestation of how considerate China’s government is towards religious minorities,” he concluded.
