‘Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar’ – as the azaan is relayed from the mosque over a loudspeaker, the stirring voice calling the faithful to prayer touches the heart.
It is time for the noon namaz – zuhr – except that this mosque in Mari village, in Bihar’s Nalanda district, has neither an imam nor a muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer five times a day. There is no expectation of anyone coming to the mosque to pray either. Reason being that there are no Muslims living in the village any more.
What remains is the memory of namaz being performed at the mosque regularly at some point in time – a memory that is etched on the hearts and minds of the residents of Mari, who happen to be Hindus.
It is they who have kept alive the daily practice of the azaan by using a recorded version.
The mosque in Mari village, said to be almost 200 years old, is bereft of the presence of Muslims and ‘desolate’ in some ways. Yet, it is marked by an undeniable air of
— source thewire.in | Faiyaz Ahmad Wajeeh | 11/Jul/2022