LAHORE : The nation will celebrate Eid Milad-un Nabi (PBUH) on Sunday (today) to rejoice the birth of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the final messenger of Allah.
On this occasion, religious organisations and individuals across the country were engaged in last minute rush to complete the preparations for celebrating the great occasion with traditional religious spirit and zeal. Hundreds of seerat conferences, processions and gatherings were held across the country besides the traditional modes of celebrations like illuminating the buildings, mosques, markets and mohallas to express their love and respect with the Holy Prophet.
This year, various religious leaders across the country and world have appealed to the believers to observe the day as Namoos-e-Risalat day. The Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) headed by former aide to Prime Minister on religious harmony and Middle East affairs Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi has already announced to observe Ashra-e-Rehmatulil Alameen to celebrate the Eid Milad-un Nabi by holding Seerat conferences and various other programs.
The government has increased the security measures to ward off any subversive activities in the wake of terrorism incidents especially in Sindh and Balochistan. Various CCTV cameras have been installed by district government to monitor trouble makers while ensuring foolproof security. Various religious organisations and groups like, Tehrik Hurmat-e-Rasool (THR), Tehrik-e-Namoos-e-Risalat Mahaz (TNRM), and other platforms of religious organisations have appealed to the believers to devote extra efforts to highlight the glorious Seerat of the Prophet (PBUH).
Markazi Milad Committee and some other religious organisations have also been campaigning lately to ban certain objectionable practices in this year’s Eid Milad celebrations especially those that hurt the feelings of certain schools of thought.
Almost all city mosques and important government and private buildings were decorated with colorful lightings and buntings. The preparations culminated on Saturday night with the taking out of a torchbearers’ procession under the aegis of Central Milad Committee Jamia Hizbul Ahnaf from Data Darbar.
The participants riding vehicles and motorbikes, and on foot, marched on the Mall road upto the Regal Chowk, carrying torches and reciting Durood and Naats, paying homage to the most sacred and remarkable personality of the entire world history.
The torch-bearers were led by committee president Mukhtar Ashraf Rizvi while various other leaders of Ahle Sunnat organisations, seminaries and representatives from all walks of life included Pir Afzal QAdri, Raghib Hussain Naeemi, Shahid Gardezi, Mustafa Ashraf Rizvi, Pir Idris Shah, Nisar Ashraf Rizvi, Naeem Arif Noori, Arif Awan Advocate, M Shah Hamdani, Pir Khadim Hussain, Usman Noori, Maulana Tahir Tabassum and others.
The day will begin with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital and 21-gun salute in provincial capitals while special prayers will be offered for the security, solidarity and prosperity of the country in particular and Muslim Ummah in general. It will be a public holiday and all offices and business centres will be closed. The electronic and print media will highlight the significance of the day by airing special programs and brining out special supplements.
In Lahore, the central Eid-e-Milad procession will be taken out from Railway station and march upto Data Darbar, while dozens of smaller processions from different parts of the city will merge with the central procession en route to Data Darbar. The participants of the procession will be showered with rose petals and rose water from airplane.
The central ceremony would be chaired by committee president Malik Pervaiz Rabbani, Justice (retd) Mian Nazeer Akhtar, Justice (retd) Dr Munir Mughal while other noted participants included PPP Lahore president Samina Khalid Ghurki, Dr Sabiha Mashriqi, Kh Saad Rafiq, filmstar Mustafa Qureshi and others including noted politicians, jurists and religious scholars at Railway station.
The procession accompanying naat khwans and decorated vehicles would march from Australia Chowk, Branderth Road, Circular Road, Railway Road, Gawalmandi, Mayo Hospital, Bansanwala Bazaar, Shah Alam Chowk, Anarkali and culminate at Data Darbar.
Apart from central procession, a number of gatherings for Naat Khwani, Qirat, Qawwali and Naatia Mushaairas will be held across the country. Groups of volunteers and market committees will decorate their own markets/mohallas/houses and surroundings with illuminations, colored flower ropes, buntings, chandeliers and ribbons and many organisations will hold competitions among people for best decorated mohallah and street. Children and youth were busy erecting the clay replica of desert and mountains of the Arab peninsula where the divine message was first dawned on the Prophet (PBUH).
Special security arrangements have been made by the district administration to maintain law and order on the occasion and along the route of the procession. Government has issued directives to beef up the security all over the country specially along the route of procession to counter the enemy designs. Volunteers of bomb disposal squad and ambulance units will remain stand by to meet any emergency while units of rangers and reserve police will also be deployed on sensitive areas.
Tehrik Minhajul Quran (TMQ) will hold 39th annual Milad Conference at historic Minar-e-Pakistan to be addressed by its chief Dr Tahirul Qadri from Canada on video link. Noted scholars and Naat Khwans from across the country and thousands of people including women and children will attend the conference which will be televised all over the world. The participants will be served dinner for which one thousand goats are being slaughtered besides a display of fireworks and release hundreds of birds in the air. The TMQ decorated the entire Minar-e-Pakistan tastefully with lightings, buntings etc.
Milad conferences will also be held at Baba ground behind civil secretariat by Dawat-e-Islami and other parts of the city by a number of other religious organisations. Besides, Auqaf Department Punjab also held the provincial Seerat Conference at Alhamra Hall presided over by provincial minister for religious affairs and addressed by different religious scholars and officials to pay glowing tributes to the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
