Hyderabad: The Shia community will be celebrating Id-e-Ghadeer on Sunday.
Shia Muslims offer special prayers at various mosques in the city and during the day, wear colourful clothes to celebrate the occasion.
Special sweets are prepared for the celebrations. In some areas, youths take out processions and put up red flags heralding one of the important announcements by Prophet Muhammad.
“The festival is celebrated to mark the day on which Prophet Muhammad appointed his son-in-law Hazrath Ali as his successor,” said Shia scholar Syed Nasir Hussain Agha.
It was on the 18th day of Zilhaj, the last month of the Hijri calendar, that the Prophet said, “Man Kunto Maula Fa Haza Ali yun Maula” (Of whom I am the Maula, Ali is also their Maula).
Shia Muslims believe that this is to be the declaration of succession, while Sunni Muslims say that this saying was to command the community to respect Maula Ali like they respect the Prophet himself. However, every Muslim accepts the historicity of the event.
