At mass event, 31 couples enter into matrimony sans debt

Mumbai: Recently, Nalasopara-based tailor Mohammed Jafferuddin saw a pamphlet inviting applications for weddings free of cost at a mass marriage event. Jafferuddin wanted to marry off his son Fariduddin and discussed it with family friend Hafiz Shamsher and the two families decided to get Fariduddin's marriage with Shamsher's daughter Sana at the mass wedding.

This past Sunday evening Fariduddin and Sana joined 30 other couples to get their nikah solemnised at the 21st annual mass wedding held by Hazrat Shah Saqlain Academy of India and Dar-US-Saqlain Foundation at the YMCA ground in central Mumbai. The 31 couples returned home loaded with things they will need to set up a new home.

Attended by several eminent personalities, including Rajya Sabha member Milind Deora, Congress MLA Amin Patel, former minister Nawab Malik, managing trustee of Mahim and Haji Ali Dargah Sohail Khandwani, besides 50 guests from each of the bride and groom's side, this wedding ceremony resembled a carnival. Clad in new clothes, brides in flaming red sharara-lehnga, grooms in white kurta-pyjama and turbans, the couples entered the new phase smoothly as qazis solemnised their nikah.

"We choose the couples very carefully after an intensive scrutiny and verification of their economic condition, especially girls'. Our aim is to facilitate the wedding of the underprivileged at a ceremony witnessed and blessed by some eminent personalities," said the foundation's president Shaikh Shahid Saqlaini.

Founded by spiritual leader late Hazrat Saqlain Main Huzoor over two decades ago, so far 6500 couples have benefited from the mass weddings held at several places in the country. Saqlain Mian's son and successor Mohammed Ghazi Saqlaini ul Qadri, Sajjada Nasheen or custodian of the sacred shrine Aastana e Saqalainiya Sharafatiya, Bareilly Shareef, was at the ceremony.

Poor people are forced to borrow money to meet the cost of their children's wedding. To save the poor from falling in debt, this group funds the wedding celebrations and even buys clothes and gifts for the newlywed couples.

Such initiatives, said Sohail Khandwani, managing trustee of Mahim and Haji Ali dargahs, are needed. "Mass weddings have many benefits as they save cost, enable the poor to get their children married without spending a penny and yet enjoy the celebrations," said Khandwani, who helps a couple of such mass weddings in the city.