By TCN Special Correspondent
Ahmadabad: The Holy Quran and the books on the life of Prophet Mohammed(SAW) are among the most sought after by the non-Muslims visiting the week-long National Book Fair that was inaugurated by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on May 1 here
.
This is quite significant as the state had witnessed the nation’s worst communal riots in 2002 and Ahmedabad was among the worst affected cities.
Out of a total of 150 publications taking part in the fair, there are only four Muslim publications, one of them-Madhur Sandesh Sangam(MSS) from New Delhi. The rest of the Muslim publishers are from Gujarat, engaged in publication and circulations of books pertaining to Islam and Muslims. There are also several publications selling Hindu and Christian religious literature as well.
Those managing the counters of the Muslim book stalls say that most of the visitors to their stalls are non-Muslim youths, boys and girls. They say that the Hindu youths are more attracted towards procuring
copies of the Holy Quran and the literature on the life of the Prophet(SAAW). The other literature much in demand from non-Muslims is those pertaining to the introduction and fundamentals of Islam.
Nisar Ahmed Khan and Asad Azeem manning the MSS counter said that Hindu youths had been repeatedly questioning as to why the Islamic literature, particularly the Holy Quran, was not available in the open book market and particularly, at big book stores in Ahmedabad. Seeing the interest of the Hindu youths in understanding Islam, they felt that there was a need to make available Islamic books on the shelf of big stores in the city visited by people of all faiths.
“The fair is one of the best opportunity for non-Muslims to know Islam’’, commented a visitor Anil Oza in the visitors’s book at MSS stall. A retired military personnel J N Brahmbhatt expressed his happiness about MSS and other Muslim publications reaching out to non-Muslims with Islamic literature through this fair.
In the last two days, MSS sold out a total of 65 copies of the translations of the Holy Quran-20 in English language and 45 in Hindi. Besides, they also sold 15 copies of the books on Prophet’s(SAAW) life and another 15 copies of books pertaining to introduction of Islam, all in Hindi language. They also distributed more than 3,000 folders on different aspects of Islam, giving a rough estimate that about 25 per cent of the total of 12,000 visitors in the two days made it to the Muslim book stalls as well.
Mushirul Islam Kalimi of the Kaleem Book Depot found the response overwhelming. He also sold out 10 copies of the Holy Quran in English language and some in Hindi, besides 40 copies of the Gujarati version of Muslim history of Gujarat. According to him, there is a huge demand of the Gujarati version of the Holy Quran which, unfortunately, is not available at his stall. Encouraged by the demand from non-Muslims for Gujarati version of the Holy Quran, Kalimi said he now planned to publish Quran’s Gujarati translation and arrange its distribution and sale through big book stores in all the big towns in the state.
Islamic Sahitya Prakashan engaged in production of Islamic literature in Gujarati language, is distributing the Gujarati version of the Holy Quran without any charge. But Sayeed Falahi managing its counter said that none of the visitors were ready to accept it free of cost. All the 50 Hindus, who procured the copies of the Holy Quran on May 1 and 2, made payment. Besides, Falahi’s store sold out dozens of books on introduction of Islam and the life of the Prophet(SAW). Suhel Patel of the Islamic Sahitya Academy said as many as 75 non-Muslims procured a total of 75 copies of the Holy Quran in Gujarati, English and Hindi languages from his stall.