DHAKA, March 31, 2020 (BSS) – The Islamic Sufi spiritual hub of Maizbhandar Darbar today announced cancellation of a major annual congregation in Chattagram over the COVID-19 and urged its followers and admirers to stay beside the distressed people with their resources as part of their spiritual duty.
“Our main responsibility now is to stand by the poor people . . . this is a responsibility which cannot be discarded in anyway,” incumbent leader of the hub Syed Saifuddin Ahmed Maizbhandari said in a statement simultaneously announcing that the annual “urs” of famous Muslim saint Syed Golamur Rahman Maizbhandari would not be held this year amid festivity on April 5.
He said the world in the past never saw the humanity to be exposed to such a crisis, exposing particularly the poor people to extreme vulnerability and called upon the religious and spiritual institutions to extend their hands to these vulnerable people.
The statement said the Darbar in collaboration with Syed Moinuddin Ahmed Trust so far distributed succors nationwide among 35,000 poor people who were kicked off their regular livelihood due to the coronavirus outbreak.
It said their relief package included staple food like rice, edible oil and cooked food, germicides, and masks alongside a handbill on COVCID-19, with the support of the Trust, named after another famous Sufi saint Syed Moinuddin Ahmed Maizbhandari.
Syed Golamur Rahman is one of the country’s most famous spiritual figures in the last century, who is fondly called “Baba Bhandari” by admirers and followers of the spiritual order.
His commemorative function, called “urs” on April 5 or 22 Chaitra in Bangla calendar, every year draws tens of thousands of people to Maizbhandar Dabar at Fatikchhari on the outskirts of the southeastern port city.