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Madrassas survive on donations

By Mohammad Imran

ISLAMABAD Madrassas are alive because of donations.

The seminaries did not appear in a day, but took centuries to gain the confidence of the masses. The public provides to mosques and this is a basic component of Muslims society. There are classes of such institutions. Some have good funding options, like affluent individuals providing them with good money for individual self-satisfaction.

Some seminaries are located in low or middle-income areas and mostly rely on daily house-to-house searches for food, clothing and other items for living. Their students learn the Quran by heart and the education necessary to become imams in mosques.

From the mid-80s to the late-90s, foreign funding from Saudi Arabia has been quite liberal for the Wahabi sects and their madrasas have mushroomed. Their students are not often seen going door-to-door for food. But, as funding becomes less available, such madrasas could resume such practices in the next few years.

Many a times, people hold funeral or religious ceremonies and invite such children or their teachers and offer them food and money.

On the Eid-ul-Azha, the sacrifice of animals provides another opportunity to gather funds. The skins of animals are gathered from houses who offer sacrifices and are sold in the market. Leather producers buy these animal skins from them. Many big charity hospitals and other relief and religious organisations hold camps on those days to get their share of the skins.

Maulana Chriagh-ud-Din Shah, who runs a madrasa in Rawalpindi, told Daily Times that many financially strong people of Rawalpindi and Islamabad provide financial help silently.

“The major share of the financial support to the religious schools comes from people who are known as moderate in society, but are always ready to extend financial help to the religious schools,” he said.

He added that despite tremendous cultural changes in society, people still believe in paying zakat to madrasas. The students of madrasas also work as basic labourers. The government decided mainstreaming would be the better option because students could apply for openings in offices. The payments in the mosques are almost equal to a peon’s compensation. However, in bigger city mosques, the government has offered some status to such scholars, but these are rare and coveted jobs.

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