This Temple and Dargah in Hyderabad share a wall, and much more

Hyderabad: In these days when religion is used as a beating stick for almost everything, there exists in Hyderabad a temple and a dargah, sharing the same wall and beyond that for the last 35 years. The much quoted ‘tehzeeb’ of the city has the Saibaba Temple and the Hazrath Syed Saadath Bani Hasham Dargah […]

Hyderabad: In these days when religion is used as a beating stick for almost everything, there exists in Hyderabad a temple and a dargah, sharing the same wall and beyond that for the last 35 years.

The much quoted ‘tehzeeb’ of the city has the Saibaba Temple and the Hazrath Syed Saadath Bani Hasham Dargah in Chaderghat coexisting peacefully, with Hindus visiting the Dargah and Muslims visiting the temple. The brotherhood sees them assisting each during major festivals too.

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“We stay as a unit. We never had even the tiniest hiccup during all these years. They come to our dargah to pray while we go to the temple,” said Sohail Khan, the head of the Dargah.

Prakash Achari, the priest at the Saibaba Temple, said the dargah was there for almost over 80 years and that they were used to celebrating each other’s festivals, feasting together and remaining family friends for generations.

Though celebrations have been there for years, the temple recently held an ‘iftaar’ party for the Muslim community, which was a first because it was hosted in the temple.

“We host an ‘iftaar’ in our dargah for around 10 years now for which our Hindu friends used to visit. But this is the first time we had an ‘iftaar’ in the temple,” said Khan.
“For us, God is one, be it Allah or Ram. We have been happily living here beyond religion for years. God exists in the presence of love, whether in a masjid or a mandir,” said Achari.

Mushir Khan, founder of Freedom Again Foundation, organized the ‘iftaar’ at the temple. He said he was so happy to see such harmony between the people and added that this was the beauty of the country.