Sholakia
Encyclopedia
Sholakia is a locality near Kishoreganj
Kishoreganj Sadar Upazila
Kishoreganj Sadar is an Upazila of Kishoreganj District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh.-Geography:Kishoreganj Sadar is located at . It has 55,828 housing units and a total area 193.73 km²...

 town in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. It is famous for its Eidgah
Eidgah
Eidgah or Idgah is an open-air mosque usually outside the city to perform Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha salah.It was a practice of Prophet Muhammad to perform Eid Salaah in Eidgah at the outskirts of the city...

 where the largest congregation of Eid prayer
Salat al Eid
Salat al Eid also known as Salat al Eidain is the special prayer offered to commemorate two Islamic festivals. Both the Eids are collectively known as Eidain in Arabic language...

 in Bangladesh is held on the occasion of Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting . Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast"...

, the day of celebration after the Ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...

, the month of fasting. 300,000 people join the prayer on every Eid. The Eidgah, on the bank of river Narosunda is reported to be 7 acres (28,328 m²) in size, accommodating 250 rows or about 150,000 of participants for every congregation. An equal number of participants take part in the prayer using the fields, roads and courtyards around the Eidgah.

A small number of elites make use of the two-storied mimbar (payer hall with towers for adhan
Adhan
The adhān is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin at prescribed times of the day. The root of the word is meaning "to permit"; another derivative of this word is , meaning "ear"....

) nearby, which can accommodate about 500 people. The prayer on the occasion of Eid ul-Adha
Eid ul-Adha
Eid al-Adha or "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep— to sacrifice...

, the festival of qurbani
Qurbani
Qurbān is the sacrifice of a livestock animal during Eid ul-Adha. The word form was borrowed from Hebrew qorbān "offering" and Syriac qurbānā "sacrifice", etymologised through the cognate Arabic triliteral as "a way or means of approaching someone"....

or sacrifice, is also comparably large. The regular population of Sholakia is 1,026, consisting 180 households.

Organization

Mufti
Mufti
A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...

 Moulana Farid Uddin Masud has been conducting the eid prayers since 2009. The Eidgah has an executive committee of 51 members with the District Commissioner
District Commissioner
A District Commissioner is an executive post in Malawi for the appointee in charge of the Districts or administrative localities in Malawi. There are 28 Districts in Malawi. The role is similar to that of a governor. The position of DC is appointed by the President of Malawi...

 (DC) as the president. For every congregation, district police administration deploys a large number of police officers equipped with metal detectors, mine detectors and close circuit cameras. Medical teams and fire brigades are also kept alert during the prayers. Eid ul-Fitr is the biggest religious festival in the muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

-dominated Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, followed by Eid ul-Adha.

History

Syed Ahmed, a local Zamindar,a saint (known as peer) and an Islamic leader of Kishoregonj lived in Sholakia, Shaheb bari, organized the first Eid congregation in 1828 in the fields of his own taluk.Syed Ahmed came from Saudi Arabia through Yemen and then he came to India. He preached Islam in 24 Porganas of India and protested against different Submersive activities of British those were against our country. Then he migrated to Comillah and then at Mymensingh. Ha participated in Fakir movement from Mymensingh. After word he came to Sholakia, Shaheb Bari in the last time of 1700 and he began Islamic activities and founded 1st Mosque of Kishoregonj at Sholakia, Shaheb Bari in 1827. He observed different islamic activities at the MAJAR of Bora Pir ( Hazrat Shah Monnoon , other opinion the name was Moyezuddin moznu) of Kishoregonj at Sholakia,Shaheb Bari The local myth says that 125,000 people turned out at that congregation, hence the name Sholakia (shoa meaning one and a quarter and lakh meaning a hundred thousand). During foundation of Eidgah, Zaminder of Jangalbari and Hybathnagor helped Syed Shaheb. Dewan Mannan Dad Khan of Hybathnagor, who was a descendant of Isa Khan
Isa Khan
Isa Khan is the most famous of the Baro Bhuiyans of medieval Bengal. He was the ruler of a region named Bhati. Throughout his reign he put resistance against Mughal invasion. It was only after his death, when the region went totally under Mughals.-Early life:It is estimated that he was born in 1529...

, donated 4.35 acres (17,603.8 m²) of land to the Eidgah in 1950.

Other features

Sholakia, standing by Kishoreganj-Karimganj
Karimganj
Karimganj Town is a town in the Karimganj District of the Indian state of Assam. It is the administrative headquarter and main town of the district.-Geography:...

 road, the commercial artery of the area, is almost free from arsenic contamination of groundwater
Arsenic contamination of groundwater
Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a natural occurring high concentration of arsenic in deeper levels of groundwater, which became a high-profile problem in recent years due to the use of deep tubewells for water supply in the Ganges Delta, causing serious arsenic poisoning to large numbers of...

, a menace in the Ganges Basin and elsewhere Binangladesh. Divided into Kharompatty and Kolapara mahalla
Mahalla
A mahalla is an urban division in Uzbekistan. Historically, mahallas were autonomous social institutions built around familial ties and Islamic rituals. Before the establishment of the Soviet rule in Uzbekistan, Mahallas fulfilled local self-government functions connecting private sphere with...

s, Sholakia has a sporting club, Sholakia Sporting Club, that takes part in local level soccer tournaments. Manufacturing bricks and tiles is a major commercial activity here.
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