Tens of thousands of muslims thronged the Khanqah of revered Kashmiri Sufi saint, Sakhi Zainuddin Wali (RA) at Aishmuqam in the Anantnag district of south Kashmir and performed the annual ‘Zool’ ritual.
Locals as quoted by local news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that in view of Ramadan, locals observed Zool for a short time.
“We performed a zool ritual at our residence, while some performed outside cave and most of the people visited the shrine and cave during the day,” he said, adding that hundreds of people continue to throng the shrine.
The ritual is performed by devotees as a mark of respect for the saint as it is held to mark the beginning of agricultural activity after a prolonged winter season.
Sakhi Zainuddin, a 15th century saint was originally a Hindu and converted to Islam at a very young age after which he became a mystic and spread Islam in the nooks and corners of Kishtwar and other places.
The Sufi saint is believed to have settled in Aishmuqam and is said to have gone into deep meditation inside the cave and battled a demon that was petrifying the villagers.
Though many say that the demon is symbolic to fighting his own greed, his wants and his materialistic nature, which has gripped the whole area, however, with his arrival people adopted the path of righteousness and started praying regularly.
To commemorate this transition from materialism and falsehood to truth and selflessness, people assembled every year during his lifetime on the day when he came out of the cave after months of worship.
In the 90s several outfits banned the Zool calling it anti Islamic, however, thousands of devotees from all over Kashmir reached the shrine defying the ban.
The faith of the locals over the festivity and the Sufi saint has grown tremendously over the years. Many relics that are stored for centuries at Aishmuqam are highly respected by the devotees which is very popular all over Kashmir.
More than 20,000 people attend his gathering at this shrine to celebrate his urs festival every year.
For the thousands of pilgrims who gather at Aishmuqam, the annual torch festival also symbolizes the end of the long winter and the beginning of the new sowing season.
People from different communities visit the shrine to spread the message of communal harmony and brotherhood, a local said.
With inputs from KNO