Diaspora
Aliasgher Janmohammed (Cape Town, South Africa) is a project lead/product owner managing six work streams, and works with City governments, Civil and Social organisations and not-for-profit companies. He is passionate about helping cities become better spaces for people and currently works with South African cities to support their digital transformation.
I was recently watching a video of a Gujarati person who had moved to Kerala decades ago and was speaking about the migration of Gujaratis to the state. He vividly spoke about Gujaratis being merchants for centuries, moving to different parts of the world to start businesses. My great-great-grandfather had a similar trajectory, moving from India to Tanzania to start a business and unlock opportunities for his family. I am sure that was the trajectory of the forefathers of many readers of these issues as well, showcasing the weaving of histories and cultures through migration. I always wonder what my great-great-grandfather would have been like, the food he ate, the way he would behave and how our culture morphed and adapted as generations went on.
Similar to my great-great-grandfather, I also followed a similar trajectory, migrating to India first for my Bachelor’s degree, before permanently moving to South Africa. As anyone who has lived abroad will tell you, the move comes with all the shocks that you wouldn’t expect. There is homesickness, the adaptation to a different culture, the shift in your schedules that takes you out of nowhere, knowing that you are now not going home to your family every day as you did from birth. Islamically, the adaptation is even more complicated. In Dar es Salaam, every restaurant that I visited serves halal meat and is Muslim-owned. There are a plethora of options, and the question of whether the meat was sourced from a halaal vendor is never on anyone’s mind. In South Africa, this is completely different. Any restaurant that you can eat in needs to have a halaal certification for it to be approved as offering halaal food. In Dar es Salaam, there are numerous Shia mosques that one can visit for daily prayers and majalis. In Cape Town, one mosque exists as the Shia Centre. Essentially, everything is less accessible, and resources are scarcer for Muslims. I am sure our forefathers faced similar challenges when migrating to a new place. And that shift in culture and religion challenges you as a Muslim in different ways. In fact, I would argue it makes you stronger as a Muslim and makes you interact with your religion at a deeper level as you continue practising in such complex settings.
I always remember this story from when I was a child, where a scholar talked about a Muslim who decided to go live in a remote place where there was nobody for miles on end, so that he wouldn’t be distracted from religion. If there were nobody around him, he argued that he wouldn’t be tempted to sin or go down the wrong path. He could dedicate his time towards praying to God. One day, the person had a visitor who was on his travels and asked him why he had moved so far away to such a remote place. When the person explained the move, the visitor rightfully pointed out that Allah’s true test to us is not for us to live in a place where it’s easy to worship him, but rather to remember Allah when numerous other distractions prevent us from doing that.
So for numerous Gujarati migrants like my grandfather and me, the outside world helped us learn more about our religion than we ever did in our original places. It helped us interact with new people and explore religion through the eyes of people we met in our new surroundings. I am sure the way I practise religion is different from my great-great-grandfather’s. I have more resources than he had. I have Amaal books that detail what duas to read, the types of prayers to pray, how many rakaats and all the recommended actions. And I am sure he practised his religion differently from his forefathers, all learning and growing in an effort to get close to Allah.
When I was a child, I often saw religion as a linear path. You practised it in one way, and the outcome was either heaven or hell. But religion is never binary. Your relationship with Allah weaves, changes, grows and morphs into many things as years pass. As Gujaratis migrated and their families grew in new locations, their love for Allah continued, and that continuation is what we see in the world today. We boast about the size of our jamaats, showcasing how our religion has connected to so many people and how Allah’s love grows in their hearts. I am grateful to my grandfather for moving to a new place, looking for opportunities, but continuing his connection to Allah. Today, I get to practice the religion of Islam because he kept connecting to Allah even after he moved. InshA’allah I can give the same gift to my children and their children.
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