Mohanlal's Prayers For Mammootty

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 28 March 2025 Malayalam superstar Mohanlal offering prayers for his friend Mammootty at Sabarimala has sparked a row after a receipt of the visit went viral on social media. The leaked receipt, which carries Mammootty's birth name, Muhammed Kutty, led to a section of people questioning whether it was right to offer prayers at a Hindu temple for Mammootty, considering his Islamic faith. After the receipt did the rounds on social media, a section of people criticised Mohanlal's gesture for his friend. A row erupted when journalist and political analyst, O Abdullah, demanded Mohanlal's apology to the Muslim community. In an audio note, he mentioned that if Mammootty had requested Mohanlal to offer prayers at Sabarimala, then 'it is a great crime' against his faith. What nonsense! A prayer is a prayer is a prayer is a prayer. People pray for their near and dear ones regardless of their faiths. Visit the tombs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi, Salim Chishti's tomb at Fatehpur-Sikri, Agra, among others, you'll find more Hindus than Muslims praying there. All monotheistic Semitic faiths are monolithic, lapidary and violently against shirk. It's blasphemous to worship any other god/deity other than Allah because the god in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is a jealous god. It cannot tolerate your act of worshipping any other god. You'll be punished and sent to Dozakh/Jahannam (hell) to be perpetually burnt and roasted there. Well, it's the faith of the followers of Semitic religions, esp. the belief of Muslims. But then, to quote Pakistani Urdu poet Baqi Siddiqi (1905-1972), Sajda kahin bhi kar liya, kahin bhi chala gaya/ Aakhir tak phir bhi Musalmaan hi raha (I genuflected anywhere; went to any shrine/ Yet, I remained a Muslim till my last breath). If Mammooty or Muhammad Kutty is suffering from blood cancer and his Hindu friend Mohanlal visits a temple and prays for his ailing friend, what role does one's religion have to play here? The rabid and unyielding insistence that only Allah is to be worshipped and prayed to because the sufferer is a Muslim must be condemned as morbid monomania. We're humans and we're also vulnerable. In a desperate situation, people will try anything, even if it's unlikely to work, to improve their situation. Don't we say, a drowning man will clutch at a straw? Prayer is a sigh of the human heart and cry of the soul. It's irrespective of religions and their denominations. If one prays for someone in a different place or shrine, the impassioned cries will reach a dispassionate god if at all it does exist. That's the purpose of a prayer. Muslims must widen the horizons of their (religious) thinking and stop projecting their Allah as an angry tribal deity or a typical suitor in the realm of love who's exasperated and envious the moment someone else gets even a smidgen of attention. Your Allah is above rivalry, unless you drag him down to the level of humans! All said and done, may Mammootty recover fast and return to his former self. ... A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/malayalam-mohanlal-prayers-mammootty-sabarimala/d/134998 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism