For the past 14 years, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat has been distributing free translations of Holy Quran to tourists and locals in 24 Indian and foreign languages for free in Srinagar.
Each day, after finishing his official work, he drives his car towards the famous Boulevard road and parks his vehicle along the banks of Dal Lake to distribute the holy message.
‘Pick your spiritual gift,’ and ‘For saying no to the Quran, one has to read the Quran’ are some of the messages that are hanging on his car.
Hailing from Bemina area of Srinagar, Bhat says that it was the year 2008 when he started working with New Delhi-based organization ‘Centre For Peace and Spirituality’.
“It is Daee mission (inviting people to Islam) that was started in 2004 and took shape in 2008 and project ‘Quran for all’ was started in 2019 across India. We have to make an available divine message in all languages all over the world,” he said.
Bhat is working at Public-Sector Bank and can be seen distributing translations of the Holy Quran in his free time or holidays.
“Normally after my office hours, I will be around Boulevard road to distribute the translations of the Quran. During holidays, his days mostly spent outside Mughal Gardens, Botanical Garden and Dal Lake area. Mostly we focus on areas where tourist inflow is high,” he said.
About the number of copies distributed each day, Bhat says it depends on the interest of the people, sometimes no copy is distributed, while at times more than 200-300 copies are being distributed.
“So far this year, we have distributed more than 10 thousand copies of the Holy Quran in multiple languages. It is basically a translation of the Quran in other languages without any further commentary,” Bhat said.
He says they distribute Quran translations in 14 Indian languages in Kashmir including English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannad, Gujrati, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and others.
Apart from Indian languages, the Quran translations are also available in foreign languages Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and other languages.
According to him, everybody is a Daee and should keep translations of the Quran with them to reach the message of the Almighty to others as well.
“Anybody who is making requests through social media or websites in Kashmir, we deliver them Quran within 24 hours. We have volunteers in every part of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Bhat said in his group, there are around 10-12 volunteers and we have also created a centre ‘Centre for Divine Message’ with its headquarters in the Bemina area.
“Many eminent personalities including professors, businessmen, bank officers, social activists, dealers, etc. are part of this precious campaign,” he said, adding that this message will continue till the end of his life.
