Mohammed Wajihuddin TNN
When we meet Mohammed Ayub Ansari, who is resting at a Malad mosque in the afternoon, he looks alarmed. “Why do you want to interview me? I am an ordinary person, I don’t want publicity,” says Ansari, a Muslim who spends a lot of time during Ramzan in penance and prayers.
Hardly anyone who travels on the bus he drives knows it, but Ansari turns into an imam in the night during Ramzan. He might have ferried thousands to their destinations as a BEST bus driver since 1992; as a hafiz (one who has memorised the Quran) and imam, he has led countless Muslims at Tarawih prayers. A special congregational prayer exclusively performed in Ramzan, Tarawih is led by a hafiz who recites verses from the holy book.
Ansari stands out not because he is a hafiz (he is one among millions across the world) but because, despite not being associated with the teaching profession or preaching, as most hafizs are, Ansari (48) remembers the Quran he memorised when he was ten. “Many hafizs forget the Quran once they enter business or a profession not related to education. But I recite the verses for two hours every day and remember all of it,” he says.
Son of an auto driver and a school dropout, Ansari says he learnt driving after he completed his hafiz course. Brilliant children do it within two years; he did it in three. Like his father, Ansari too drove an auto for a couple of years before he applied for a driver’s job in BEST. “The call letter came after eight years. I had forgotten I had applied,” he chuckles.
Ansari’s day begins at 4.05am, when he steers bus number 273 out of the BEST depot at Malvani and drives toward Malad station. He makes several rounds between Malvani depot and Malad station, signing off at 11.40 am. He then reaches his BEST-allotted quarter in Malvani, has a bath and, putting on a kurta-pyjama and a skullcap, goes to the mosque in Malvani’s Muslim ghetto opposite the bus depot. Ramzan sees him practise the Quran’s recitations intensively during the day as part of preparations for the one-hourlong session in the night. Ansari leads the Tarawih prayer, after the usual night prayer is over, at the same mosque.
Although hafizs are much in demand during Ramzan and many of them get paid handsomely, Ansari claims he does the work voluntarily. “I have never demanded or accepted any remuneration for leading Tarawih. Charging fees for recitations of the holy text is forbidden,” he says.
Mohammed Ayub Ansari had the Quran memorised when he was ten
