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JUR’AH

In Arabic, the word jur’ah or jurr’ah means a gulp or as much as is swallowed, as it is said jur’ah al-ma’a (he engulfed the water), jur’ahtan minadewa (dose of medicine), or jar’ah ar-ma’a (made drunk little bit water). The word jarw or jurw also means whelp, cub, small fruit or anything little. In Persian, the word jur’ah means equal in size or weight, draught, gulp or remains at the bottom of vessel. The word jurr’ah occurs once in the Koran: “He will drink it little by little (jurr’ah) and will not be able to swallow it agreeably” (14:17).

The Muslims generally call the benedictory gift as tabarruk, while the word hissa (part or portion) is common in the Shi’ites of the South Asian region. Jur’ah is a tabarruk (benedictory gift) for the disciples and served in Jamatkhana daily and in every majalis as well. The jur’ah is mostly used for any small eatable item.
Masud bin Khalid narrated that once he presented a goat’s meat to the Prophet, who returned a part of it as a tabarruk (Hayatus Sahaba, Karachi, 1999, 3:713). Abu Huraira reports that whenever a new fruit arrived in Medina, people brought it before the Prophet, who recited, “O’God! Bestow baraka (plentitude) in our fruits” (allahuma barik lana fi thamrana). Anas bin Malik narrates: Once Akedar of Dumat al-Jandal presented the Prophet a pitcher of Turanja’bin (Persian manna). When he finished his prayer, he went to his Companions and distributed a small piece to each person. Khalid bin Walid took its two pieces, and said, “I have taken two pieces while other have taken one piece only.” The Prophet said, “Eat it and let your family members also to eat.” (al-Kanz, 4:47).

Abu Huraira narrates: One day the Prophet distributed dates to his Companions in the mosque. Each of us got seven dates, one of them being stoneless, which I liked more (al-Muslim, 2:297). Anas bin Malik relates: Once someone gifted dates to the Prophet. He would be distributing while eating from the heap at the same time” (ibid. 2:180). Jabir relates: Once the Prophet called me, and holding my hand he passed by the cells of his consorts and entered one of them. He asked something to eat and three small-sized breads were offered. He took one bread and put before me, another before himself and then he divided the third one into two parts, and gave one piece to me and another before him, and we ate (ibid. 2:136). Once the Prophet halted at a place, where a certain woman sent

her goat through her son. The Prophet milked it and sent to that woman. The woman again sent another goat, and the Prophet again milked it and drank and left it’s remain for that woman (al-Kanz, 4:45).

Abdullah bin Busr said: My father once said to my mother that it would be auspicious hour if she prepared food for the Prophet. My mother prepared tharid for him. My father went and brought the Prophet. The Prophet put his blessed hand on the top of that food, and returned, saying them to start eating after reciting the name of God. Those present there started eating. The Prophet then also ate and prayed, “O’God! Forgive them. Show Thy compassion unto them and make their provisions blessed” (ibid, 8:48). The house of Ayub Ansari in Medina had two storeys. He offered upper floor, but the Prophet preferred ground one for the convenience of visitors. Ayub Ansari used to send meals to the Prophet twice every day, and what left was shared by him and his wife as a tabarruk.

He used to eat from the side of the plate, which had the marks of the Prophet’s fingers (Isabah fi Ahwal’il Sahabah, 1:357-8).
Makrizi writes in Khitat (1:453) that, “During the banquet for the new year in Egypt, the Fatimid Caliph distributed food with his own hands, the recipient kissed it, made a gesture as if to eat it, and then placed it in his sleeve for the baraka. When all those present had filled their sleeves, the vizir said, ‘There is no fault in anyone taking anything from this place; rather he will derive honor, a distinction from it’ (al-sharaf wa’l miza).” In an account of the procession at the inundation of the Nile, sharif (honour) and baraka are associated in relation to food taken from the Imam’s palace (ibid, 10:475).

The Koran says, “Accept the offerings they make from their wealth in order to cleanse and purify them thereby, and pray for them; surely your prayer is a relief to them” (9:103).

We have stated above that the physical existence of the Prophet was a baraka (plenitude) for believers. Was the tendency of showering the baraka exclusively mere for believers of the Prophet’s time? Indeed, it didn’t discontinue after the Prophet. It is yet continued by the Imam, the direct descendant of the Prophet to cleanse and purify believers in every age. Whatever one receives from Imam’s house (Jamatkhana), it is a baraka for him. The jur’ah is a rational illustration of the baraka for the believers in every age.

On 9th January, 1983 during the Silver Jubilee Celebration in Singapore, Mawlana Hazar Imam at the end of the farman said, “I would like all my spiritual children to have a little bit (jur’ah) of the Silver Jubilee Cake. It’s a big enough for everyone.”

In Jerruk, one old lady from the village of Sind brought gruel (ra’b or ra’badi) made of red rice in an earthen pot and stood at a little distance. She said something in Sindhi. Imam Hasan Ali Shah called for her and asked in Sindhi, “What do you want?” (chhato gur’e). She reverently said that she had brought gruel for him. The Imam happily accepted, but she said, “Ya Mawla, you eat it” (Ya Mawla tu’n kha). The Imam tasted and ordered one servant to distribute its little bit to the jamat as a jur’ah. The people took and ate, but some didn’t and put it beneath mattress and few threw at the wall.

The Imam watched and said, “Whoever have tasted the jur’ah will never be accountable in the day of resurrection. Their souls will be annihilated in my noor.” After listening, the people began to lick mattress and wall. The Imam said, “The time is over. Now it is worthless to lick mattress and wall.”

SUKRIT

The word sukrit is composed of three syllables, su (good), kar (hand) and krit (deed). Thus, the word sukrat or sukrit means good deeds conducted by hand or by one’s self.

Eji munivar sukrit tam’e samar lejo, an’e dejo te Mawla Ali’ne ha’th (ginan)
“You take provision of good deeds (sukrit) for hereafter, and offer it in the hands of Mawla Ali.”

Eh virabhai, ag’e khudavand puchhengo, tam’e kesi sukrit lai aya ji (ginan)
O’ brother! God will ask in hereafter, what good deeds (sukrit) you have brought along?”

Eji jo tam’e sukrit poon karog’e, ohi tero sakhayou jir’e (ginan)
“If you will perform good deeds (sukrit), it is indeed your only fellow.”

Eji sukrit hoi tam’e sancho, sukrit sancho to tam’e chhuto (ginan)
“You preserve good deeds (sukrit), if will preserve good deeds (sukrit), you will be redeemed.”

It indicates that the sukrit (virtuous deeds) as stated above will be provision of the believers in celestial world.

In addition to this, the sukrit is physically also a soft-dish put into the platters, and its little bit is served in the rite of ab-i shafa (holy water) to the adherents in Jamatkhana. It contains rich metaphorical meanings of the “virtuous deeds.”

The sukrit is served normally during the rite of ab’i shafa, to which the ginan says:-

Eji niyam nishani noor’ni, vari sukrit lev’e mok
“The holy water is a sign of the Light, also take sukrit on that time.”
The sukrit is cooked on every morning and every evening of the Friday and Chant Ra’t. In other words, it is served in 30 mornings and 5 evenings in a month.

Pir Sadr al-Din directed its recipe as under:-
Kheer, khand, girat, amrat, bhojan eh laviy’e sa’r;

Panch vastu bheriyu’n kari, bhai teno kiji’e tha’l (ginan)
“Collect milk, sugar, clarified butter, holy water and wheat-flour, then blend (these) five substances together and prepare a platter thereof.”

1) khir : milk
2) khand : sugar
3) girat : clarified butter
4) amrit : nectar
5) bhojan : flour

When the ingredient of these five items are thoroughly blended and cooked, its colour is changed, slightly brownish, smelling like freshly cooked biscuits; it is physically called the sukrit for the “virtuous deeds.”

These five items exhort distinctive symbolic expressions as under:

1. The milk (khir) advocates sign of purity, thus it requires that heart of the believer should be white like milk.
2. The sugar (khand) has a quality of sweetness, and that the tongue of the believer should be sweet like sugar.
3. The ghee (girat) or clarified butter melts on fire, thus the believer should be polite like ghee when someone is angry, his temper should melt and soften like ghee.

While cooking the sukrit, the water is simply added therein, because the amrit (nectar or ab-i shafa) is not ready at that time. When the consecrated ab-i shafa becomes ready, the distributors sprinkle drops of ab-i shafa on platters of sukrit before service, so that the water used earlier in its cooking may also transformed into the ab-i shafa. Thus, the nectar or ab-i shafa in the sukrit exhorts the believer to join company of others, and make them like himself.

Lastly, the wheat which is a principal phenomenon of food (bhojan) or flour is kneaded and baked on stove. The believer likewise should be pain-taker like the kneaded flour on fire for the benefit of others.

In sum, the above five items in the sukrit metaphorically reveal five virtues deeds, and that the believer should ingrain in mind that he should have sweet heart, sweet eloquence, piercing personality and pain-taker.

It will be interesting to know the nutritional components of above five items as under:-
Water, carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamin A, C, D, E, K, B1, B2, B3, B5, B12, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, sodium, zinc, calories, cholesterol, choline and fiber.

Abdullah bin Salam narrates: Once the Prophet saw Uthman pulling a she-camel laden with flour, ghee and honey. The Prophet asked for a stone-cooker, and after putting ghee, honey and flour in it, he asked it to be put on fire till it was thoroughly cooked. He then tasted and asked other to take a little bit from it, saying, “This is what is called khabis by the Persians” (Mishkat, p. 36). The Prophet recommended eating hays in the morning. It is a mixture of pitted dates, clarified butter and dried curd, vigorously kneaded together into a paste and shaped into mouthful portions.

The Prophet also recommended seven ajwa (the best variety of dates in Medina), called “the mother of dates” (umm al-tamr) as a tabarruk in morning to counteract effect of poison and other ills throughout the day. The Muslims in general make five pieces of ajwa, and eat each piece in morning before sunrise for five days as a tabarruk.

Indeed, the dish of sukrit coincides the khabis, hays and ajwa as discussed above.

JUR’AH AND SUKRIT

Jur’ah is normally a gift of the Imam offered in his house (Jamatkhana), while the Sukrit is a special gift, an individual gift of the Imam. In olden times, the Jur’ah was taken and offered to others a little bit, while it was not so in the case of the Sukrit, which was swallowed by the taker without offering others because it is a special gift specifically for him. This is the only clue distinguishing Jur’ah with Sukrit. There is however no its hard and fast rule in today’s intellectual age.

Nothing should be added in preparation of the Sukrit over and above the ingredients prescribed in the ginan. It should be distributed in a small quantity. Nevertheless, if someone wants more, he/she can get. The leftover Sukrit may be distributed, but not auction in Nandi because it contains holy water.

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Karachi: 2021