By winning the top slot among the five winners of a State-level Ramayana quiz in Kerala, Muhmmad Basith M (20 years) and Muhammad Jabir PK (23 years), reflect the syncretic fabric of the Indian society.

The two students are studying Islamic Studies (Wafy) at KKHM Islamic and Arts College at Markaz Valanchery. While Jabir is a final year student of the eight-year course, Basith is in the fifth year.

The online quiz was held by Kerala’s publishing house DC Books in the month of July between 23 and 25 in which questions were asked from participants based on in-depth study of Ramayana. Jabir and Basith had read the epic and understood it well as part of their studies.

Talking to The News Minute, Jabir, remarked that all religions aimed at peaceful living by people and humanity. “Religion is meant for peaceful living, all other tensions around them are man-made.” What impressed him most about Ramayana was the style of governance and justice that the epic describes. “Ramayana shows Rama as the ideal king and how better governance, justice, virtue and duties can be implemented in a country. This should happen in the world ideally. There is no mention of hatred in the holy book. No religion promotes hatred.”

They revealed that as part of their studies, they need to learn about other faiths. Elaborating on this to TNM Jabir said: “We have an option to learn all religious books through the writing of Muslim writers and as a reference to that, other religious holy books are mentioned. So we can read those books directly and understand. Most of us learn them by reading and understanding directly.”

He added that the institution’s library had holy books of all religions and the studies connected with them.

The students of Wafy pursue Islamic studies along with their regular courses. “We get a certificate for this course only if we have a university approved degree,” informed Jabir.

Basith was drawn to Ramayana at a young age, when he read short stories in the children’s magazine. “When I reached here, there were all religious holy books here. They all are enlightenments and Ramayana is Hindu religious enlightenment.”

Other winners of the quiz were Navneeth Gopan, Abhiram MP and Geethu Krishnan.

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