Uniform Friday Sermons in J&K: Why the Waqf Board's Plan Has Sparked a Wider Debate

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board has constituted a core committee of Islamic scholars and preachers to decide a common topic for Friday sermons in mosques and shrines affiliated with it — a move that has set off a political debate in the Union Territory.

The committee was announced at a meeting held on October 11 at the Board's office in Srinagar, attended by imams (prayer leaders) and khateebs (preachers) of hundreds of Board-affiliated mosques and shrines. Board chairperson Darakshan Andrabi, a senior BJP leader, informed those present about the panel's formation.

Ishtiyaq Mohi-ud-Din, an Executive Magistrate at the Board, said the proposal had been under discussion for about a month and that a directive was already in place "to broach only one topic in sermons". He also invited the views of the religious persons present on bringing non-Waqf mosques under the new arrangement. Jammu and Kashmir has both Waqf-affiliated and non-affiliated mosques and shrines.

Since Ms. Andrabi took charge of the Board in March 2022, the body has taken over the management and financial control of a number of family-run shrines, including Ziyarat Shareef Rayil Gund, Dargah-e-Faiz Panah, Mir Syed Taj-ud-Din Hamdani, the Ziyarat of Hazrat Sultan-ul-Arfeen and the Seer Hamdan shrine.

According to Ms. Andrabi, a uniform sermon would allow religious leaders to raise concerns of society "forcefully and unitedly". She listed drug abuse, delayed marriages and what she described as waywardness among the issues that the pre-selected topics could address. In her view, a common theme decided by the committee of scholars would be a more effective way of dealing with social problems.

The proposal marks a departure from established practice in Jammu and Kashmir, where mosques and shrines have traditionally chosen their own sermon topics. A Friday sermon has two parts: one dealing with local and contemporary issues, and another in which the sermon of Prophet Muhammad is recited, delivered ahead of the congregational noon prayers attended by thousands of worshippers every week.

Historically, these sermons in Kashmir have addressed both social and political questions, and religious places have often served as platforms for political mobilisation. In 1931, a speech by Abdul Qadeer Khan at the Shah-e-Hamdan shrine preceded a major upheaval against Dogra rule. In 1964, the Jama Masjid became a platform to mobilise people over the theft of holy relics from the Hazratbal shrine. In the 1990s, rallies were held from several shrines in the Valley.

Against this backdrop, the Board's move is seen in several quarters as an attempt to de-politicise religious places in a region that witnessed three decades of armed conflict, and to limit their public role to social issues approved in advance by the committee. BJP legislator R.S. Pathania has supported the initiative of the Board's religious leaders. Critics, meanwhile, have questioned whether a common, pre-approved theme restricts the autonomy that individual mosques and shrines have historically exercised in deciding what is spoken about from the pulpit.

Who is Darakshan Andrabi? Ms. Andrabi, 52, is a senior member of the BJP in Kashmir and has been a party worker for years, though she has not contested and won an election in the Union Territory. In 2016, she was appointed a member of the Central Waqf Council by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. She was later appointed chairperson of the Education and Women Welfare Committee of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and a member of the Maulana Azad National Education Foundation.

In 2019, when the Centre ended Jammu and Kashmir's special status, the J&K Waqf Board was brought under the Central Waqf Act, aligning the legal and administrative framework governing the Waqf with the applicable national framework. In 2022, the Union Minority Affairs Ministry appointed Ms. Andrabi as chairperson of the Board for five years, under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 14 of the Waqf Act, 1995.

The Board has said that preserving religious places in Jammu and Kashmir carries a responsibility greater than maintaining physical structures, describing it as a duty to protect the spiritual environment and the religious traditions that have shaped communities over generations. The current debate turns on how that responsibility is exercised, and who decides what is said in the pulpit each Friday.