It was not a golden egg but an ordinary egg bought from the market for six rupees. But the zeal with which a poor widow donated it to construct the mosque brought its total cost to more than two lakh rupees.
A mosque has been under construction for several months in the village of ‘Mal Mapanpura’ in the northern town of Sopore in the Indian-administered Kashmir city of Srinagar. On the occasion of Eid, the mosque committee decided to go door-to-door and collect donations in cash and kind.
People donated cash, utensils, chickens, rice, etc. Naseer Ahmed, a mosque committee member, says, We were collecting donations when a woman from a small house came to me with her head down and held an egg and asked me to accept it.
Naseer adds that it was a mere six-rupee egg, but the spirit with which that poor woman gave it in the path of God made it very valuable.
So I suggested to the other committee members that the egg be bid and withdrawn after three days of sale.
Keeping the woman’s identity a secret, Naseer announced in the mosque that the egg was being auctioned and bid ten rupees from his pocket. According to Naseer, the first sound was ten thousand rupees, and thus the price of the egg increased.
Former Sarpanch of the village, Tariq Ahmed, says that there was no big Jamia Masjid in Mal Mapanpura with only 250 people, so the construction of the Jamia Masjid was started, but the work stopped when it reached the roof because there were no funds. He says we didn’t know we would earn 2 lakh rupees just with eggs.
What happened on the last day of bidding?
The mosque administration had decided that the egg bidding would be held for three days only. Naseer Ahmed says that for two days, people had bid for the egg for 10, 20, 30, and 50 thousand each time the egg was returned.
It was then announced that the bidding would close at seven o’clock on the last day, and the egg would be awarded to the last bidder.
Danish Hameed, a young businessman from Sopore, was also present in this bid. When the bid of 54,000 was announced twice, Danish sitting in the back row loudly said ‘70,000’.
In this way, this egg collected a total of two lakh, twenty-six thousand, three hundred and fifty rupees in cash donations.
Where is the egg?
Naseer says that the egg is no longer trivial but has symbolic importance.
I am managing to preserve this egg and make a good frame for it to keep it safe,” he explains. Naseer wishes that ‘this egg will be a reminder to him, his family, and everyone who sees how a widow gave it away in the way of God without thinking of what it cost.
He says that I understand, that pure and good feelings have no price, and that’s why this egg will always be safe in our house.
