On June 13, in an unusual and touching gesture of peace and unity, Sikh woman threw a feast for 100 Muslim migrant workers at Gurudwara Sahib Katong just before the end of Ramadan. Gurudwara Sahib Katong is a Sikh Temple, where at 7:14pm local time, the prayer call for all Muslims sounded, and the Muslims prayed right then and there, while the Sikhs stood by respectfully. Ms. Noor Mastura, a Muslim woman who attended the feast and whose Sikh girlfriend organized it, posted about the celebration on her Facebook page. Ms. Mastura’s girlfriend has requested to remain unnamed, and her post has gotten more than 11,000 responses and been shred over 6,000 times.
Even President Halimah Yacob shared Ms. Mastura’s post
In her post, Ms. Mastura tells the story of the meal prepared bu her girlfriend and other Sikhs, calling it an “iftar cum Langar.” The iftar, of course, is the meal eaten by Muslims after sunset during Ramadan, and a Langar is a free vegetarian meal served by Sihks in their temple, to anyone visiting, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. She talked about how the volunteer Sikhs carefully prepared the meal, ensuring that there were enough volunteer servers to wait on the Muslims breaking their fast, working with “pure joy and sincerity.” Ms. Mastura herself helped out, and talked about what a hot and sweaty job it was.
At 7:14pm the call to prayer was heard, and as the Muslims stood to pray, the Sikh volunteers stood still in honor of the prayers. Ms. Mastura, obviously overwhelmed by thankfulness for the Sikhs, ended her post saying, “I would love to insert my opinion of how I think my religious community can learn from them. But right now, I am just going to end this post here so we can all take a moment to absorb how beautiful, open, compassionate and loving our Singaporean Sikhs are.
Waheguru.”
Waheguru is one of God’s names in Sikhism, meaning, “gratitude to the ONE who takes you from darkness to light.”
Many netizens expressed their gratitude to Ms. Mastura for her heartwarming post, with special mention of appreciation for the Sikh community