Pt. Ravi Shankar's ... Muslim guru ... was no ordinary person. He was not only a great artist but also a great human being. Padma Bhushan Ustad Alauddin Khan (1889-1972), though born as a Muslim, was more of a Hindu in thought and deed. In his childhood, he even adopted a Hindu name, Manmohan Dey. He was an ardent devotee of Goddess Sharda and in Maihar (Madhya Pradesh), where he was a court musician, never missed his daily visit to the temple for the deity's blessings.

Except for his son, Ustad Ali Akbar, all his children and grandchildren more Hindu names ... Ustad Alauddin Khan was a legend who could command respect and recognition even from (persons of) divergent ideologies, be it Hindutva or secularism.

Another 'Muslim' Devotee of Hindu God

Every morning and evening a 60-year-old priest arrives at a little Ganesh temple housed in the M.S. University Faculty of Technology and Engineering building (and) performs puja before the presiding deity ...

The priest is named Abdul Rashid Ismail Shaikh. A Muslim by birth, Abdul is a Ganesh devotee by choice. A peon by profession, he is the unofficial priest of the temple ... Members of his own community ostracised him earlier; but eventually they came to understand him ...

Almost everybody on the campus echoes the view. "He is a learned man and as far as the shlokas are concerned, he can leave behind even the best of pandits", says Arvind Bhavsar, tool operator in the faculty.

Asked about the happiest moment in life, Abdul, who has preferred to remain a bachelor, just smiles. At a recent function vice-chancellor Anil Kane spoke to him about the Koran's teachings. Abdul, in turn, talked about the message in the Gita. "When I bowed before him, he embraced me. For a little man like me, this is the greatest honour", says the man who is communal harmony personified. (Source: The Times of India, 23 February, 1999)