| schema:text
| - Fact Check: No, Shah Rukh Khan did not spit while offering prayers for Lata Mangeshkar
A video clip of Shah Rukh Khan paying last respects to Lata Mangeshkar has gone viral with the wrong claim that the actor spat on the singer's mortal remains.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Shah Rukh Khan did not spit, rather he blew out air after offering prayers. Reciting holy verses and then blowing air into something is called Ruqyah in Islamic tradition. Although Muslims differ on whether Ruqyah can be performed for the dead.
A video clip of actor Shah Rukh Khan offering prayers for Lata Mangeshkar has gone viral for the wrong reasons. Many on social media shared this video, claiming that Khan spat after reciting prayers.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Prashant Patel Umrao quote-tweeted another person who shared the viral video and wrote, “Shahrukh is Spitting!”.
Another user posted the same video and wrote in the caption, “ Spitting while Paying last respects??? What an ugly culture @iamsrk !!! disrespectful to #LataDidi”.
India Today Anti-Fake News War room (AFWA) found this misleading. Khan did not spit, rather he blew air after offering prayers. Reciting holy verses and then blowing air is called Ruqyah in Islamic tradition.
The archived versions of the viral posts are saved here and here.
Did SRK spit?
After this claim was made by several people, many on social media shared the original video of the incident. While the viral video is only 13 seconds long, the longer version of the video shared online showed how the actor encircled the mortal remains of Lata Mangeshkar and made gestures to pay tribute to her. He was accompanied by his manager Pooja Dadlani.
The most secular person .But this secularism always brings hate for him#ShahRukhKhan #LataDidi #LataMangeshkarPassesAway pic.twitter.com/St6gY3FdNa — Azharul Akash (@AzharulAkash3) February 6, 2022
This was also reported by the mainstream media which can be seen here and here.
To defend the actor’s gesture, some netizens even shared a clip from Khan’s film “My Name is Khan”, where he can be seen blowing air on his son in the movie.
Scholars Speak
AFWA showed the viral video to a few Muslim scholars who are experts in Islamic studies.
Professor Junaid Haris of the department of Islamic studies from Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university explained Khan’s gestures.
“He is surely not spitting. This is a typical Muslim tradition of blowing air into something after reciting the holy verses. This is called Ruqyah or Ar-Ruqyah AshShar'iyyah in Arabic and Dum in Urdu,” said Professor Junaid Haris of JMI. “But I failed to understand why the actor is doing this in front of the mortal remains of somebody. This is not done during the last rites at all,” the professor added.
We have found the definition of “Ruqyah” on Islamic websites that have elaborated on how to perform Ruqyah on old and sick persons.
Muslims differ on whether Ruqyah can be performed for the dead.
As per Asad Khan Falahi, another expert on Islamic studies told AFWA, “We normally perform this ritual of reciting Ayat and then performing Dum or blowing air on persons who are unwell and need blessings of Allah to be cured.”
“You blow on something after reciting the holy verse, not on air. So, it could be Shah Rukh’s own belief that he has done during the last rites. But in Islam you do not do Ruqyiah in front of dead,” explained Haris.
Islamic scholars might differ on the opinion of whether this Islamic ritual can be done on dead or not, but one thing is clear: Khan did not spit in front of Lata Mangeshkar’s mortal remains; rather he blew air following a Muslim tradition after offering prayers.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)