Mumbai: The three-day annual Sunni Ijtema, one of the largest Sunni religious gatherings in the country, will begin in Mumbai on November 29 at Azad Maidan.

The gathering, organised by the Sunni Dawate Islami, will feature religious discourses and discussions on faith, women's rights, and contemporary issues like diminishing faith, mental health, and human relations.

The gathering will begin on Friday with events exclusively reserved for women. Topics during the day will include women's rights and their role in building a moral world and a great nation. A special session will discuss the lives and faith-building roles played by the influential women - Sahabiyaat - who lived during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

Preparations for the Sunni Ijtema at Azad Maidan on Friday

"The first women converts to Islam were among his greatest supporters of the message that the prophet revealed. For instance, a third of the Hadiths - the books on the life of the prophet that support the teachings in the Koran - comes from Ayesha, the prophet's wife. The Koran has an entire chapter - the Surah An-Nisa - on women," said Shahid Mohammad, media coordinator for the Ijtema.

The other days will have lectures by scholars on the elements of faith, conversion of faith into certainty, and the role of materialism in diminishing faith. Expert speakers will also guide the audience on more contemporary issues like mental health, career, emotional intelligence, and human relations.

There will be a question-and-answer session by Mufti Nizamuddin on trading and other new age concerns. Everyday's sessions will end with prayers for peace and prosperity of humankind.

Last year, the gathering attracted three lakh participants. This will be the 32nd year of the event which was started by Maulana Shakir Ali Noori, a religious scholar, writer, and educationist who is the president of Sunni Dawate Islami.

Explaining the theme and objective of this year's Ijtema, Noori said that seeking knowledge, seeking the rightful means and having total reliance (tawaqqul) on almighty was the core principle for the meet.

"Happiness comes from (Rida bil Qadr) to be pleased with what Allah Almighty has decreed for you. That is true happiness and people are wretched in the world because they reject their circumstances, it does not mean that they cannot change their circumstances through rightful means," said Noori.